Gas, Burping, Hernia, Palpitations, Weight Loss

[Hoping]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum. I was diagnosed 4 years ago with celiac. I have remained gluten free most of these years and healthy, but I got into some gluten this past summer. I thought french fries would be safe! I soon discovered otherwise. This is the sickest I have been and it seems incredably slow going. I have a hiatal hernia, I've lost weight, my hair must still be weak because I'm still losing hair, but my biggest concerns are filling up to fast when eating because of all the gas. I burp like a drunken sailor and I don't drink. I have nots in my stomach and when I bend they sometimes hit against an artery or heart and I get palpitations. I have to sleep propt up every night and not sleep on my sides. To my knowledge, I am not getting any more gluten. I was on a bland diet for a month and I'm gradually working different things back into my diet. Milk still bothers me. The dr. says I may have too much yeast and he's put me on medicine to get rid of the yeast, but it's like not taking anything. I don't like being this thin. I'm on a gluten free probiotic too. I'm getting very discouraged. I've been told it takes time to get better. But I'm wondering if something else might be going on. I appreciate any advice.

Signed,

Hoping

[MELINE]

Hello

When your doctor said yeast didn't he mention any changes in your diet? I have a major yeast problem. I' ve lost many pounds, I am extremely skinny and it is just impossible for me to put on any weight, but I am on day 21 of my treatment for yeast and I think that I am doing better.

When you have yeast problems, antifungals don't work if you don't stop eating carbos.

google : candida, and see if the symptoms are like yours. I don't want to add a problem to your existing celiac condition. Of course I am not a doctor, I am just saying that you could search the possibility of candida. Also you could search the possibility of malabsorption.

Get well soon!

Meline

[Hoping]

Hello

When your doctor said yeast didn't he mention any changes in your diet? I have a major yeast problem. I' ve lost many pounds, I am extremely skinny and it is just impossible for me to put on any weight, but I am on day 21 of my treatment for yeast and I think that I am doing better.

When you have yeast problems, antifungals don't work if you don't stop eating carbos.

google : candida, and see if the symptoms are like yours. I don't want to add a problem to your existing celiac condition. Of course I am not a doctor, I am just saying that you could search the possibility of candida. Also you could search the possibility of malabsorption.

Get well soon!

Meline

[Hoping]

Thank you for responding, Meline

The dr. did not change my diet. He told me to get the book, "The Yeast Connection".

[MELINE]

I think you forgot to add your post... .I can only read my words. Try again

[MELINE]

ok....you just posted once my words and then second time your reply. You can do both in one post.

He gave you the book "The yeast connection" and he did not talk to you about the diet???????? please search the net and get some info about candida and yeast overgrowth.

[AliB]

I see this so often on here - those who either drop gluten but don't get better or who get better for a while and then get worse - I wish there was a way everyone could be directed to the answers without them having to post anything!

I have a theory - and it is a theory that, with the quite a bit of current research that is starting to come out, is actually beginning to become more of a fact than a theory - that a lot, if not most of our health issues are caused by bacterial activity.

We carry more than 500 different strains of bacteria in, and on, our bodies. Most of them are either beneficial or benign, but occasionally due to different reasons some of them get out of balance and start to cause problems.

Different drugs can upset the balance - painkillers, the Pill, steroids, you name it and one of the worst culprits is antibiotics. They not only kill the baddies but they destroy the good guys - the soldiers who are there to protect the gut from foreign invaders and rogue inhabitants. Without that protection we are open to attack.

It is only recently that the power of probiotics has been realised and the detriment of decades of unrestrained antibiotic prescription is now understood to have been a very bad move. Survivors, especially detrimental ones are then stronger and more resistant to the antibiotics and start to proliferate to fill up the space left by the loss of the good guys. That is why we are getting an explosion of Candida. Yeasts are a normal part of gut flora but if allowed to get out of control they take over causing all sorts of mayhem anywhere in the body.

There are different remedies but by far the most beneficial is to restrict the carbs that feed them. Many of us with gut damage cannot digest carbs properly and the beasties LUUURVE undigested carbs.

Quite a few of us have been following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet that restricts the troublesome carbs, concentrating on basic foods prepared in many different tasty ways. What often happens is that when we drop gluten foods the beasties die back temporarily, but then they re-group, adapt to a different carb group and come back with a vengeance. As gluten-free foods typically are very high in carbs it often can actually make things even worse.

Dairy too is very problematic and best avoided as the gut damage means that we cannot produce the lactase to digest it. Most milk and cheese, unless you are privileged to live on a farm, is pasteurised, which kills the very enzymes in it that can help to digest it, compounding the problem even further.

Although the Specific Carb Diet (SCD) is not a 'Candida' diet as such it does work to get the bacteria under control and help the gut to heal. It cuts out all processed and 'mucked about with' food as much of the processed stuff is very damaging. It does mean that most gluten-free baked and processed foods are off-limits, but then as they are the worst culprits for encouraging the damage, that is no bad thing. If you want to know more, we have an SCD thread in the 'Other Food Intolerances and Leaky Gut Issues' section on this forum. 'Breaking the Vicious Cycle' and 'Pecanbread' are two good websites to peruse too.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you gain some recovery.

Ali.

[Hoping]

ok....you just posted once my words and then second time your reply. You can do both in one post.

He gave you the book "The yeast connection" and he did not talk to you about the diet???????? please search the net and get some info about candida and yeast overgrowth.

I'm sorry about posting your words. Like I said, I'm new to ever using a forum. To answer your question. He recommended I get the book "The Yeast Connection". But he said he did not endorse it. He did not put me on any special diet. He just gave me nystatine to take everyday three times a day. I have a 30 day supply with no refills. I'm still on a bland diet also which do include carbs. I'm not sure if this makes since or not, but I actually feel better on the bland diet. When I start to add things, I feel worse.

