Two days before Christmas, Amy left a heart-rending comment:
My dad has Alzheimers and was just put in a nursing home because my mom can’t handle taking care of him anymore. He shouldn’t be there and I believe there’s still hope for recovery in him…. What are your thoughts in this situation?
You can visit the comment to see my immediate response. But I thought I’d say a bit more here.
Don’t Ever Give Up
Two erroneous beliefs encourage people to give up too quickly.
- Many diseases are wrongly considered to be inevitable and natural consequences of aging. Aging, unlike disease, is considered to be incurable.
- The ineffectiveness of conventional medicine makes us think that cures are impossible. But I believe that dietary, nutritional, and antimicrobial therapies can effectively treat many of the diseases of aging, including Alzheimer’s.
As regular readers know, I had a chronic illness that seemed to progress relentlessly – until I started fixing my diet. It took another 5 years, but I eventually found a cure.
I think my case was far from unique. Many chronic illnesses can be cured. The path to recovery is not yet well mapped, and may require considerable experimentation. But I think we know enough now to see the general direction. It is worth embarking on the journey. And worth adopting the motto of Jim Valvano: “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”
via this link:
Hi Paul,
Have you written a description of the sequence of steps you followed to cure yourself in the blog or book?
The trial and error, your thinking at each turning point, the lab tests you ordered, why you tried each next thing, etc.
I think it would be interesting and informative.
Hi Robert,
Not a complete description. I’ve started to do it several times but it quickly becomes very long and, so it seems to me, boring. In outline my major steps forward are captured in the book – macronutrient ratios and food toxin avoidance c. 2005-6, micronutrients c. 2007-8 after my bout with scurvy, antibiotics in 2009, fasting and final refinements in 2010.
I had many detours and failed experiments along the way. I’m still experimenting and learning. It seems more useful to distill what I’ve learned down to the key points and communicate that, which is a big part of what the book is about.
I don’t think chronic diseases are normally precisely the same in any two people. Everybody has different mixes of pathogens and dietary deficiencies; and there is a lot of uncertainty about the causes of many diseases. So I think it’s best to arm everyone with knowledge and general principles, and help people troubleshoot.
But I know personal experiences are fun to read about, so I do throw them in to blog posts when they are relevant. They also help people judge my biases, since my views are colored by my experiences.
Best, Paul
Hiya! This is a bit off-topic but I think it may be better to put this comment/question to a recent post so this won’t probably be unnoticed.
Thing I’ve been thinking about is iron deficiency. On the other hand, you and many other people say that iron could help people with thyroid symptoms. But on the other hand there are some advocates of iron avoidance such as Michael Eades (Protein Power LifePlan) and Ray Peat.
According to Michael Eades iron accumulates to the body and as older people with quite large ferritin levels suffer a heart attack, the most harm doesn’t come from lack of oxygen but from the oxidation caused by that iron from ferritin which has been broken due to temporary lack of oxygen. Eades recommends blood donation to keep ferritin level in 15-50.
As almost everyone seems to have (I’m not completely sure) ferritin levels higher than 15-50, and some people have a lot higher levels, is iron deficiency -related hypothyroid then probably extremely rare? If that’s case, would it possibly be even wise to recommend most of population to do as Eades recommends, to donate blood?
Sorry for badly formed “question” and speculation. Your book is great! I haven’t read it accurately (no time) yet but I checked supplement and lifestyle sections and there’s a lot of new things to me like that infection-disease-connection thing.
One more thing 😛 Have you heard of Jonathan Wright’s book “Why Stomach Acid is Good For You”? There are some quite interesting things. For me, betaine hydrochloride seems a very useful supplement. Though, I think it would be even nicer if I had no hypochlorhydria but I haven’t yet solved how to get rid of it. I also think I’m not the only one suffering from that. One study found that 36% of rheumatoid arthritis patients had virtually no acid in their stomach: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1001919/pdf/annrheumd00273-0035.pdf
Hi Valtsu,
First, a summary of our views. We recommend iron avoidance for adult men and postmenopausal women, and in the book mention iron as a potentially toxic nutrient that people can easily get too much of, and as a facilitator of bacterial biofilms. We don’t recommend iron for any purpose except iron deficiency conditions. It’s true as one of our blog posts mentioned that iron deficiency can cause hypothyroidism, but I don’t believe it’s a common cause.
