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Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

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Re: Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

#101

Post by polishdude20 »

davzie wrote: post #34
anonymous344 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you fixed yourself with these? Did you try probiotics (90% of them are shit) Did you try fasting ? how about milk-gluten-sugar free diet?

I tried probiotics, tonnes of different types, none of them worked, most made it worse. I tried fasting, a few days eating nothing and drinking only water with a bit of salt. It doesn't really work. The bacteria go into hibernation mode until you start eating again. I don't drink milk anymore and I tried a low FODMAP diet. The latter helped, but I found it so hard to keep up and it was stressful. I had every diagnost…

Just as a counterpoint to your anecdote, I actually took a course of antibiotics for a week a few months ago and my stomach issues went away completely. Then they came back when I stopped :(

Probiotics didn't help either. Even the refrigerated ones.

Then I started drinking a half cup of unflavoured gelatin before each meal. Take half a tablespoon of the powdered gelatin, mix with half cup water, wait two minutes to dissolve a bit, down the hatch. It's helped like 75% of the way there.

Also, I started taking anxiety meds because my stomach issues get more triggered when I go out and it's early days but that may help.

Re: Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

#102

Post by jtc331 »

jim-jim-jim wrote: post #25
dcx wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as someone who went through this, running experiments with your diet is absolutely worth trying. It worked for me. There is actually a specific medical practice for this: look up "FODMAP". The idea is to temporarily cut out all likely suspects for a short period, see if that fixes things, and then gradually reintroduce them to identify the culprit. A gastroenterologist recommended this to me. It didn't help…

Sorry, I didn't want to turn my original post into an essay, but I've already done low FODMAP and various other restricted diets for diagnostic purposes, without any noticeable shift in symptoms. Only bread and sugar seem to be correlated, and not strongly. To me it's a curious symptom rather than the root of the issue.

Have you looked into Mutaflor probiotics? It’s a beneficial E. Coli (seriously) that has research showing it can colonize the gut and clinically improve e.g. IBS symptoms. I’ve personally seen it solve (or significantly mitigate) issues for multiple people.

Re: Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

#103

Post by jtc331 »

sersi wrote: post #43
davzie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also went through this for 6 years. A guy on YouTube will help called Pain Free You. Recent studies suggest bad bacteria can continue to flourish if we are chronically stressed (which symptoms like this easily cause). Huge correlation between stress and flare ups for me. In the short term whilst you work on the mind-body aspect, I recommend taking Digestive Enzymes with each meal along with a Betain HCL + Pepsin su…

Which brand did you end up using for the enzymes and supplement? It's my understanding that there's sometimes significant differences between brands because it's unregulated so I'm curious about the ones that did work for you. I've been diagnosed with IBS for 10 years but that's hardly any help, I did notice that reducing fat and reducing wheat seems to help with my symptoms. I've tried a lot of different probiotics…

See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41865429

Re: Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

#104

Post by ilc »

Buttons840 wrote: post #100
dcx wrote: post #13

Oh wow, I have the first half of this situation. I went through a period where my digestion was so bad that it was affecting my ability to function from day to day. I didn't get anything useful from my gastro; I even had a negative celiac antibody test. Eventually I started rigorously tracking everything I ate against my symptoms, and after a few months I was able to draw a strong correlation with gluten intake. From…

I have a positive antigen test for celiac disease (I had 2 elevated antigens actually, both associated with celiac disease). The gastroenterologist told me I have celiac disease. Yet I've never experienced symptoms. I stopped eating gluten and the associated antigens went down to normal levels. I don't feel any better or worse though. The literature says there are false positives, and I've always wondered if might be…

... Take it from someone with celiac. You don't always feel it. I didn't for decades.

But it caught up with me. Really badly. And when I say badly, it nearly killed me. I got hypocalcima, and fuck me if it wasn't the most painful thing I ever endured. I've broken bones, etc. All that shit is child's play to every muscle in your body locking up and your body feeling like it is getting stabbed with needles all over. Thankfully once they give you calcium, it goes down. But... I was probably an hour or two away from dead, from asphyxiation.