Thank you for writing,

Susan

[Hoping]

I see this so often on here - those who either drop gluten but don't get better or who get better for a while and then get worse - I wish there was a way everyone could be directed to the answers without them having to post anything!

I have a theory - and it is a theory that, with the quite a bit of current research that is starting to come out, is actually beginning to become more of a fact than a theory - that a lot, if not most of our health issues are caused by bacterial activity.

We carry more than 500 different strains of bacteria in, and on, our bodies. Most of them are either beneficial or benign, but occasionally due to different reasons some of them get out of balance and start to cause problems.

Different drugs can upset the balance - painkillers, the Pill, steroids, you name it and one of the worst culprits is antibiotics. They not only kill the baddies but they destroy the good guys - the soldiers who are there to protect the gut from foreign invaders and rogue inhabitants. Without that protection we are open to attack.

It is only recently that the power of probiotics has been realised and the detriment of decades of unrestrained antibiotic prescription is now understood to have been a very bad move. Survivors, especially detrimental ones are then stronger and more resistant to the antibiotics and start to proliferate to fill up the space left by the loss of the good guys. That is why we are getting an explosion of Candida. Yeasts are a normal part of gut flora but if allowed to get out of control they take over causing all sorts of mayhem anywhere in the body.

There are different remedies but by far the most beneficial is to restrict the carbs that feed them. Many of us with gut damage cannot digest carbs properly and the beasties LUUURVE undigested carbs.

Quite a few of us have been following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet that restricts the troublesome carbs, concentrating on basic foods prepared in many different tasty ways. What often happens is that when we drop gluten foods the beasties die back temporarily, but then they re-group, adapt to a different carb group and come back with a vengeance. As gluten-free foods typically are very high in carbs it often can actually make things even worse.

Dairy too is very problematic and best avoided as the gut damage means that we cannot produce the lactase to digest it. Most milk and cheese, unless you are privileged to live on a farm, is pasteurised, which kills the very enzymes in it that can help to digest it, compounding the problem even further.

Although the Specific Carb Diet (SCD) is not a 'Candida' diet as such it does work to get the bacteria under control and help the gut to heal. It cuts out all processed and 'mucked about with' food as much of the processed stuff is very damaging. It does mean that most gluten-free baked and processed foods are off-limits, but then as they are the worst culprits for encouraging the damage, that is no bad thing. If you want to know more, we have an SCD thread in the 'Other Food Intolerances and Leaky Gut Issues' section on this forum. 'Breaking the Vicious Cycle' and 'Pecanbread' are two good websites to peruse too.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you gain some recovery.

Ali.

Hi Ali,

I hope I'm posting this right. Thank you so much for all this info. You were right on about the antibiotics. I felt like the healthiest person alive until about 5 years ago when I got strep throat. The dr. had me on antibiotics for a year! I just couldn't seem to get rid of that nasty strep. When I finally tested negative, my tummy felt like it was on fire. After all this things went from bad to worse and then I was diagnosed with celiac. To my knowledge celiac does not run in my family at all. I'm curious, do you know if I would have to go on a special diet if I'm taking the meds the dr. gave me, which is nystatin?

[AliB]

Hi Ali,

I hope I'm posting this right. Thank you so much for all this info. You were right on about the antibiotics. I felt like the healthiest person alive until about 5 years ago when I got strep throat. The dr. had me on antibiotics for a year! I just couldn't seem to get rid of that nasty strep. When I finally tested negative, my tummy felt like it was on fire. After all this things went from bad to worse and then I was diagnosed with celiac. To my knowledge celiac does not run in my family at all. I'm curious, do you know if I would have to go on a special diet if I'm taking the meds the dr. gave me, which is nystatin?

I have a friend who was put on to antibiotics in her early twenties for 14 months! Her immune system is completely trashed. What the heck is wrong with these doctors!

It is quite likely that the best remedy for the Strep throat was to have consumed plenty of very good plain live yogurt for a while. The bacteria in it would undoubtedly have seen off the Streptococcus!

Finally Medical Science is beginning to sit up and realise that you need to be 'pro-biotic' with the body, not 'anti-biotic'! But their response is very slow.

The anti-biotics may have gotten rid - eventually - of the Strep, but unfortunately they also killed the digestive tract 'soldiers and defenders'. That then leaves the body open to attack from other sources not touched by the anti-biotic. No wonder so many are so sick. The only people I know who are well are those who have never had anti-biotics! Although the AB's may have got rid of the Strep they probably let something obnoxious move into your stomach instead!

I suspect that you are not Celiac - in fact I suspect there are an awful lot of 'diagnosed' Celiacs out there who are not actually Celiac. The Celiac diagnosis is picked up via the gut damage and antibodies, because the immune system is trying desperately to fight the little beggars. Gluten is the antagonist. Remove it and some will, depending on what the bacteria is, get better. Others, depending on what the bacteria is, won't, even though they have been diagnosed as Celiac and on removing Gluten, should.

Those people end up becoming intolerant to other foods instead, probably because the bacteria have just adapted to a different food source. The only way to have any hope of getting the mastery over them is to completely remove the troublesome carbs from the diet, which is where the SCD comes in to its own.

Nystatin may fight the yeasts - and only the yeasts if they are the only problem, but the problem with it is that the yeasts can become resistant to it. It may also only be a short-term fix. The best thing is to get on to the SCD a.s.a.p. and start taking plenty of the plain live yogurt and supplemental good probiotics. That protocol will help dislodge the rogues, whatever they are and help your body heal into the bargain. Nystatin can be a help. but it is not a long-term cure. Without replacing the good guys, it will all just come back.