Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Digestive Health Support Forum banner
8K views 29 replies 4 participants last post by  jaumeb 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hello Everyone! I am sorry I haven't kept in contact with you on here or through email/private messaging. I've been busy healing myself, learning about many issues in our world, the human body, plants and nutrition, and ultimately finding myself, per se. Wow, I'm almost 24 now, and my first post on here was when I was 21. A lot has changed! Long shory short; I am doing fantastic. In essence, I feel like a human being again for the first time in years.

In February 2013, I was 90 pounds and wasting away towards death. Here is my post from February 2013: http://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/topic/162050-finally-an-answer-for-my-siboibsoverall-decline-of-health/ .Simple tasks like showering and putting on clothing were troublesome, debilitating, and fatigueing. Since April of 2013, I have steadily improved vastly. I have gained a lot of weight; from 90 to 120 lbs. I have energy, strength, and I starting to notice an increase in my stamina and endurance. I no longer have any digestive issues whatsoever. I am eating about 8-11 small meals a day; I've calculated between 3000-4000 calories daily! For physical excercise, I stretch, perform tai chi and qi gong, and go on 2-3 mile walks. I can even play a little bit of soccer now and then, although running is still tough, especially on my lungs. The only ailments I struggle with is my anxiety and insomnia as my mind is still overactive. Breathing exercises and essential oils like lavender have helped immensely with this though.

Dietwise, I am still eating similar food and beverages that I wrote about in the previous post. Lots of (everything organic) root vegetables, leafy greens, wild game, animal organs, fish, healthy fats---it's all in the previous post. I am even well enough to go to school; I am taking 8 hours online. I am also starting to rekindle old friendships and resocialize once again. In my spare time I have been growing a lot of vegetables and herbs that I eat daily. Organic gardening/farming is a lot more work than I thought, but I enjoy it immensely!

Overall, healing takes time! You just need the proper guidance. It has taken me over a year and a half of diligent, disciplined behavior to become well once again. I still need to gain more weight, increase my stamina, and have a more balanced social life though. Eventually I'd like to study nutrition, herbal science, acupuncture, and traditional chinese medicine at an accredited college. I want to become a Diplomat of Oriental Medicine so I can guide others towards health, wellness and enhanced consciousness. I'd like to build a self-sufficient home that will serve as both my home as well as a wellness center.Some hobbies of mine include cooking, gardening, foraging, meditating, writing, reading, qi gong, jin shin jyutsu, walking, breeathing, imersion in nature, and soccer. Right now, I am busy harvesting herbs and vegetables from my garden. My favorites right now are kale, lemon balm, hibuscus, and burdock root. I enjoy observing the process from seed to my mouth! Some other interests of mine include spirituality, philosophy, films, social/environmental awareness, teaching/helping others, and learning about anything that comes to mind. I believe we need a greater emphasis on food quality/nutrition in this country, as there are numerous environmental, political, and health concerns within the food culture. Essentially, I am attracted to anything that can enhance an organism's qi or life force, making it's energy vibrate at a high frequency.

If anyone wants to learn more feel free to message me. I am not a doctor obviously, but I may be able to offer you sound nutritional and supplement advice! I simply want to help anyone whose willing to make lifestyle changes in order to attain results. You can't simply pop a supplement and eat poor food and be overly sedentary to have success. Healing is holistic; it's all or nothing.

My passion is to increase the energy of the universe by living a life that vibrates at a high frequency. To do this, I must live at a high frequency, followed by leading others to this frequency, one organism at a time. The universe is one consciousness.
 
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#2 ·
Hi! I read your post and I really can't be more happy for you. You have found yourself again and that is really truly amazing. I was wondering if you could help me out. Last year in December I got food poisoning and ever since then I have not been the same. I actually just found out this July that I have developed hyperthyroidism which could be why I've had so many digestive issues since the thyroid and gut have a strong connection. My digestion has still not improved at all. I fill full most of the day without even eating much, I have nausea sometimes, I get anxiety because of my thyroid. I don't eat bad at all. I strictly just eat meat and vegetables so I know I'm not feeding my body bad stuff. I've been on my thyroid medication for just one week, but I really really need to fix my digestion. I've lost so much weight. I'm at least 20 pounds underweight! I went to a gastroenterologist and he said I might have SIBO since I'm always bloated and my stomach sometimes burns and hurts too. He wants me to take two types of antibiotics but I really don't want to since I really don't like giving my body any chemicals. Especially since I'm already taking medications for my thyroid. I was going to use oil of oregano since I know it has anti-bacterial powers. I also wanted to try TCM acupuncture and herbal medicine. What I wanted to ask you is for your advice since I know you've gone through this. It's got to the point where it has completely taken over my life. So do you think I should try the acupuncture and not do the antibiotics? Or do both? And I couldn't find that specific type of TCM that you mentioned here (Texas) but there are other acupuncture places. Will the acupuncture and herbal medicine cure me? I know it's not just about medicine and that's it. It has to come within you too. I am pretty positive about it but I guess I just need a little bit of guidance into which direction I should take. If you could please help me out I would really appreciate it!!!!!! Thank you so much and sorry for the huge message!
 
