I got the opposite experience. I have IBD and recently started on some potent probiotics. Suddenly my energy and focus went up 1000%. So this is how regular people healthy live wow. I used to be lethargic all the time for 30+ years.
I put her on a prebiotic + probiotic diet (kaffir, yogurt, whole grains, dark leafy greens, etc) along with a basic probiotic supplement every night and now according to her, at least 95% of the symptoms have gone away. She’s able to sleep through the night now, better mood, better energy, better everything.
Not saying it will work for everyone, but it worked for her. I feel like so little is understood about the gut microbiome and modern medicine is letting people suffer needlessly.
Edit: just realized this sounds exactly like a paid infomercial lol
I check my B12 levels from time to time and they seem ok.
My hemoglobin is always a bit low and iron supplements don't seem to help.
What other things are common with long-term PPI use?
PPIs don't really treat GERD, imho it's one of those medicines to be used perpetually (good only for shareholders).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTzxfoL82n8 - good explanation why/how ACV works and why PPIs don't, iirc
I've seen vinegar recommended for GERD online before, but was curious whether there's much medical know-how behind it (studies or at least a clear theory of why it would help me vs. PPIs).
With a weak LES (lower esophageal sphincter) a lot of "just do this" GERD folk remedies don't work.
If you have low acid your digestion will be slower and if it's low enough you will develop bacterial infections. PPIs lower your stomach acid and can cause long term issues.
1/2 tablespoon in a large glass of water. Do not drink cider vinegar straight up. It will burn you. Literally.
I'm not overweight by more than a kilo or two, and I sleep on my back or side, so this doesn't match my case as much.
This condition is called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achlorhydria , and one of known side-effects of that is gastroesophageal reflux disease.
"The ideal pH for the stomach can approach 1 but should be below 3, where most pathogens cannot survive. When the pH rises above 5, several dangerous bacterial species are able to survive. Acid-blockers can increase the stomach’s pH ..."[4]
For lower esophageal sphincter to properly work, you in fact need normal levels of acid and proper acidity.[0][1][2][3] If you have the oposite, the sphincter does not fully close and boom, there's your heart burn.
The real mechanism of gerd is more complicated than "too much acid" or "acid too strong". I don't suggest you start drinking unwatered vinegar. I suggest you study the sources I've linked and only then decide for youself.
> I've seen vinegar recommended for GERD online before, but was curious whether there's much medical know-how behind it (studies or at least a clear theory of why it would help me vs. PPIs).
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTzxfoL82n8
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhUTAw6wcK8
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkRrlJFDFdA
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_UWDPrDR40
[4] https://chriskresser.com/how-to-cure-gerd-without-medication...
Did she at least tell the doctor "hey no worries my kid fixed it"? What did they say?
> Did she at least tell the doctor "hey no worries my kid fixed it"? What did they say?
The answer is no: I told her not to tell her doctor under any circumstances that she got armchair advice from her “kid” that actually worked because if I was a doctor who went through 10 years of med school + training, I would definitely be rolling my eyes if some senior came in and told me this story.
The point is, I haven’t dropped any probiotic brand names, I’m not hawking anything, I don’t gain anything by posting my little anecdotal experience. I’m just happy that I found a solution to a problem that has been torturing someone I care about for 10-15 years and wanted to share it so that it might help others in the same situation.
Edit: to be clear, there were other things too that helped clear up her symptoms that I omitted because my post was getting too long and because out of everything, probiotics seemed to be the biggest gamechanger. For example: first few months she also took DGL (Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice, to promote mucus secretion) 15 minutes before every meal, followed by a digestive enzyme taken with the meal (she doesn’t actually need these anymore and only takes it as a precaution if the meal is particularly starchy or high protein). Cutting out LES relaxers like caffeine, mint and chocolate helped. Also lifestyle changes were made in terms of physical activity. She still needs to sleep at an incline on a wedge block, but at least she’s not vomiting all over the carpet anymore.
Turns out it was Familial Mediterranean Fever and it just goes away in your early 20s. I was never diagnosed until many years later and I even thought a lot of my remedies maybe worked until then.
Digestive and autoimmune both are labyrinthine in potential problems and misdiagnoses.
No argument there, and I appreciate the warning. It definitely gives me no pleasure playing doctor and I’m very conscious of the risk of giving misleading medical advice.
The reason why I’m confident enough to post this is that it has already been more than a year now since the major symptoms went away. The effect of the probiotics was/is pretty definitive (she recently stopped taking them for about a week while on vacation and the symptoms started slowly creeping back, and disappeared again shortly after resuming). Also, there is pretty much no real alternative treatment aside from PPIs or physical LES surgery anyway. If there is indeed an underlying autoimmune condition though, I can’t see how this diet could hurt too much. But maybe that’s due to ignorance.
I’m so happy you overcame that hell.
It’s pretty clear that this (like 99% of internet advice) is all anecdotal evidence and again, I’ve made it clear it may not work for everyone. I’ve also mentioned elsewhere that I’m not a healthcare professional. But if my comment is able to help even one person escape the nightmare of not being able to hold food down and the sleep deprivation and depression that comes with severe GERD… then that’s worth one snarky linux systems guy yelling at me on HN.