I believe our position is similar to that of Dr. Eades, the chief difference being that we are more vague and have not committed to specific ferritin targets.
Anthony Colpo is a more prominent advocate of bloodletting for health and he recommends ferritin levels of about 30.
They could be right. But iron biology is complex and I don’t feel I understand it well enough to make a firm recommendation. Excesses are common and harmful, but it’s not obvious that it’s desirable to go to the verge of a deficiency.
But I think donating blood is probably a good idea. The digestive tract adjusts its absorption of iron depending on the body’s need, so if you are eating a nutrient-dense diet with adequate iron the body should be able to recover from an iron deficiency by increasing absorption rates.
I haven’t heard of Jonathan Wright’s book, but I would agree that stomach acid is essential for health. In particular, without it you will fail to digest proteins well, which will let a lot of natural food toxins into your digestive tract and body. That of course leads to lots of immune activity, as in arthritis. (Thanks for the link!)
You should definitely eat sufficient salt, as lack of chlorine will cause a stomach acid deficiency. H. pylori infections can reduce stomach acid levels, you might get checked for that. Betaine hydrochloride can be a helpful stopgap while your stomach heals.
I’m glad you like the book!
Best, Paul
In the case of mental incapacity, I would suggest that the first thing to do is to get a Lasting Power of Attorney (property, financial affairs & personal welfare) or its equivalent in your country. Then, if/when the donor becomes institutionalised, it’s possible to continue giving them any supplements that helped them.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know about this when my mum started to show signs of dementia and I got an Enduring Power of Attorney (property & financial affairs only). Now that mum is institutionalised, I have no authority to give her the supplements that helped her when she was at home.
I would estimate that 100% of institutionalised old people have sub-optimum Vitamin D3 levels as they rarely get any direct sun exposure. UVB can’t penetrate window glass.
Thank you for a quick answer, and for mentioning Colpo. I didn’t know he has been writing a blog.
Paul,
I suspect that many of your readers would benefit from a complete, concrete example of how to apply the knowledge and general principles in your book to fighting chronic disease. Your case history, annotated with your thoughts, would go a long way toward filling this need.
Most of your readers, after all, will be struggling with conditions that are in many ways unique. They must therefore try to combine the general knowledge offered in your book with specific evidence of their own conditions to draw up some kind of personalized, ever-evolving plan to improve their health.
But there’s not much advice yet, here or elsewhere, on how to do this planning. And while you can’t give personalized advice to everyone, you can offer at least one example of how to think through the planning process: your own.
Further, I’d bet that your readers would find those “detours and failed experiments” far from boring. Most of your readers can probably expect both on their health journeys; they would benefit from seeing how someone else worked through them.
Cheers,
Tom
As some one dealing with chronic disease (a very unfun combination of Lyme, Babesia, and Bartonella), I know I’m always looking to find out more of what has worked and what did not work for others.
This blog along with many of the readers of this blog have been a tremendous help to me personally. For example, I now know I can avoid the daily “coma naps” if I don’t go crazy on the carbohydrates. I’ve actually received some excellent diet advice from my doctor, but he never told me to chill on the carbs!
I’m currently midway through my monthly antibiotic cycle and needed some motivation. Great post 🙂
Hi Natalie,
It’s great that you’ve discovered your pathogens. To be on a good diet, well-nourished, and taking the right antibiotics is 90% of the way toward a cure.
Hi Tom,
I’ll think about whether I can make that work as a series of blog posts. As I mentioned, I’ve tried to write posts about my experiences and they became long, rambling, and (I felt) not very interesting. So instead I’ve tried to work my experiences into other posts.
