Curious why I feel better when I fast - could lyme have stirred up some food allergies? Is it possible that gluten is causing me to have an inflammatory reaction in my meninges?
Are there cut and dry tests for food allergies? Think I'm going to bring this up with my new LLMD who is more holistic.
I used to be almost gluten free but it was making me a little crazy. Maybe i'll try it again.
Posted by faithful777 (Member # 22872) on :
I have had the same problem. What really helped me was to follow the blood type diet. This is a food list for each specific blood type that allows the gut to heal.
It made a huge difference in my digestion. I was having stomach pain every time I ate and always felt better when I fasted. You might try going gluten free again. There are a lot of people who do better avoiding it.
From using antibiotics (and other things) the gut lining and other tissues can become thin and fragile and "leaky"... also affecting the absorption of vitamins and minerals, etc...
L-Glutamine powder - pharmacutical grade only- with no additives is what is often used to heal leaky gut. You can get it OTC at a health food store.
It is tasteless, colorless- just mix a spoon full in a glass of water each day and drink right away.
Within 6 weeks your gut should be better. It has been known to help the bladder lining, muscle tissue, etc.
L-Glutamine is an amino acid the body uses naturally and disposes of it if not needed (weight lifters use it to repair muscle tissue after work outs).
You can get expensive tests for leaky gut if you want .. but if leaky gut is a possibility and maybe part of the problem... you may want to try and treat it and save $$ on tests ... with the approval of your doctor, of course.
Posted by stork (Member # 24167) on :
Thanks for the heads up tincup - but if I feel better when I'm fasting (presumably when I'm not absorbing nutrients of any kind) why might leaky gut be the issue? Is it because there aren't any active food particles there?
Not saying you're wrong, but would like to know more about how leaky gut operates as a syndrome. Thanks!!
Posted by hadlyme (Member # 6364) on :
Something else to consider is the low fat diet/whole foods diet that alot of us are on and feeling better.
It could be when you reduce all fat grams, you're feeling better. Supposely fat is feeding the buggers and the biofilm. Take fat away and we're all feeling pretty good.
Just an idea... pick what works for you.
Posted by chaps (Member # 25286) on :
Food allergies in my opinion are the most ignored topic by lyme disease sufferers---and doctors.
It's mostly because they don't believe it. I didn't believe it when a doctor first mentioned it to me.
I thought food allergies meant that your throat swells up or your tongue grows to twice it's size when you eat an offending food. Food allergies caused by leaky gut are not like that at all. The symptoms are subtle, and Lyme is what often gets blamed for them, mostly because the food allergies cause an increase in the Lyme symptoms.
So I thought to myself---"food allergies? Naaah, he's crazy." That was until I finally had the blood test for them and started the elimination/rotation diet.
The fact is with a leaky gut, a person will develop an allergy to 90% of the foods a person eats on a regular basis. With me, chicken was the only exception. I ate it every day, but didn't develop an allergy to it. Every thing else that I ate regularly, I was allergic to. There were some foods that I seldom ate that I had an allergy to. Those were probably due to genetics or blood type.
Being allergic to a food doesn't mean you have to stop eating it forever. It just means you have to lay off it for a minumum of 6 weeks and try it again. Once you're no longer sensitive to it, then you can try it again, but must abstain from eating it again for four solid days. This is true of ALL foods whether allergic or not. Eating them more frequently than every 5 days will cause a person to develop an allergy to the food if they don't already have it.
Anyway, gained improvements employing an elimination/rotation diet. Lyme symptoms were not as severe, and inflammation in general decreased.
I've come on to this forum a few times and jumped up and down and screamed about leaky gut and food allergies, saying that I believe that everyone with Lyme has them and should address them. But people seem to ignore it. Their doctors, who pump them up with long-term megadoses of abx don't talk about them, so they don't worry about it. I'm posting this again in hopes that some people will be helped by getting a blood test for food allergies and addressing them. The blood tests are not cheap---perhaps another deterrent. But as it's said, you can lead a horse to water.......
Posted by AZURE WISH (Member # 804) on :
i agree with chaps in that food allergies and leaky gut are important..
i wanted to add a couple things. the symptoms can be subtle but they dont have to be they can be very signifigant symptoms to.
heres the reason i am not doing blood testing: i havent eaten a most foods for quite awhile do to various reasons so they wouldnt test positive in my blood anyway. You know like if you havent been eating gluten for years and then they tell you the blood test wont tell you if you have a problem with it.
there is also scratch tests (i have big reactions to everything and i have developed allergies/sensitivities to most foods so i have decided against this but it may be something others want to investigate)
so i am going to get muscle tested. but this is just my choice for what i think is right for my situation.
and i also wanted to add that keeping a food/symptom diary has helped me identify foods that are making me sick. you have to include EVERYTHINg you ate though (including spices oils coniments all of it)I have less than 25 foods that are currently "safe" and i do rotate them the best i can. I used to do the 5 day thing wheni had enough foods.
i react to both things i ate all the time and things i never ate before. And some people will say that some foods are more at risk for senstivities than others. but it doesnt mean our bodies necessarily follow that. I have multiple things on the rare list i react to. but i am ok with corn, a high risk.
also just also wanted to add a person can react to things added to food. like preservatives, msg, (all the crud in chicken the way its raised) etc. and most foods have so much stuff added to them.
and if you are allergic to a food item dont forget many supplements include food items in there ingredients.
Posted by AZURE WISH (Member # 804) on :
book on leaky gut. (u can view table of contents and stuff at amazon)
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