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A lot of this is going to be anecdotal and unscientific, since a lot of this was trial and error. I am not a doctor and some of the things I tried were probably potentially unhealthy or dangerous. Maybe it will help someone or at least be an interesting read. I didn't go on too much about it in my intro since I didn't think there would be interest, but RawDeal mentioned it would be worth writing about so here's my story.
Warning: Detailed Talk About Bowel Movements Incoming
I started having minor digestive issues, like a more of an urgency/emergency to go first thing in the morning more than usual. I wrote it off to eating more fiber, I was doing a ton of green shakes at the time. Didn't think much of it. Fast forward a few month later, I ate out at a restaurant and landed what I thought was food poisoning. Woke up shitting my brains out for the entire day. I felt like shit but I said hey, I've been here before. It'll pass.
Except it didn't.
This went on for nearly 2 months. That's how long the wait time is for a gastro specialist in this area. My GP was no help. He ran regular blood panels, told me I was fine and that it was probably stress. Yeah, right.
Symptoms during this time: Constant diarrhea. I mean 15-20+ times a day, regardless of what I ate. If I didn't eat, straight water would be coming out. Rapid weight loss, over 60lbs. In my previous intro I mentioned I dropped from almost 240 to 179, but checking my notes it was actually 173. I'm 6'4" so I looked like I was dying. Everything I ate came out completely undigested. Literally exactly the same way I swallowed a piece of food is how it would come out. If this kept up, I was going to die if that kept up. Also constant sharp pains and cramps in the intestines and lots of gurgling noises.
Finally saw the most unhelpful gastro in the world. Ran more extensive bloodwork and a stool sample, ruled out any kind of infection like C Diff or Giardia. Scheduled a colonoscopy which came up totally normal. His advice was "Try some probiotics or something, I don't know. You're fine. Maybe its IBS." Well I did just that, and every single strain of probiotic I tried made the symptoms more severe. I refused to accept IBS as a diagnosis, because IBS is actually a lack of a diagnosis. It's the medical term for "we don't know what's wrong, but your gut is ****ed up and you have some similar symptoms to other people with ****ed up guts."
I did some research and thought I might have SIBO or SIFO, which is Small Intestine Bacterial/Fungal Overgrowth. Basically the bacteria in your large intestine can creep into the small intestine and wreak havoc, or sometimes its an opportunistic bacteria or yeast that can take over the healthy small intestinal flora. I tried multiple medications and supplements for this, including an antibiotic called Xifaxan that insurance wouldn't cover. At that time it was $2500 for a course, with negative results. I have no confirmation that this is what I had, it was just a suspicion.
Not to sound like a pussy, but I guess I am, because this was the only time in my life I seriously contemplated and came up with a plan for suicide that I would carry out if all of my healing efforts failed. That's how horrible I was feeling and I don't know how I managed to even get out of bed every day.
I tried two things finally that helped: some herbal products and antibiotics that actually gave me some improvement, and slightly increasing my TRT dose. Not a cure but it made it manageable. I was able to eat and digest enough to put weight on and I would still have diarrhea in the mornings a few times when I woke up but it didn't hit me often during the day anymore. The products were oregano oil capsules 3 times per day, and berberine capsules 3 times per day. These are herbal antibiotics with some anti inflammatory and other benefits. Also I believe increasing the testosterone was anti-inflammatory to some extent.
However I was still feeling sick, and sub optimal. I had nothing left to lose, and this was around the time that the keto and carnivore trends were really taking off. People were reporting complete remission of autoimmune diseases, etc. Now let me preface this by saying I am NOT a carnivore zealot. I'm just going to share my honest experience with it. I started keto for a few weeks, then went right to carnivore. Red meat and salt only 2 - 3 times a day, only drinking water (and coffee once in the morning). Dropped all supplements.
During the transition period my symptoms got worse for a week, which I was told to expect when making such a drastic diet change. By the second week, ALL of my digestive symptoms were disappearing. After a month I had no symptoms. At all. I started adding other carnivore friendly foods in slowly. Eggs first, then bacon, then cheese, chicken, fish, etc. My symptoms disappeared completely. I took my first solid shit in almost a year. I even made sure I was only using butter or animal fat to cook in. I was convinced at the time that any non-animal based foods were the problem. In retrospect, they may have been triggering symptoms for me even if they weren't the root cause since they are tougher to digest.
I believe this diet worked for a few reasons. One, a lot of plant foods, especially fiber rich foods, can cause gut inflammation. In most people this is a minimal amount and can actually have a beneficial hormetic effect, but if one has an already compromised gut it could be too much for the body to handle. Despite common misconceptions, meats are incredibly easy to digest and are usually liquified by the time they reach the small intestine. They are almost entirely absorbed and produced very little waste.
Two, if there were any nasty bacteria or yeasts that fed on sugar/carbohydrates, no doubt this diet starved them out. My average carb intake during this time was under 10 grams per day. It's also very high in protein which no doubt helped the healing process. My gut definitely needed a break from tough digestion to heal myself.
Three, it is a ketogenic diet, and keto diets produce high amounts of the ketone beta hydroxybutyrate, which is also very highly anti-inflammatory. This no doubt helped contribute to a healing effect while my gut rested and recovered and helped some of the inflammation in my body.