For instance, my scurvy I discussed in the zero-carb dangers series. My discovery that i had chronic fungal infections came by just trying anti-fungal creams after antibiotics made the infections worse. My discovery that I had a chronic bacterial infection came after realizing that I had the cognitive symptoms of hypoglycemia and serotonin deficiency — and realizing that these would be natural effects of bacteria in neurons. I’ve mentioned these as characteristic symptoms of bacterial infections of the central nervous system on many occasions. Then antibiotics proved it.
I will try to organize some posts on self-experimentation to diagnose and cure chronic conditions, but I hope to get some case studies from readers (like Rob’s experience with fasting and migraines). My own experiences will get boring quickly.
Best, Paul
Hi Paul,
Let me add my voice to those asking for a detailed description of your story, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I know I would find it useful not only for information but also for inspiration and motivation. In my case, I’m trying to deal with fatigue, mental fuzziness, and body pain, with a diagnosis of Lyme and chronic reactivated EBV (as well as a hugely high Ab titer for Chlamydia pneumoniae), for which antibiotics so far (only a couple of months) have provided no relief. I found your book a great source of information and plan on using much of what you suggest–but, hey, we all like a human story and I kept looking for details of yours. Hoping to hear more!
Also, in the book and the blog you mention SSRIs as backfiring because, although they might provide short-term relief, in the long-term they would provide more tryptophan to pathogens. Not sure I see the logic–SSRIs would increase steady-state levels of serotonin, but serotonin is made from tryptophan, not the other way round. Or is the thinking that if SSRIs decrease the need for further serotonin production, there is more trp that is not used in the manufacture of serotonin and thus available to the pathogens? Or some other reasoning?
Regards,
Eric
Hi Paul,
Please write your experiences and your experiments.
Failed attempts are almost as important as the attempts that worked. We learn from both.
It will be useful for people who have similar experiences. They will know what not to do as much as what to do. Maybe we will also find why they don’t work and then can determine what else may not work.
Everybody is different and cannot do exactly as you are doing, so it is important to know what not to do, so that people in taking deviations avoid those pitfalls.
thanks for the very interesting book. I have read it and it is a very big eye opener.
regards,
-anand
hi paul, thank you very much – this “never give up” blog post came at the right time! my stomach illness has taken over again these past 12 days and its really depressing. i was at loss how to get through the day, but these words of encouragement including a logical coping/take-charge plan: (1) stick to a nutritious non-toxic low-carb/high-fat diet, (2) take supplements, (3) look for which pathogens are causing the problems so you can kill the them off and (4) never give up is a life line on days when illness clouds your judgment and motivation is dwindling 🙂 thank you, claire
Hi everyone,
Well, it looks like I’m outvoted. Even my wife wants a “my story” series!
Hi Eric,
My impression was that some bacteria could extract tryptophan from serotonin, but a quick review of Pubmed suggests this is mistaken. If SSRI’s cause trouble it is probably by other mechanisms.
Hi Claire,
I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a recurrence. Not very surprised – it seemed miraculous that a chronic infectious disease would be relieved by simple carb restriction, for most people that is only the first step in a long battle – but disappointed, it would have been delightful to hear of such an easy cure.
But don’t be discouraged. You’ve made a start and acquiring hope and an idea of how to go forward is the essential beginning. We’ll be here to help you troubleshoot as you go forward. I’m very glad you’ve gotten the doctors working with you.
Best, Paul
Hi Paul,
“My discovery that i had chronic fungal infections came by just trying anti-fungal creams after antibiotics made the infections worse.”
Does this apply to what would be “external” fungal infections at sites such as the feet and groin as well as internal fungal infections? Is there a difference? Can someone have an external fungal infection and not have it through the system?
Also, do you know if EXTERNAL infections spread or get worse based on INTERNAL system stressors like a cold or for some other weakened immune condition?
I am just trying to understand why skin infections wax and wane.
Thank you
Hi Perry,
Yes, in my case certainly I had a chronic, systemic fungal infection that whenever my immune system was weak would produce skin infections. They have recurred so many times throughout my life, always with the same symptoms and pattern, and I can reproduce them at will with diet now, that I have no doubt about it. I believe the colon is the main reservoir for the infection, but as there is no established detection procedure for internal fungal infections it’s impossible to be sure.
