That has been my hope! Glad to hear it worked for you. But none of my alcohol elimination experiments have achieved anything obvious except eliminating one of my few sources of relief. Nevertheless, I will try again, if for no other reason than the perpetual need to minimize my dosage of that poison.
I did the microbiome test a couple of years ago, after my IBS gut took a really bad turn for the worse (possibly due to one antibiotic treatment too many, although, as always with those things, it’s really hard to tell for sure). Somewhat predictably, the results confirmed that there was no sign of inflammation, but that I was way off the charts on the “bad” bacteria etc. I showed it to my GE and he was predictably very skeptical about it, basically admitting that in his field, he couldn’t do anything about the things that were wrong according to that test. In other words, if there’s no inflammation, you’re on your own.
Since then, however, I have learned two things:
1) These tests are notoriously inconsistent and only look scientific on the surface. There’s no evidence that the information that they provide proves anything. A researcher sent his samples to six different labs, and got six very different results. So there. It might contain useful information, but it’s mostly pseudoscience, essentially due to the severe lack of proper research.
2) My gut situation, which was pretty bad, got somewhat better when I saw a naturopath/herbalist who “prescribed” a couple of different types of heavy-duty probiotics (along with other things). It wasn’t the magic bullet that I had hoped it would be (based on a too-litteral interpretation of the lab results above), but the probiotics did improve things noticeably Then I reached a plateau where things were better, but not quite back to normal (for me). And then, nearly TWO YEARS LATER, things somehow started improving on their own, to the point that I am now almost (but not quite) back to where I was before the whole crisis started.
This to me suggests two things:
A) When it comes to the gut, things can take MONTHS or even YEARS to right themselves (or wrong themselves?). So it’s doubtful that a one-month experiment proves anything, really. (For the herbalist, I had to do the gluten-free thing for THREE months, after which even she had to agree that I was not gluten intolerant. I celebrated in a similar way to yours.)
B) The microbiome research is still basically in its infancy. There is essentially no scientific data to back up any of the claims that those labs (and the complicit alternative medecine practitioners who use them) make about the contents of your intestines and what actual impact they have on your health. In the end, their recommendations are just variations on the theme of “eat more fiber”, “reduce red meat”, “reduce alcohol”, etc. Which is not exactly an earth-shattering insight.
Excellent comment, Pierre, thanks. I share all your skepticism about the microbiome testing! Strongly. But it’s grist for my storytelling mill if nothing else, so I'll go with it for now.
Regarding duration: it is definitely plausible that it could take longer than a month to see a benefit! I think any diet change that actually does matter is very likely to show SOME detectable sign of improvement within a month, enough to encourage me to carry on … but not necessarily. So it’s a bit of a gamble cutting it off at that point.
But I can only endure so long without garlic or ice cream. So I compromised this time and went with the minimum plausibly helpful duration, and I feel reasonably confident that the total lack of improvement PROBABLY means the bland diet was irrelevant.
Hell yeah. Sorry to hear the elimination diet didn't yield much, but I'mma say there's a 75% chance we look at your gut results and it's like "oh, yeah, that's what's wrong."
Looking forward to taking the fine-toothed comb through your shit.
I've suffered horribly with IBS for more than 10 years. I've been on medications that didn't help, diets that didn't help and some that actually made it worse. Last October, someone suggested FODMAP to me. It's a diet plan from the University of Australia. It has been a major life changer for me. I found out foods what trigger me and I avoid them ALMOST all the time (I did a planned cheat at Christmas knowing I was going to pay for it, but WTH). Bonus, I've lost 28 pounds, although that was not the point of the diet. There's a free app for it.
Great! Thanks for the report, Laura. I am familiar with the whole FODMAP thing, and took a couple good stabs at eating the low-FODMAP way with no apparent effect, unfortunately. But my impression is that it really does matter to some people. Really happy to hear that it’s worked out so well for you!
I've done that thing of eliminating alleged health risk from diet for at least a month several times now. Most (like eliminating dairy) were a bust.
Of the two that partly worked, one, a low-histamine diet, showed a clear improvement that *still* wasn't worth the stress and inconvenience of sticking to it – because it's quite fiddly, not just about kinds of foods, but their freshness.
The other, a low-carb, but still high-fiber, diet labeled "anti-yeast" helped enough for me to follow its broad outlines for several years – though likely not for the reason stated! More likely, it's just hard to eat a crap diet that's both low-carb and high in veggies and fiber. As much as this diet helped, it's not real economical when you're raising a family. Standard medical advice for pregnant women (bland, starchy snacks for morning sickness) knocked me off the wagon first, and lacking the energy to feed myself separately from what I feed the kids keeps me from climbing all the way back on.
Treatment burden really is a THING. For instance, I am not sure I would put up with regular cold baths even if I knew for sure that doing it for six months would 100% cure me. Just hell no! I’d be so miserable.
Don't know what it says about me that I had to google Hawkins Cheezies to see what I've been missing out on. Who doesn't love a good cheesey puffy snack!
I relate to this constant internal dialog of if I did this to myself. I first did it with chronic pain, then did it with my breast cancer diagnosis last year. As someone who lives pretty healthfully, it's probably silly to do but, human that I am, I still do it.
I'm sorry your month of boring and bland didn't yield any useful insights, and hope that your poop will point to some ways forward!
Giving up alcohol totally was the thing that finally sorted out my digestion. It got rid of all sorts of irritation and problems.