I followed this diet for probably longer than I needed to, close to two years. Now there are definitely some downsides to it as well. Its extremely, extremely restrictive. Social dining is always a headache. It's expensive to eat fatty cuts of red meat all the time unless you love ground beef (which trust me, gets old fast). There is a potential for nutrient deficiencies. Hardcore carnivore people will say that's not true, the RDAs are wrong, you can just eat liver, etc. But I had low vitamin C and D levels after a while, and my thyroid began to slow down. This is normal when you restrict carbohydrates for too long. Gym performance will suffer. Your endurance will go up, but you lose explosive ability, and anaerobic exercise capacity. I was able to get stronger but nowhere near back to where I was when eating carbohydrates. Any diet that's too restrictive (vegan/vegetarian, carnivore, etc.) will lead to suboptimal function on some level in most people. They are effective tools, but probably not lifelong eating strategies.
I slowly started introducing carbs, mostly by accident. My girlfriend loves to cook and bake and made homemade bread. Fresh bread is probably my favorite carb. She made it all the time, but one day the smell was just to much and I said **** it. In the past I would have been shitting my brains out. I was waiting for the inevitable...and nothing happened. I was fine. I was still convinced "no, you have to stay carnivore. You have to stay keto. It cured you." So I barely ate carbs for a while, but I enjoyed them. Nothing bad happened. Finally I went to Europe on vacation. My very first day in France I was sitting in a French restaurant and I told myself "**** it. You didn't come to one of the greatest culinary countries on Earth to eat nothing but steak." I enjoyed my time in Europe eating whatever I wanted, came home and kept slowly introducing foods until I found what worked for me and what didn't.
There are only a few foods that trigger any sort of issue for me now, but they are nowhere near how I was feeling. I have to limit vegetables, especially green vegetables, they just cause a little gas or loose stools for me the next day, but I still have them occasionally. Also for some reason oatmeal can cause these symptoms for me. Can't go overboard on nuts but I can have a few handfuls. But every day now I'm eating eggs, bread, rice, sweet potato, pasta, fruit, berries, steak, chicken, fish, pork, cheese, protein powder, basically whatever I want. I started introducing some supplements. I take a multi, extra C and D, fish oil, and magnesium.
All is well in the world now except I have no ****ing libido whatsoever on TRT despite having great lab numbers. This was an issue long before my digestive issues so I don't think it's related. Hopefully I can figure out that issue next.
I am sure there is more I could elaborate on, or plenty of questions I can answer, so ask away. Also welcoming criticisms or people challenging my way of thinking as well. Hope this was able to help someone or was at least an interesting read. Happy thanksgiving everyone.
Warning: Detailed Talk About Bowel Movements Incoming
I started having minor digestive issues, like a more of an urgency/emergency to go first thing in the morning more than usual. I wrote it off to eating more fiber, I was doing a ton of green shakes at the time. Didn't think much of it. Fast forward a few month later, I ate out at a restaurant and landed what I thought was food poisoning. Woke up shitting my brains out for the entire day. I felt like shit but I said hey, I've been here before. It'll pass.
Except it didn't.
This went on for nearly 2 months. That's how long the wait time is for a gastro specialist in this area. My GP was no help. He ran regular blood panels, told me I was fine and that it was probably stress. Yeah, right.
Symptoms during this time: Constant diarrhea. I mean 15-20+ times a day, regardless of what I ate. If I didn't eat, straight water would be coming out. Rapid weight loss, over 60lbs. In my previous intro I mentioned I dropped from almost 240 to 179, but checking my notes it was actually 173. I'm 6'4" so I looked like I was dying. Everything I ate came out completely undigested. Literally exactly the same way I swallowed a piece of food is how it would come out. If this kept up, I was going to die if that kept up. Also constant sharp pains and cramps in the intestines and lots of gurgling noises.
Finally saw the most unhelpful gastro in the world. Ran more extensive bloodwork and a stool sample, ruled out any kind of infection like C Diff or Giardia. Scheduled a colonoscopy which came up totally normal. His advice was "Try some probiotics or something, I don't know. You're fine. Maybe its IBS." Well I did just that, and every single strain of probiotic I tried made the symptoms more severe. I refused to accept IBS as a diagnosis, because IBS is actually a lack of a diagnosis. It's the medical term for "we don't know what's wrong, but your gut is ****ed up and you have some similar symptoms to other people with ****ed up guts."
I did some research and thought I might have SIBO or SIFO, which is Small Intestine Bacterial/Fungal Overgrowth. Basically the bacteria in your large intestine can creep into the small intestine and wreak havoc, or sometimes its an opportunistic bacteria or yeast that can take over the healthy small intestinal flora. I tried multiple medications and supplements for this, including an antibiotic called Xifaxan that insurance wouldn't cover. At that time it was $2500 for a course, with negative results. I have no confirmation that this is what I had, it was just a suspicion.
Not to sound like a pussy, but I guess I am, because this was the only time in my life I seriously contemplated and came up with a plan for suicide that I would carry out if all of my healing efforts failed. That's how horrible I was feeling and I don't know how I managed to even get out of bed every day.