I would expect that something similar is likely to be the case in others.
Best, Paul
Another yes vote.
I’d love to read about Paul’s personal journey to good health. Since the book and blog are so scientific, perhaps the narration could be less so (for those of us whose eyes glaze over from too much information).
Sorry Paul! 🙂
Hi Paul,
Love the book and blog.
What are your thoughts on using antimicrobial herbs and other supplements to treat these underlying infections instead of antibiotics?
A naturopath that diagnosed me with an underlying infection that was causing GI distress treated it with supplements like olive leaf, pau d’arco, cat’s claw, etc. It definitely took care of the problem I was having. It had me thinking that maybe herbs and other antimicrobial compounds like grapefruit seed extract if cycled may be used in place of the antibiotics. They are not as potent but they do not have the side effects either. Any thoughts?
thanks, Randy
Hi Randy,
I think antimicrobial herbs are extremely valuable for gut infections.
That was actually the motivation behind my “Neo-Agutak” (http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=1296). Since I have a history of fungal infections, I wanted foods with anti-fungal properties, and berries (which are threatened by molds) have a lot of antifungal compounds.
So I think these herbs are great for remodeling the gut flora and dealing with gut infections.
However, my preference is for foods and traditional herbs (like turmeric, oregano, etc.) over medicinal herbs like pau d’arco. You can eat much larger quantities from food than from supplements, and the safety of traditional foods and herbs is better proven.
I am open to naturopathic remedies, but particularly for systemic infections they are not substitutes for antibiotics.
Best, Paul
Another vote for a detailed account of your illness/trials/successes/failures.
One reason why: a lot of us don’t know how to go about narrowing down symptoms/catogorizing them/eliminating them.
We need help learning how to look at the bigger picture, at whole body processes, what leads to what.
What you write already has given us a springboard to start from, and we want more, more, more!
It would be amazing to find a doctor willing to do this with us. I went to 4, telling them the successes I had with my daughter’s asthma using the gaps diet, and wanting to find out the base of her problem (as soon as we go off the diet, her symptoms return), and none of them were remotely interested. I find that things help (probiotics/vit c/certain herbs) but nothing is ‘curing’ her. — We will stay on the diet, and I will be approaching more docs, especially with the chlad.pneum.bacteria info — but it does seem futile to involve them.
Anyway, this was a poignant post, giving many people hope (and I didn’t watch the video yet) thank you very much.
RE: Valtsu
Not only iron deficiency, but also iron overload (hemochromatosis) is also associated with higher incidences of hypothyroidism, especially in men.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6625774
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6342390
http://thyroid.about.com/od/relatedconditions1/a/hemachromatosis.htm
And, infections…
http://sickle.bwh.harvard.edu/hemochromatosis.html
“Infections in Patients with Iron Overload:
Listeria monocytogenes, Yersinia enterocolitica, Yersinia pesudotuberculosis, Rhizopus orayzae, Salmonella typhimurium, Cunninghamella berthollethiae, Pasturella pseudotuberculosis, Vibrio vulnifus, Clostridium perfringens”
Paul thank you for the motivational response 🙂
I spoke with my doctor today and got the results of a TFT (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12736794) back. It tested for giadia lamblia, campylobacter, salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, Entamoeba histolytica, Diëntamoeba fragilis, Strongyloides, Schistosoma, worms, eggs, cysts. None were present. My doctor said given these results (and a TFT done 2 years ago also showed no infections) plus the fact that my blood work was good (posted here: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=1338) that she felt there were no infections present although my symptoms could be caused by a previous infection.
I had told her I did somewhat better with a ketogenic diet and she suggested that I work with my dietitian on an elimination diet and in the mean time follow a clear liquid diet (which is often advised for gastroparesis patients in a bad phase http://www.scribd.com/doc/28758862/Nutrition-Intervention-for-the-Patient-With-Gastroparesis) and only come back if this doesn’t help or things get worse.
Today I had homemade chicken broth and supplements + coconut oil and I suppose I should just do this a few days to give my digestive system a rest and give my soar throat time to heal. Because its low protein and carb hopefully it will lead to autophagy action and help me feel better.
