With the disc issues in my neck I began noticing that sitting was the worst thing I could do. If I was on the move all day then my leg rarely started burning but if I sat down for more than about 45 minutes the burn would come on and once it came on it rarely went away for the rest of the day. The most time I would spend sitting was at the computer which is where my worst bad habits of leaning forward and slouching come into play. So I decided to change up my workstation a month ago and bought a stand-up desk unit. With my old school 27″ iMac I was rather limited by weight as to what would work but the Ergotron Single HD unit would hold my system. I opted for the one with the extra shelf so I’d have room for my collection of input devices since I’ve gotten oddly used to using a pen tablet, touch pad and mouse.
Category Archives: Health
New methane treatment coming in 2017?
Dr. Pimentel has been at the lead of SIBO research over the last few years and has uncovered the underlying causes of the illness, notably the autoimmune reaction causing the destruction of the vinculin protein that helps drive the migrating motor complex of the small intestine. For the last few years he has been focusing on methane patients quite a bit and trying to find a new solution to the illness since those with vinculin antibodies relapse frequently. It looks like he is in Phase 2 Clinical Trials now on a new drug that stops methane production in m.smithii. You can read all about it at the Synthetic Biologics site – the drug is currently known as SYN-010. This “cure” seems to really just be stopping the archea from producing methane which causes the symptoms instead of killing off the m.smithii directly. Not sure how I feel about this, it seems to be treating the symptoms instead of the root of the problem and those archea and bacteria will still be in the wrong place eating your food in the small intestine. The drug is a variation on lovastatin and statin drugs also have side effects that are pretty undesirable to me at least, especially myopathy.
Dr. Ruscio is running a similar study using Red Rice Yeast instead of a drug since that is a natural statin. Hopefully he gets good results w/o the side effect rate of SYN-010. Stay tuned.
The non-treatment side of SIBO treatment
In my recent post I went over my actual treatment protocols that I used for SIBO and briefly mentioned the other things that probably helped my treatment. I decided to do another post on just these aspects of dealing with SIBO since I think they are almost as important as the actual anti-microbial treatment. In the classes I have done for Health Coach training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, IIN, these aspects are called Primary Foods in contrast to the actual foods that one puts in ones mouth. The Primary Foods are – Relationships, Spirituality, Exercise and Career. How do these apply to my SIBO healing? Read on.
My SIBO Treatment Re-Cap
Lately I’ve been asked by several people about what treatment I did to get rid of SIBO so I decided it was a good time to summarize so I have it in one place. Now keep in mind, what worked for me may not work for you since it seems that everyone is different when it comes to SIBO. I also had methane (CH4) dominant SIBO and didn’t show any hydrogen (H2) until my CH4 numbers were way down but having CH4 means you have H2 underneath since the m.smithii methanogens eat the hydrogen gas created by the other bacteria to create CH4.
Going a bit outside Paleo
Ever since I started my serious attempt to gain weight I had added back in some white jasmine rice as a carb source to try and put on some pounds, especially as my running mileage is increasing. I really hated the thought of eating white rice but jasmine has the lowest fermentation potential and gets absorbed quickly in the upper part of the small intestine. Still, it never sat well with me since I always felt brown rice was much healthier option. There are plusses and minuses on both sides of this and many Paleo followers won’t even go there at all just totally avoiding grains. The argument for white jasmine rice is that it has no anti-nutrients at all since the bran has been stripped away but what you are left with is a pretty high glycemic carb source. The best case for white rice in Paleo I’ve found is at Paleo Leap. They argue for white jasmine rice and against brown rice since it does contain anti-nutrients.
2015 was way better than 2014
I was looking back on my 2014 year end summary and that was one rough year to say the least, 2015 turned out to be much better in every way. The amazing thing is that my prediction in my #1 goal of “Get Healthy” actually was pretty accurate. I expected to be over SIBO and healing my gut but didn’t expect to be feeling really good until 2016 but really I ended up feeling pretty good by mid-2015. I stopped taking anti-microbials in May and declared myself cured of SIBO in June and since then have been getting better and better each month with no relapse in almost eight months now. On top of eradicating my SIBO the last round of treatment I did got rid of my blastocystisis hominis too which was excellent news – SIBO and parasite free finally. I also got good news that I do not have the auto-immune condition that is a major cause of SIBO which is why I think I’ve avoided relapse for so long.
Weight gains continue
Less than a month ago I finally topped the 160 mark and have been on a slow, steady rise since then. This morning I came in at 162.2 and my body fat is now up at 16% from a low of around 12%. It looks like the weight thing is really behind me and that I’m holding my own now in that department. I’m trying to make sure any new gain is in the muscle department so I’m trying to get in the gym and lift regularly during the winter. The good news is that I’m still fast, I just had my second fastest 5-mile time this last week and overall my running is getting back to a more normal schedule though still lower miles than what I used to run but that is on purpose. Zero SIBO symptoms the last month too which is great even eating a much more varied diet and it has now been over 7 months since I stopped actively treating!
Back to sleep restriction
For some reason my middle of the night insomnia is back with a vengeance after a few months of really good sleep. I fall asleep easily every night but wake up somewhere between 11:30-12:30 and then cannot get back to sleep until about 3:00 when I will grab a few more hours of sleep. Needless to say, I’m tired after a week of this. It sure seems like my cortisol is jacked up again since I’m feeling more anxious on top of not being able to sleep. So, tonight I go back on sleep restriction and see if I can get this back into a better pattern like I did last time around. Other than that all is good with regards to SIBO as I’ll be at 7 months on Monday since I stopped treatment with no relapse!
A lot to be thankful for
First turkey, Thanksgiving 2014
Two year ago Catherine and I ate Thanksgiving dinner at our favorite restaurant, Cafe Flora, and I felt like hell. I’d been dealing with gut issues ever since August when I took some antibiotics for a prostate infection. After doctors were no help I self diagnosed it as a candida problem so we celebrated Thanksgiving and then went on a hard-core candida cleanse the next day so I had a month from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It helped but I ended up really sick after Christmas which began my whole journey into the world of SIBO. Last year at Thanksgiving I was still not too well and had just suffered another relapse. Still, compared to 2013 I was doing a bit better after finally getting a diagnosis, totally changing my life and treating SIBO for about 4 months with herbals.
First weight goal met!
Back when I started Operation Bradley Cooper in August I had set an interim weight goal of 160. Today I finally crossed that goal for real, my first morning weigh-in above 160! This is huge, I dropped below 160 way back in January of 2014 and never got above it until today. It is good to see a steady climb since July in my weight. Now I just need to keep eating well, working out and things should settle out in the next few months to where my new normal weight is. Hoping I can get enough muscle to get it back up to around 165, just want to avoid putting it all on my belly.