That has been my hope! Glad to hear it worked for you. But none of my alcohol elimination experiments have achieved anything obvious except eliminating one of my few sources of relief. Nevertheless, I will try again, if for no other reason than the perpetual need to minimize my dosage of that poison.
I did the microbiome test a couple of years ago, after my IBS gut took a really bad turn for the worse (possibly due to one antibiotic treatment too many, although, as always with those things, it’s really hard to tell for sure). Somewhat predictably, the results confirmed that there was no sign of inflammation, but that I was way off the charts on the “bad” bacteria etc. I showed it to my GE and he was predictably very skeptical about it, basically admitting that in his field, he couldn’t do anything about the things that were wrong according to that test. In other words, if there’s no inflammation, you’re on your own.
Since then, however, I have learned two things:
1) These tests are notoriously inconsistent and only look scientific on the surface. There’s no evidence that the information that they provide proves anything. A researcher sent his samples to six different labs, and got six very different results. So there. It might contain useful information, but it’s mostly pseudoscience, essentially due to the severe lack of proper research.
2) My gut situation, which was pretty bad, got somewhat better when I saw a naturopath/herbalist who “prescribed” a couple of different types of heavy-duty probiotics (along with other things). It wasn’t the magic bullet that I had hoped it would be (based on a too-litteral interpretation of the lab results above), but the probiotics did improve things noticeably Then I reached a plateau where things were better, but not quite back to normal (for me). And then, nearly TWO YEARS LATER, things somehow started improving on their own, to the point that I am now almost (but not quite) back to where I was before the whole crisis started.
This to me suggests two things:
A) When it comes to the gut, things can take MONTHS or even YEARS to right themselves (or wrong themselves?). So it’s doubtful that a one-month experiment proves anything, really. (For the herbalist, I had to do the gluten-free thing for THREE months, after which even she had to agree that I was not gluten intolerant. I celebrated in a similar way to yours.)
B) The microbiome research is still basically in its infancy. There is essentially no scientific data to back up any of the claims that those labs (and the complicit alternative medecine practitioners who use them) make about the contents of your intestines and what actual impact they have on your health. In the end, their recommendations are just variations on the theme of “eat more fiber”, “reduce red meat”, “reduce alcohol”, etc. Which is not exactly an earth-shattering insight.
Excellent comment, Pierre, thanks. I share all your skepticism about the microbiome testing! Strongly. But it’s grist for my storytelling mill if nothing else, so I'll go with it for now.
Regarding duration: it is definitely plausible that it could take longer than a month to see a benefit! I think any diet change that actually does matter is very likely to show SOME detectable sign of improvement within a month, enough to encourage me to carry on … but not necessarily. So it’s a bit of a gamble cutting it off at that point.
But I can only endure so long without garlic or ice cream. So I compromised this time and went with the minimum plausibly helpful duration, and I feel reasonably confident that the total lack of improvement PROBABLY means the bland diet was irrelevant.
Hell yeah. Sorry to hear the elimination diet didn't yield much, but I'mma say there's a 75% chance we look at your gut results and it's like "oh, yeah, that's what's wrong."
Looking forward to taking the fine-toothed comb through your shit.
I've suffered horribly with IBS for more than 10 years. I've been on medications that didn't help, diets that didn't help and some that actually made it worse. Last October, someone suggested FODMAP to me. It's a diet plan from the University of Australia. It has been a major life changer for me. I found out foods what trigger me and I avoid them ALMOST all the time (I did a planned cheat at Christmas knowing I was going to pay for it, but WTH). Bonus, I've lost 28 pounds, although that was not the point of the diet. There's a free app for it.
Great! Thanks for the report, Laura. I am familiar with the whole FODMAP thing, and took a couple good stabs at eating the low-FODMAP way with no apparent effect, unfortunately. But my impression is that it really does matter to some people. Really happy to hear that it’s worked out so well for you!
I've done that thing of eliminating alleged health risk from diet for at least a month several times now. Most (like eliminating dairy) were a bust.
Of the two that partly worked, one, a low-histamine diet, showed a clear improvement that *still* wasn't worth the stress and inconvenience of sticking to it – because it's quite fiddly, not just about kinds of foods, but their freshness.
https://www.histaminintoleranz.ch/en/introduction.html
Treatment burden is A Thing!
https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4065
The other, a low-carb, but still high-fiber, diet labeled "anti-yeast" helped enough for me to follow its broad outlines for several years – though likely not for the reason stated! More likely, it's just hard to eat a crap diet that's both low-carb and high in veggies and fiber. As much as this diet helped, it's not real economical when you're raising a family. Standard medical advice for pregnant women (bland, starchy snacks for morning sickness) knocked me off the wagon first, and lacking the energy to feed myself separately from what I feed the kids keeps me from climbing all the way back on.
Treatment burden really is a THING. For instance, I am not sure I would put up with regular cold baths even if I knew for sure that doing it for six months would 100% cure me. Just hell no! I’d be so miserable.
Don't know what it says about me that I had to google Hawkins Cheezies to see what I've been missing out on. Who doesn't love a good cheesey puffy snack!
I relate to this constant internal dialog of if I did this to myself. I first did it with chronic pain, then did it with my breast cancer diagnosis last year. As someone who lives pretty healthfully, it's probably silly to do but, human that I am, I still do it.
I'm sorry your month of boring and bland didn't yield any useful insights, and hope that your poop will point to some ways forward!
Cheezies are a Canadian thing. 🙂 Really crunchy. Other "cheese puff" snacks (e.g. Cheetos) seem way too fluffy and un-serious after Cheezies!
I can't wait to try some Cheezies and have it ruin me for all the rest 😁