As a next step after “fasting” I was thinking of 2 things: (1) try a ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting again – hopefully I’ll have another couple of good weeks and (2) approach a private clinic for further testing – its expensive buy my mom is willing to pay for it if its necessary and would help. This second step could also wait and see if things do get better with diet & supplements.
I am curious if there’s still an infection and if so what it could possibly be… I would guess small intestine given that I have more upper than lower abdominal problems and pains and that it usually occurs within 30 minutes of eating. Carbs (rice more than potatoes) seem to be problematic and definitely make me want to eat continuously, but then a lot fat makes me feel a bit nauseas and I also have typical IBS symptoms. Maybe there is something fungal going on. I read the posts above about this and also have a recurrent foot infection. Other things that play a role are that I have little energy and am slowly getting more anxious/depressed – this could just be logical given the situation and the stress it causes, but could also be linked to illness.
If you have any tips or suggestions I’d love to hear them.
All the best, Claire
Hi Claire,
Well, it’s good that you don’t seem to have a protozoal infection, at least not an obvious one, but that doesn’t rule out other kinds of infections. What the gastroparesis tells us is that the small intestine is not healthy and mild irritants can give it great trouble. I think that this is usually the result of infections; an uninfected bowel would heal.
Looking in Pubmed, gastroparesis has been caused by syphilis (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19642241), cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17716347), human herpes virus-8 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12873182), and rotavirus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9403659); 60% of gastroparesis patients had small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20027008); a woman with systemic bacterial and fungal infections and resulting nerve damage had gastroparesis thought to be caused by autonomic nerve dysfunction (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16420295).
Overall, it looks like the literature indictes viral infections are most often the cause. However, your sensitivity to carbs would seem to suggest a bacterial or protozoal infection – maybe fungal, although that’s probably the least likely. Remind me – do you have abdominal bloating? If you can show that your foot infection is fungal that would be evidence for a gut fungal infection.
I think you should continue to work with the doctors, but do some home experiments looking at interventions that target specific pathogens and see if they help.
I might try biofilm-busting strategies next — since rice sensitivity suggests bacteria or fungi who form biofilms, and biofilms are usually needed for pathogens to survive in the small intestine. You might want to read about Dr. Usman’s protocol for autism patients, see e.g. http://onibasu.com/archives/am/213277.html. Interfase Plus is a possible enzyme+EDTA supplement, combine it with probiotics and antimicrobial herbs like oregano.
Vitamin D is very important for immunity and mucosal barrier function.
I think the lack of energy is a reflection of immune activity and there is a strong gut-brain connection which could account for the anxiety/depression. So I would focus on the gastroparesis and try to make progress understanding it.
Best, Paul
Paul, Thank you so much for the feedback!! It’s very informative and the way you explain the steps in your thinking is really helpful in learning how to approach the problem.
A virus could be the root cause. I have no idea what I had during my trip in Brazil, but this could have damaged the vagus nerve and caused gastroparesis.
Re bloating & fungal infection: I certainly have bloating – it is a more recent symptom – so SIBO is something I should ask my doctor to test – I’ll bring the article in case there’s reluctance ;). The doctor looked at my foot last year and said it was athlete’s foot – no testing was done.
The results of a comprehensive stool analysis from the Great Plains Laboratory (jan 2007) may shed some light on both possibilities:
Bacteriology culture:
beneficial: bifidobacter 2+, E coli spp 1+, lactobacillus spp 0+, enterococcus spp 0+
imbalances: bacillus cereus 1+, enerobacter cloacae 1+, gamma strep 2+
dysbiotic: none
Mycology culture:
Normal flora: trichosporon mucoides 1+
Dysbiotic flora: candida glabrata 2+
Other:
sIgA = 30 mg/dL (ref 51 – 204)
SCFA valerate = 0% (ref 1 – 8%)
pH = 5.5
All other results were within the normal range.