#5 ·
I used to eat a lot of bananas and then came to realize that most of the time they made my stomach upset because of their high sugar content...so ever since removing them from my diet I'm not as bloated anymore. Still sometimes when I eat I feel super nauseous or I'll feel acidity in my stomach or a burning pain in my upper abdomen. I don't eat anything but just real simple stuff like rice porridge, soups like chicken broth, I don't eat too much meat especially red meat, a little bit of fish and rice and some cooked vegetables. Maybe it's because my stomach isn't used to eating like how it did before because I haven't been feeding it like how I used too? And I haven't eaten that much and lost a lot of weight because my stomach is always upset...so I don't know what to do. I am doing the acupuncture and trying to eat a little more but I'm still having a really hard time
 
#9 ·
Well I eat rice porridge sometimes and I drink chicken broth and recently started to eat a lot of rice and cooked root vegetables like radish, parsnip, carrots, sweet potatoes. Also peas, and yellow squash but not in huge quantities. I steam the vegetables and then mix them in with my rice and eat it with some chicken broth and a little bit of lemon. I also just tried some fish broth I made so I've also been drinking that. I eat tiny tiny bits of chicken or fish but I've noticed that it makes my stomach burn after I eat meat. It's weird these past couple of days I was doing really good with eating but then since yesterday I feel like everything I eat just doesn't settle well in my stomach. And it's things I've always eaten like the rice and cooked vegetables and broths. I get hungry start to eat and then i'll feel a little nauseous and my appetite will go away. Then the rest of the day I would feel like that...idk how to really describe it but like I know i'll get hungry but ill still feel i guess you could say "yucky" in my stomach...if that makes sense. I also sometimes eat some raw fruit, but not too much. Only organic berries especially blueberries and raspberries. I also drink some vegetable juice (organic no added sugars or artificial stuff) and I'll sometimes mix in Nutivas organic goji berry powder in that too, but other than that...that's pretty much all I eat.

I have tried meditation but I still have yet to get used to it. I do some breathing exercises in the mornings and recently just starting doing some qigong exercises for the spleen.

I do have a little bit of dandruff but I always have. And no i don't have any other type of fungal overgrowth that I know of at least lol
 
#10 ·
I also get this pain in my upper abdomen. Not like how I mentioned before like a bloated burning sensation...not like that but like as if I was sore.... Idk it's really weird it's like as if I was bruised or something and it hurt. Maybe it could be the acupuncture? I really don't know. And I also started taking some herbal medicine my TCM doc gave me and I;m taking that 3 times a day. Since I have trouble swallowing pills I just open the capsules and mix it with some warm water and drink that, which is was my TCM doc recommended I do.
 
#12 ·
All comes back negative. Not for parasites though bc my gi doc doubts I have that since I don't show symptoms. And yeah pretty much I'm dairy and gluten free zero artifical anything. Pretty much paleo but no dairy and haven't eaten that much meat lately. I do fodmap as well. I know what I eat isn't damaging to me as far as unhealthy fats and things that may cause inflammation. It just may not be helping me like how I need it to....but idk what else to eat
 
#13 ·
It's good that you are doing the breathing exercises.

Some of the foods you mention are high fodmaps (sweet potatoes, peas). What are the ingredients of your porridge?

Different patients respond to different dietary interventions (low fodmaps, low carb, scd ...). There can also be food intolerances. Trial and error might be necessary to find the food that agrees with us.
 
#14 ·
They were on the list of low fodmap...at least to eat a little bit of which I have been. And I was responding well to the set potato. I feel like now sometimes my stomach doesn't agree with rice. But I had somega last night and this morning and I felt good lol. Idk my body is weird... and for tge porridge just plain white thai rice and water...plain that's it
 
#16 ·
According to the monash university app, sweet potato is high in mannitol. The allowed quantity is 1/2 cup.

A possible experiment is to completely avoid high fodmaps and also the foods that taste sweet.

That's what I am currently trying.

What are your % of carbs, protein and fat (in calories)?
 
#17 ·
I'm more than sure i've never had more than 1/2 a cup a day. Right now I'm just going to rotate my foods and see if that works. Not just stick to one thing and eat that all the time. Like I will eat 2 days pretty good as in rice, vegetables, some protein and fruits and then take two days "off" and just stick to more lighter things like broths and steamed vegetables. I'm thinking that now I'm just letting my stomach get weaker and I need to train it to get strong again, but slowly. As far as the percentage I really don't know.... I think carbs would be the highest and then protein and then fat but I honestly don't know how to answer that exactly. Btw thanks so much for your help!

What do you think about this? Just trying a bit of everything but going slowly with it because I don't want to cut everything out of my diet and then later on become intolerant to it because I completely cut it off. Which is something my tcm doc said too. I just need to listen to my body. I'm going to try re introduce a little bit of red meat into my diet and just see how my body takes it. And as far as meat i only eat very good quality organic meat. I'm always going to have my broths but also incorporate different vegetables and types of protein and just go from there. Hopefully this chinese herbal medicine will help me too. I'm still staying away from dairy really because i'm just scared to try it and then have a bad reaction to it because I havent had it in such a long time....except for yogurt here and there which I never have a problem with. I made some chicken soup today with pumpkin and parsnip, bok choy, collards, shards, spinach, carrot, and zucchini so that should be good for me. I also bought some sprouted wheat bread that has some flaxseeds in it and oats which I've never had a problem with and I ate about 3 slices (it was so good lol) and my body took it well. I'm also going to start to eat some boiled eggs for protein and some organic sprouted lentils and mung beans
 
#20 ·
Today I had the opportunity to swim. I also hike once a week. I walk everyday. Yoga is good. Last year I practised yoga everyday for a few months. I should start again.

Problem is that I am underweight so I am scared of burning too much energy. If I can put on some weight, I will start yoga again.

I used a service called cron-o-meter to compute my calorie intake. I ate more than 3700 calories yesterday. The problem is that I don't absorb the nutrients.
 
#21 ·
Do you mind sharing what you eat to reach your calorie goal? I have trouble eating enough calories. Since I have such a weak digestion I only eat light things that are easier to digest and mostly they're all low calorie but I need to get more calories in my body and idk how to do that at this point
 
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