I tried two things finally that helped: some herbal products and antibiotics that actually gave me some improvement, and slightly increasing my TRT dose. Not a cure but it made it manageable. I was able to eat and digest enough to put weight on and I would still have diarrhea in the mornings a few times when I woke up but it didn't hit me often during the day anymore. The products were oregano oil capsules 3 times per day, and berberine capsules 3 times per day. These are herbal antibiotics with some anti inflammatory and other benefits. Also I believe increasing the testosterone was anti-inflammatory to some extent.
However I was still feeling sick, and sub optimal. I had nothing left to lose, and this was around the time that the keto and carnivore trends were really taking off. People were reporting complete remission of autoimmune diseases, etc. Now let me preface this by saying I am NOT a carnivore zealot. I'm just going to share my honest experience with it. I started keto for a few weeks, then went right to carnivore. Red meat and salt only 2 - 3 times a day, only drinking water (and coffee once in the morning). Dropped all supplements.
During the transition period my symptoms got worse for a week, which I was told to expect when making such a drastic diet change. By the second week, ALL of my digestive symptoms were disappearing. After a month I had no symptoms. At all. I started adding other carnivore friendly foods in slowly. Eggs first, then bacon, then cheese, chicken, fish, etc. My symptoms disappeared completely. I took my first solid shit in almost a year. I even made sure I was only using butter or animal fat to cook in. I was convinced at the time that any non-animal based foods were the problem. In retrospect, they may have been triggering symptoms for me even if they weren't the root cause since they are tougher to digest.
I believe this diet worked for a few reasons. One, a lot of plant foods, especially fiber rich foods, can cause gut inflammation. In most people this is a minimal amount and can actually have a beneficial hormetic effect, but if one has an already compromised gut it could be too much for the body to handle. Despite common misconceptions, meats are incredibly easy to digest and are usually liquified by the time they reach the small intestine. They are almost entirely absorbed and produced very little waste.
Two, if there were any nasty bacteria or yeasts that fed on sugar/carbohydrates, no doubt this diet starved them out. My average carb intake during this time was under 10 grams per day. It's also very high in protein which no doubt helped the healing process. My gut definitely needed a break from tough digestion to heal myself.
Three, it is a ketogenic diet, and keto diets produce high amounts of the ketone beta hydroxybutyrate, which is also very highly anti-inflammatory. This no doubt helped contribute to a healing effect while my gut rested and recovered and helped some of the inflammation in my body.
I followed this diet for probably longer than I needed to, close to two years. Now there are definitely some downsides to it as well. Its extremely, extremely restrictive. Social dining is always a headache. It's expensive to eat fatty cuts of red meat all the time unless you love ground beef (which trust me, gets old fast). There is a potential for nutrient deficiencies. Hardcore carnivore people will say that's not true, the RDAs are wrong, you can just eat liver, etc. But I had low vitamin C and D levels after a while, and my thyroid began to slow down. This is normal when you restrict carbohydrates for too long. Gym performance will suffer. Your endurance will go up, but you lose explosive ability, and anaerobic exercise capacity. I was able to get stronger but nowhere near back to where I was when eating carbohydrates. Any diet that's too restrictive (vegan/vegetarian, carnivore, etc.) will lead to suboptimal function on some level in most people. They are effective tools, but probably not lifelong eating strategies.
I slowly started introducing carbs, mostly by accident. My girlfriend loves to cook and bake and made homemade bread. Fresh bread is probably my favorite carb. She made it all the time, but one day the smell was just to much and I said **** it. In the past I would have been shitting my brains out. I was waiting for the inevitable...and nothing happened. I was fine. I was still convinced "no, you have to stay carnivore. You have to stay keto. It cured you." So I barely ate carbs for a while, but I enjoyed them. Nothing bad happened. Finally I went to Europe on vacation. My very first day in France I was sitting in a French restaurant and I told myself "**** it. You didn't come to one of the greatest culinary countries on Earth to eat nothing but steak." I enjoyed my time in Europe eating whatever I wanted, came home and kept slowly introducing foods until I found what worked for me and what didn't.
There are only a few foods that trigger any sort of issue for me now, but they are nowhere near how I was feeling. I have to limit vegetables, especially green vegetables, they just cause a little gas or loose stools for me the next day, but I still have them occasionally. Also for some reason oatmeal can cause these symptoms for me. Can't go overboard on nuts but I can have a few handfuls. But every day now I'm eating eggs, bread, rice, sweet potato, pasta, fruit, berries, steak, chicken, fish, pork, cheese, protein powder, basically whatever I want. I started introducing some supplements. I take a multi, extra C and D, fish oil, and magnesium.
All is well in the world now except I have no ****ing libido whatsoever on TRT despite having great lab numbers. This was an issue long before my digestive issues so I don't think it's related. Hopefully I can figure out that issue next.
I am sure there is more I could elaborate on, or plenty of questions I can answer, so ask away. Also welcoming criticisms or people challenging my way of thinking as well. Hope this was able to help someone or was at least an interesting read. Happy thanksgiving everyone.
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