I’ve put biofilm busting & oregano and other other natural antifungals/biotics on my list to try 🙂 But it does seem important to have medical supervision, so with searching I found a holistic doctor (MD, but also uses alternative therapies) who I may consult. She is specialized in digestive disturbances and bases her diagnosis on extensive lab tests as her premise is that these are caused by parasitic infections. Her website (praktijkvanas.nl) uses fasting and oregano oil as alternative solutions. Sound’s like she’s right up your alley 🙂
In the mean time I will work on conducting a literature review of causes of idiopathic gastroparesis and trying to figure out how to cure it. Thanks for showing me how to get started on this!
Have a very happy new years celebration! Best, Claire
Hi Claire,
I asked about the bloating because fungal infections will cause that … I wouldn’t expect you could have a fungal infection in your small intestine without substantial bloating from a severe colonic infection … so if you hadn’t had bloating that would rule out a fungal infection. Since you do have it and a fungal infection in your toes, that has to stay on the list of plausible candidates.
Your doctor sounds excellent, I think she will be very helpful to you. Doctors can do lots of diagnostic tests and try out prescription drugs, e.g. antifungal or antibiotic drugs, which also help diagnose and narrow down possibilities. Good luck!
Best, Paul
PS – I would search on gastroparesis generally, “idiopathic” means of unknown cause … you will get the most help from papers where the cause was discovered!
I’d be interested to know if you have revised your opinion that fungal infection of the intestine will produce substantial bloating. I understand the bloat-bacteria relation but am unaware of the bloat-fungal relation.
Paul thank you!
Good point on not using idiopathic in the search terms ;)! and I will make an appt with this new doctor first thing monday morning 🙂
A question about fungal infections and the Perfect Health diet: Did I read correctly that when a fungal infection is suspected that its important to have some carbs – i.e. very low carb is not advised (e.g. http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=8 and p=1139)? If so then since I am still not keeping down solids would sweetening a drink with glucose (e.g. dextrose or rice syrup) be ok?
Strangely enough, from experience I don’t seem to have as many problems with drinks with glucose syrup as with starchy foods.
Ok, now I won’t bug you anymore 🙂
Hope you have a great new years weekend!
Hi Claire,
My experience was whenever I went zero-carb I would get fungal skin infections and when I ate carbs they would go away … This makes some sense because the anti-fungal immune response uses a lot of glucose … On the other hand the fungi consume glucose so when your infection is in the small intestine you are in trouble.
I think a dextrose drink should work best. Good idea! The starch takes longer to digest so it lingers in the intestine and is more available to gut pathogens.
Paul,
do you have some science to refer to for this statement
“the anti-fungal immune response uses a lot of glucose”
I recently realised that my rash is getting worse right after sleep (after overnight fast, probably elevated ketones). For the moment I am trying to fix by avoiding ketosis by having low GI carbs for dinner, high GI carbs in the morning (honey in the tea) and a chocolate bar next to my bed during the night.
Tis blog post links rash to ketosis
http://bjjcaveman.com/2013/05/09/prurigo-pigmentosa-a-ketosis-associated-rash/
Thanks for the post.
I’ve been struggling with a debilitating chronic health problem for over 2 years now so it’s good to know there are other people out there that have gone through the issues (and worse) and have come out the other side.
Hi Paul,
Just a followup on my above posting regarding fungal infection. I’ve just come off a 2 week course of Floconazol after telling my doctor I suspected a lifelong fungal problem.
It didn’t help at all though, in fact I had a flair during the 2nd week (groin area, can I say jock itch on the internet?! 🙂 then promptly caught a cold.
I’ve been supplementing most of the winter and following all your recommendations for a month now so this is disappointing. I was hoping to set up for a course of antibiotic treatment, low dose longer term to see if it helped with chronic problems I have.
I have yet to search to see if Floconozol is infective against certain fungi, if so that would be a lead.
Thanks and regards
I meant ineffective, not infective in the last sentence.
Hi Perry,
That is disappointing. Just checking – over the counter antifungal creams do work against the jock itch, yes? So you know it is a fungal infection?
Antifungal drugs are often ineffective which is one reason why doctors are reluctant to prescribe them. Still, I wouldn’t have expected your problem to get worse.
