Noticing more and more that my stool is softer, and a little more food is undigested (mostly peas) cause I eat vegetables everyday (broccoli, carrots, peas, onions)..
What am I to make of this? I don't really have diarrhea, but my stomach feels a little less comfortable.
C-diff? Yeast?
What can I do? I am currently on a lot of ABX.
Posted by the3030club (Member # 21898) on :
The skin of the pea and some of the other vegetables you mention are some of the tougher things to digest. Are you taking probiotics?
Posted by Nutmeg (Member # 7250) on :
The digestion process begins in the mouth, so be sure to chew your food really well.
I've heard that each bite should be chewed 30 times to grind it up and mix it thoroughly with saliva where the natural digestive enzymes are.
Probably less for soft foods and maybe more for tough stuff like peas and corn. Some stuff is just not chewable, so that's bound to come through looking like it did when it was eaten.
If you've just started eating more veggies, you could be doing too much at once, and sometimes veggies like broccoli and onions can cause gas or other digestive upsets until you get used to them. Digestive enzymes might help along with the probiotics.
Good luck. Nutmeg
Posted by Wolfed Out (Member # 23727) on :
Thanks guys.
I'm taking 3 probiotics. Lactobicillus, Acidophillus, and a Yeast fighting probiotic.
Are digestive enzymes safe to take when you're on 5 ABX? Do they interfere with the medication?
Posted by sixgoofykids (Member # 11141) on :
I have trouble with veggies and I'm well. I just still have poor digestion. My GI tract took a very hard hit with Lyme.
I find HCL helps if I take it when I eat veggies. It's raw or lightly steamed ones that are a problem for me. I don't have any trouble with well-cooked veggies.
It's getting better SLOWLY. I can now eat a side salad, before I couldn't eat anything raw.
Fermented foods also helped.
Posted by Remember to Smile (Member # 25481) on :
Wolfed Out, As noted by others, peas & corn are hard to digest and easy to see in stools.
Yes, digestive enzymes are safe to take w/ abx. I tried a few, and Digest Gold helped most. Also use chewable Papaya enzymes. Yum.
Bromelain helps digestion if taken with meals. (Works to fight inflamation when taken between meals.)
Coconut kefir is a great probiotic. I drink 2 oz. twice a day away from abx.
My LLMD recommends Body Biotics. Body Biotics capsules are pre- and pro-biotics from natural, soil-borne source. Used to use several probiotics, but now just Body Biotics. It's fab. If I have soft stools, just add one more cap that day and I'm back to regular!
Body Biotics caps are not taken at same time as abx.
My LLMD says Florastor can be taken 2 caps 2x/day and that's helped lots with yeast and diarrhea. Take anytime; abx won't hurt it and vice versa.
Six, since you still have poor digestion, you may still have Bart and/or yeast overgrowth.
Fermented foods are NOT part of a healthy, Candida-control diet! Lyme patients shouldn't eat fermented foods.
Posted by bcb1200 (Member # 25745) on :
Funny thing...I had terrible GI problems for 8 years, starting around 2002. I was 27.
I was no longer "Regular" and instead would typically go between 2-5 times a day...all within the first 4 hours of waking up. I always had a strong urgency to go. If I wasn't around a toilet in 5 minutes panic could set it. This made it somewhat challenging to travel for work.
I rarely digested food properly, particularly vegetables. I would see peas, lettuce, etc regularly.
I just assumed it was the way I was and that I had IBS or something. I would often take metamucil to help consolidate things togehter. I talked about it with my PCP for years, but nothing was found.
Fast forward to May 2010. I start my lyme treatment with Doxy / Flagyl. Within 1 month, all of my GI symptoms are GONE. I am now "regular" and go 1-2 times a morning without terrible urgency, etc.
Makes we wonder how long I've had lyme & co.
Posted by sixgoofykids (Member # 11141) on :
Remember to Smile, I never had candida and ART test negative for all coinfections.
I do have a family history of GI trouble unrelated to Lyme Disease. And, my family completely fits the profile for KPU, which I have, and which causes gut problems, which are consistent with my gut problems.
My GI tract was hardest hit by the Lyme. At one point I was on a mostly liquid diet. I had severe parasites and bad bacteria in the gut.
It was a complicated thing to treat, but now is near normal. It's just raw veggies I have problems with. If I were getting worse, I would think it might be coinfections, but since this is improving all the time, I think it's just a matter of continued healing.
Thanks for your concern though.
BTW coconut kefir is fermented, so I don't understand your comment regarding fermented food?
Posted by Wolfed Out (Member # 23727) on :
Thanks everyone for your replies. I'll look into more of this.
Frustrating that people talk about how helpful fermented foods are/were, and I sit here with my mold intolerance, unable to enjoy the slightest bite of pizza because of the cheese.
I'm gonna pull my hair out trying to understand why I have a mold intolerance...if it doesn't all fall out by itself which it's doing greatly.
Anyways, I'm ranting... Smile, thank you! And Six, I'm hardly the one to offer advice in my position, but you might remember how much of an advocate I am for OLE. I did have thrush issues and I know it helped the GI tract earlier, cause I haven't been taking that lately -- and I should be.
It's super safe, and worth a try.. you might get some help there. Posted by sixgoofykids (Member # 11141) on :
Hey Wolfed, what is OLE good for? I've never taken it, I've heard of it, of course. I don't have candida or anything. My gut is just slowly healing. If it helped you before, why not take it again?
Triphala is supposed to be good for the gut and also breaks up biofilms (there were a lot of postings here a while back about haritaki breaking biofilms, it's in triphala).
Cheese has mold ..... but fermented foods don't. Do they bother you, too? Fermented foods do have yeast, but generally the "good" yeasts like s. boulardii (which kombucha is high in).
Posted by Wolfed Out (Member # 23727) on :
Six,
I just kind of assumed Candida/thrush were related to GI issues. When I started my ABX protocol, things were a little rough and I was having lots of stool problems (soft, diarrhea) but when I took OLE I noticed it improved and the thrush on my tongue was gone.
OLE seems to have a ton of benefits.
I only stopped taking it because I was on it for 6 months straight and wanted a little break. Then I started to get concerned about interactions and stuff, cause I'm on so many supplements and antibiotics (5 right now).
I received a list from my allergist; it was a mold elimination diet. Almost everything on the list is fermented, because I have allergies to penicillium and asperlligus.
Posted by sixgoofykids (Member # 11141) on :
Yes, you can have GI issues from candida.
I had heavy parasites and bacterial overgrowth so I've worked on killing parasites, which are now gone; getting rid of bad bacteria, which also seems to be complete; and rebuilding my gut.
This seems to be related to undigested food in the stool.
Interesting that they say that someone with low stomach acid will feel indigestion immediately after a meal. Generally, I'll feel it while still sitting at the table.
I had the second, third and last of what they say are the causes of low stomach acid. Unfortunately, I can never overcome the "over age 45" cause. But the other two are things I've been working on.
Maybe some of this might ring a bell with you ...... seems the bacteria one and the overuse of antacids (prevacid, etc.) that we take with our abx is causing some of our digestive issues.
This has been a focus of mine for a few months and my gut is near normal, but I still supplement HCL probably 5-6 times per week.
Posted by bigz123 (Member # 23755) on :
Hey Wolfed, I have been tested for candida and parasites numerous times. I have tested only positive for Bart. My main symptoms were GI symptoms, along wtih skin changes and muscle problems. I have had soft stools with undigested food for the past 2 years. I also had blood in my stool many times. I had a normal colonoscopy, endoscopy, etc. I attribute it all to Bart, as does my LLMD.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)