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« on: December 03, 2017, 07:22:21 am »
Hey folks,
I am new here. I will try to save you the unnecessary details of my journey to poor health. Suffice to say, In high school I ran track and field (400m & 800m) at state and national level at (5' 10", 163 ibs).
Nearly 4 years later, I am 147ibs and suffering from serious digestive distress. A mixture of college food and frequent antibiotics have ruined my digestion.
I live in New York where Lyme disease is endemic, because of this I have had many courses of antibiotics to prevent developing lyme disease after the 3-5 tick bites I get each Summer.
After taking these antibiotics (doxycycline mostly) I always noticed my digestion would be ruined for weeks, but would eventually recover.
As Im sure most everyone here knows, antibiotics cause leaky gut, and leaky gut is a precursor to many autoimmune diseases.
Before my sophomore year of college (2 years ago now) I experienced my usual tick-bites while running a recreational running program for 2nd 3rd and 4th graders. With these tick bites came a few courses of antibiotcs and with them leaky gut.
Unfortunately for me and so many others, all college food is predominantly GMO corn, soy, and wheat. Obviously these foods are poisons without leaky gut, but with leaky gut they are a fast track to illness.
In the fall semester of my sophomore year, I tried soy milk. I had a severe inflammatory reaction to this which caused bloody diarrhea and constipation (from the inflammation) for weeks after. After this I quickly realized my gut was in poor shape and I transferred colleges to be closer to home and so that I could live off campus and buy my own food.
Months after this experience, I noticed that this same kind of gut inflammation occurred with all grains, but especially with gluten grains and soy.
8 months ago I ate rice that had soy sauce on it when a restaurant made a mistake on my take-out order. At the time I was too starving to resist and had just driven 3 hours to visit my girlfriend and not eaten all day prior.
Well the same thing happened. Bloody diarrhea, constipation, bloating except this time it stayed.
This Summer a Dr. tested for small intestine bacterial overgrowth (sibo) however the test was negative. Treatment with sibo specific antibiotics only worsened my condition, severely.
Being ill has made me realize just how corrupt medical and food industries are, and for that I'm thankful. Otherwise I just pray each day that I can recover.
Of all the diets I have tried since being ill the only thing that has saved me from utter starvation is raw meat.
Of all foods it causes the least bloating, constipation, and burping I experience as a result of my damaged gastrointestinal system. Im still too afraid to eat it completely raw after what I have gone through so i cook the outsides briefly but strictly eat the raw parts inside. This is both wasteful and expensive.
Unfortunately, I only have my own experiences to go off so Im fumbling my way through this new way of eating. I want to try truly raw meat and raw eggs, and maybe some day raw dairy if my gut improves.
At the moment the most probable explanation for all my symptoms is that my small intestinal brush border is damaged, and therefore, I cannot produce enough enzymes to digest and absorb my food before gas producing bacteria in my gut do. It is likely based on my symptoms that I also have low stomach acid, hence my hesitation with fully raw meat because of potential contamination.
Its possible I have something like Crohn's disease, but even if my situation is as bad as that, I will never touch prescription meds again. I'm determined to do what it takes to gain my health back as nature intended.
I thank anyone dearly who gets this far in reading my struggle. I would be most grateful for knowledge, tips, or insight into how I can get better.