Yes, they do to a degree as does coconut oil.
I didn’t mean to imply the Floconalzol made it worse if you took it that way.
I believe it was just flair due to my immune condition (or lack of immunity) as I have had a lot of colds this winter and I don’t feel I’m yet back from my VLC disaster.
By the way, I’m sure you saw KH weigh in (pun intended) with his new stance on starchy carb intake.
Reality strikes and personal beliefs can only hold out so long. When he hit the mid 140’s he gave in.
I did see that, it’s good to see. But what do you mean by “when he hit the mid 140’s”? I must have missed something on his site or forum.
His weight hit mid 140’s. He had been doing building rehab on his property. He explained that he had been steady for a few years on Panu at around 151 Lbs, but with the work, he started dropping.
It is in this post.
http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2011/2/6/thoughts-on-ketosis-i.html
I was surprised at the 151 “steady” number, I thought I remembered he was steady at around 159 #s from something he wrote last year, but I could have that wrong.
My guess he is a healthy guy with no pathogens or cancer because he would have run into problems much sooner, I know I did.
He did admit to some lowish throid output, don’t remember if it was throxin or t3, but he wasn’t concerned…this was last year too.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for writing this blog, it has helped me very much. I can identify in myself many of the cognitive impairments that you were affected by, and it makes sense to think that bacteria are at work, stealing glucose and tryptophan from neurons.
So two days ago I started on 200mg Doxycycline to see if it would make a difference to these symptoms, and sure enough, it did, although I’ll still need to monitor things for a while to arrive at a more conclusive judgement about that.
However, I’m not too sure how to proceed after that. It seems safest in a sense to adopt an aggressive treatment protocol, but then antibiotics are not something to mess around with lightly. That’s my main difficulty at the moment.
All the best,
Matthew
Update day 3: further improvement. I suppose I’ll end up settling on a subset of NAC, Amoxicillin, Doxycycline, Azithromycin, Flagyl.
Still concerned about how long I should be taking these for, while trying to more accurately diagnose the infections involved. Also learning about antibiotic effects (on gut flora, say; die-off symptoms are less of a concern); of what I’ve read on cpnhelp so far, people don’t seem very worried about this; perhaps it really is secondary when you’re battling MS.
Matthew
Hi Matthew,
Congratulations! The hardest part in these diseases is getting a clear diagnosis and finding a therapy that works. Now that you know you have a bacterial infection, it’s only a matter of time.
I don’t like to make specific recommendations about antibiotics, this is better done by you and a doctor working together, experimenting to find what works.
But I would definitely recommend NAC, and I would suggest that 4 antibiotics may be more than is necessary.
I do think the gut symptoms are secondary; your brain is critical and the first thing to fix. You should take probiotics and eat fermented vegetables daily, and watch for signs of fungal overgrowth.
The other thing to do is help clear die-off toxins with cholestyramine, bentonite clay, charcoal, or chlorella.
Best of luck and keep me posted!
Best, Paul
Hi Paul,
Sincere thanks for your encouragement. It helps tremendously when someone like yourself kindly guides others along their journeys.
I’m wondering how I should decide when to end the antibiotics, assuming I have a cpn infection (or another of similar nature). It seems that some necessary conditions for stopping antibiotics are:
– attempts have been made to address all three stages of cpn’s life cycle (and perhaps also blocking protein synthesis in multiple ways)
– symptoms have completely disappeared (but this is in the best case)
– reactions to antibiotics and NAC have stopped.
In addition, one could decide that one is “cured” when symptoms don’t resurface for a period of time after stopping treatment.
Was this a difficult decision for you to make when you decided to stop antibiotics?
Also, do you think it’s a good idea to keep on taking NAC for a while (or indefinitely?) after stopping antibiotics as a strategy to prevent future cpn infections, especially if you’ve been infected in the past and may be a more susceptible host?
Wishing you the best,
Matthew
Hi Matthew,
In my case we stopped antibiotics about 6 weeks after my last symptoms disappeared. This was a compromise between me and my doctor, as he didn’t feel comfortable prescribing antibiotics with no symptoms (his mental model is more oriented toward acute infections) and I wanted to be sure and would have liked to continue.