:)
Interestingly, the body of research around fermented foods (kefir [sic], yogurt, kimchi, etc) seems to show more robust benefits than probiotic supplements[1].
[1] https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00754-6
You'd have to know what's already in your intestines, and the best we have are poop tests, one of which (uBiome, YC S14) famously failed and is being prosecuted as insurance fraud, so doctors probably don't want to get into that. (There are still going ones like Viome that might give you interesting results.)
Fermented foods aren't all the same too; yogurt is milder than kimchi for sure.
In other words, changing to what appears to be a more healthy diet (fermented food, high fibre and high nutrient vegetables etc) might have worked with or without the probiotic side of things.
I definitely agree that the connection between our gut and our health/behavior is going to be a very fruitful area of reasearch over the next 5-10 years.
I was suffering from reflux, switched to mostly carnivore diet and only get heartburn now when I eat or drink the wrong things. Tea does that to me, or the occasional piece of bread.
Also Depression went away, haven't done any gut micro biota testing, because it's expensive and I'm not rich.
My girlfriend suffers from similar symptoms (but less severe).
@myshpa posted a link above which I hadn’t seen before, that actually confirms many of my own independent observations: https://chriskresser.com/how-to-cure-gerd-without-medication...
What worked for her:
- 10-15 minutes before every meal, suck on a DGL (Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice) tablet. This will interact with saliva and cause the GI system to secrete mucus to protect itself from acid.
- During the meal, take a digestive enzyme that contains at least Betaine HCL, Bromelain and Papain which will help break down carbs and proteins and stop food from entering the gut half digested, which can cause gas production from fermentation.
- Take a probiotic supplement every night before bed (we’ve found 15 billion to be sufficient, but you can try ones that are less/more potent). If you need water to swallow, squirt a tiny bit of lemon juice into it first.
Diet-wise: Avoid things that will relax the LES such as caffeine, mint, chocolate, etc. Avoid anything with tomato skins and certain types of legumes (if you want to eat these, remove the skins). It can be difficult, but reduce sugar intake as much as possible. Try not to drink water while eating (it will dilute stomach acid) but if she needs to, its been my observation that a tiny squirt of lemon juice with water helps.
Eat fermented foods regularly like Kefir, Kimchi, Sauerkraut, yogurt, etc. These probiotics will need to consume fibre from prebiotics in order to not starve in the gut. Increase your intake of all kinds of high fibre whole foods. Kale, beans, broccoli, whole grains, potatoes, whole almonds, etc. Google “low FODMAP diet”.
Regular exercise is important. It can be something low intensity like walking. It helps stimulate the digestive system and gut activity. Do it before meals, preferably.
It can be counterintuitive, but I think the root cause of a lot of GERD symptoms is actually weak stomach acid. That article linked above summarizes it pretty nicely. If that’s the case, make sure your girlfriend is at least supplementing with vitamins C and D, plus a B-complex with Methylcobalamine. Low stomach acid can cause malabsorption of these nutrients and others.
Keep a log book. Every body is different, so every time there is an episode, be sure to record what was specifically eaten that day and then avoid that food.
Any other questions feel free to ask.
Just went to their site and it sketched me out a bit to read this.
https://www.visbiome.com/blogs/visbiome-vs-vsl-3/exegi-wins-...
($6.2/day without insurance coverage)
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Thanks! For anyone in Canada or USA wondering, I just searched and apparently you can buy it online now. About $2 a day: https://www.visbiome.com/collections/all/products/visbiome-c...
I had looked years ago and found it hard to get. Going to check with my doctor, might be something prescribable, which would either make it covered by insurance or at the least a tax deductible health expense.
Here's the Canadian link: https://www.visbiome.ca/collections/all
I want at least the name of each of the bacteria. Even better would be exact substrains. But if it doesn't tell me whether the main ingredient is a strain that produces histamine (bad for me personally - lots of headaches) or doesn't, this is not going into me.
I haven’t had it and can’t vouch for it but it’s not exactly some random probiotic.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=vsl+...
In case anyone is interested, link #3 finally has a list of what's allegedly in there without having to pay to read the 'study':
Four strains of Lactobacillus (Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei, and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subspecies bulgaricus), three strains of Bifidobacterium (Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium longum, and Bifidobacterium infantis), and one strain of Streptococcus (Streptococcus salivarius subspecies thermophilus).
Mine's got:
Sachharomyces Boulardii, Lactobacillus plantarum, Bacillus Subtilis, Lactobacillus lactis, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactorbacillus rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium breve, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus salivarius, Lactobacillus acidophilos, Bifidobacterium brevis, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus paracasei
I'm sure there's a study I can pay for that tells me what's in those, because they don't print it on the package either...
I don't need coffee any more to function and I finally feel full after eating - strongly so even.
If it's really the probiotics, then I regret never taking them before - especially after antibiotics.