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Comment by LinuxBender | Hacker News Reader

I can vouch for this.

I have always had sleep issues and over a long period of time and experimenting, found that I could calm the bacteria by giving them the right amount of fiber and simple proteins to work on, while avoiding sugar. If I deprive them of nutrients, they release something into my blood that increases anxiety. I have yet to figure out what this chemical is.

I used to think it was a blood sugar problem, but after a lot of testing, determined my blood sugar was fine. It turns out that 700 trillion life forms in the gut can wreak havoc if they are not taken care of.

And to think ... I said I don't want any pets. Turns out, I have 700 trillion of them.

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Have you ruled out psychological factors (which are probably more likely)? It's impossible to know for sure without doing a placebo controlled trial on yourself.

I have found that removing HFCS from my diet (basically, fizzy pop) and eating probiotic yogurt seems to mostly cure my mild IBS. I still get IBS due to stress, but don't seem to get it during non-stressful daily life any more. Of course, it still could be the placebo effect...it's hard to know for sure. It never affected my sleep though. The only time I would get anxiety would be due to an imminent bowel movement.

With the HFCS, maybe you have moderate fructose malabsorption. Something like 30% of people do, and reducing or eliminating fructose helps them.

Yes, that's what I suspect. Even if it's just coincidence or placebo, fizzy pop is pretty bad for health on many counts.

I have actually done extensive controlled tests on myself for a couple decades now. That is not to say I have all the facts. There are still many unknowns that I would like to eventually figure out, I just simply don't have the tools at my disposal and functional lab tests are time consuming.

Why impute that to the bacteria? Sugar consumption supposedly facilitates tryptophan transport in the absence of other competing amino acids, which in turn boosts serotonin. That effect might not necessarily show up in an insulin/blood sugar imbalance.

That is a good point. I should add that I take about 75mg of each amino acid daily, plus extra l-glutamine a few hours later, as the abundance of l-glutamine blocks the absorption of the other amino acids. I do this early in the day, so more of them should have been processed by the evening time.

I have a similar experience. I thought it was blood sugar related as well and started dinner later. Through a food diary and experimentation. I found that I got best sleep results when I had a high fiber meal in the evening. Having a bowl of steel cut oatmeal in the evening has helped significantly. I have had good success with fibrous vegetable salads as well.

Morning oatmeal makes me intolerably sleepy. To think that that could be a feature, not a bug!

I normally avoid spouting off, but you seem like you're looking for an answer.

My reading indicates this is inflammation.

If the bacteria have nothing to eat, they eat you.

Inflammation is not always localized. It can move. And there's lot of indications that many neural problems (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, etc) are inflammation-related.

This is one of my theories as well. Lending to that theory is eating chicken soup which has enzymes with anti-inflammatory properties appear to also reduce the symptoms, but that also introduces many other factors.

What dietary changes can be made to reduce inflammation?

Less sugars, carbs, and highly glycemic foods such as wheat, rice, and corn will probably make the most difference. Basically avoid the sorts of things in a Little Debbie snack. It'll improve your skin a lot too!

Man, I love the Little Debbies snack cakes.

What other said plus L-Glutamine seems to be part of protecting the intestens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamine

> On the level of tissue, glutamine plays a role in maintaining the normal integrity of the intestinal mucosa.,[12] but randomised trials provide no evidence of any benefit of nutritional supplementation.[12]

It's cheap to buy and try if it changes anything for you.

Antiinflammatory foods are well established online, certain fruits and things (cinnamon, figs, etc).

But the ones people miss a lot: yogurt (to empower good bacteria cultures), and cannabis (yes, marijuana).

Smoked cannabis or eaten cannabis?

Vaporized, or eaten, for healthiest results.

But they are not your pets.. you are their pet.

Good point! I hope they take good care of me, since I am taking better care of them.

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