I figured it was OK to stop since I could always resume again if symptoms returned.
However, it’s been almost a year and a half now and symptoms haven’t really come back. I still think it would be prudent to take antibiotics once in a while as a prophylactic measure, but convincing doctors isn’t easy.
I do think it’s a good idea to continue taking NAC, unless you eat very large amounts of protein.
Best, Paul
Thank you for this.
HI
I am diagnosed with E histolytica and after 2 years of struggle they finally found this and blasto cystis in my body 2 years ago I started to get allergies and foodintolerances and now I am realizing its all because of these parasites.
I am now on 2 antibiotics doxycycline and paromomycin I can only drink broth and eat avocado and fermented sauerkraut anything else will upset my stomache do you have any nutrion advice you can give me as I am very worried about this parasite
Thanks so much Mia
Hi Paul.
I seem to be very prone to fungal infections, and i am desperate because i can’t seem to fix them. I don’t know what else to do, I experimented with different levels of carbs and I no longer use coconut oil (stopped 4 months ago) but there’s nothing that actually makes a difference. I am in my early 20’s. I have a foot infection that started in 2012. The sensation of burning is awful. It sometimes gets worse after showering. I managed to accept that I can’t make it go away but
Since the beginning of 2014 I started having vaginal/vulva infections, and that it’s something that concerns me. I treated in the beginning but its not fixed. It certaintly isn’t because of bad hygiene habits. Is it candida? yeast infection?This is very frustrating and I just wish there was a way to cure this. What can I do?
A friend has recently been diagnosed with progressive muscular atrophy. She is in her early fifties, of average weight and was recently put on blood pressure medication. Are there any particular recommendations that you believe may be useful for her?
Hi Paul,
I tried a high fat paleo ketogenic diet and felt worse. I have Ms and if I eat a bit of carbs, which do seem to make me feel better if I don’t over di it. How do I ever get rid of the fungal/parasit infection.
Thanks,
Karen
Hey Paul,
I have finally found a provider willing to test & treat for suspected chronic infections. I’m 45 & all my life I’ve struggled with severe allergies as a kid & gut issues such as chronic constipation primary & diarrhea occasionally. I have bloating & cravings when I eat too many carbs & recently took antifungals (undecylenic acid, caprylic acid & GSE) which was a huge help & killed my cravings so that I only have carbs in the evening with dinner- potatoes & a glass of red wine).
I’m suffering with long covid for over a year & we’ve tried ivermectin for long covid & with that, & adding Quercetin into my PHD supplements & doubling up on NAC has helped but my stools have been loose for more than 6 months but still constipated. Covid caused me pain & inflammation in my low back as well as pain in old injuries that had healed & nerve pain. Severe dizziness went away after the antifungal supplements. Have started probiotics & eat a fairly PHD diet & follow supplement protocol with additional supplements.
We’re looking at ordering a comprehensive stool analysis- I’ve told them how you recommend if you’re not thriving on PHD to check for chronic infections & I gave them a copy of your book.
She’s said we can order the Great Plains Comprehensive Stool Analysis. Is this a reliable test? I have no idea if it’s just candida, or if there’s parasites, viral or bacterial infections? This test costs $450 so I want to be sure it’s a good one.
Hoping to figure out my health mysteries so we can effectively treat & I can feel better. I just want to feel good & it gets really frustrating to never consistently feel well.
I do deal with bloating, as well as anxiety & depression with some OCD tendencies.
We suspected parasites especially since after my last dosing of ivermectin I had what looks like a possible Strongyloides come out in my urine. It was distinctive & well formed whatever it was. We thought it wouldn’t hurt to be on a conservative covid prophylaxis dose of ivermectin 15 mg for 2 days every 15 days, & that would also nip any parasites but I understand there could be other likely infections.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
PS: is there anyway to get notifications on responses? Also, did you ever do a post on your experiments in figuring out the fungal & bacterial cause of your health issues?