I played with fire again, and caught it quicker the next time. But I had no concrete diagnosis. Now, I do.

Oh, as a bonus, I got the bones of an 85 year old woman with osteopenia.

Don't fuck with this shit internet stranger. Please.

Re: Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

#105

Post by ChumpGPT »

dcx wrote: post #13

Oh wow, I have the first half of this situation. I went through a period where my digestion was so bad that it was affecting my ability to function from day to day. I didn't get anything useful from my gastro; I even had a negative celiac antibody test. Eventually I started rigorously tracking everything I ate against my symptoms, and after a few months I was able to draw a strong correlation with gluten intake. From…

Here is a thought. If you're having difficulty finding proper testing, just have a doctor prescribe the treatment for giardiasis. After finishing it, you can test whether things are now better for you.

Re: Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

#106

Post by miek »

In case this is helpful for anyone, two possible gluten intolerance solutions:

A digestive research center changed my life. My gluten-induced symptoms (inflammation, joint pain, diarrhea, etc) is linked to something with my gut bacteria. If I take a certain antibiotic that targets the digestive tract, I can eat anything for 9 months including gluten, without problems. After about 9 months, I can no longer eat gluten. And then about a year after that, I can't eat corn. This has repeated 4 times. I always test negative for celiac and sibo. Side note: The doc told me some patients are cured by antiparasitic meds rather than antibiotic.

The doc is now using wellbutrin to change my brain-gut communication and amazingly it cured my corn intolerance and is improving my reaction to gluten, but not yet to the point where I want to eat it. I have 4 more months to go, so this may improve.

Lastly, I know 2 people whose thyroid issues masquerade as gluten intolerance. Consider a "comprehensive thyroid panel"

Re: Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

#107

Post by Jimmc414 »

Very interesting. At the age of 29 I hiked the Appalachian Trail for 6 months and started having gluten intolerance systems in the months after. I have been since clinically diagnosed with an allergy to barley and rye. For what it’s worth I almost always filtered or treated my drinking water although there were some exceptions. I’m 52 now and still cannot consume barley or rye.

Re: Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

#108

Post by throwaway-7328 »

polishdude20 wrote: post #101
davzie wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried probiotics, tonnes of different types, none of them worked, most made it worse. I tried fasting, a few days eating nothing and drinking only water with a bit of salt. It doesn't really work. The bacteria go into hibernation mode until you start eating again. I don't drink milk anymore and I tried a low FODMAP diet. The latter helped, but I found it so hard to keep up and it was stressful. I had every diagnost…

Just as a counterpoint to your anecdote, I actually took a course of antibiotics for a week a few months ago and my stomach issues went away completely. Then they came back when I stopped :( Probiotics didn't help either. Even the refrigerated ones. Then I started drinking a half cup of unflavoured gelatin before each meal. Take half a tablespoon of the powdered gelatin, mix with half cup water, wait two minutes to d…

in case it helps, had a similar situation, one antibiotic helped, others didn’t. turns the one that did also had a anti inflammatory effect which seemed to be reducing a then unknown food allergy.

Re: Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

#109

Post by xupybd »

ilc wrote: post #104
Buttons840 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a positive antigen test for celiac disease (I had 2 elevated antigens actually, both associated with celiac disease). The gastroenterologist told me I have celiac disease. Yet I've never experienced symptoms. I stopped eating gluten and the associated antigens went down to normal levels. I don't feel any better or worse though. The literature says there are false positives, and I've always wondered if might be…

... Take it from someone with celiac. You don't always feel it. I didn't for decades. But it caught up with me. Really badly. And when I say badly, it nearly killed me. I got hypocalcima, and fuck me if it wasn't the most painful thing I ever endured. I've broken bones, etc. All that shit is child's play to every muscle in your body locking up and your body feeling like it is getting stabbed with needles all over. Th…

Wow, I'm the same. Celiac with very few symptoms.

Hearing this makes me want to keep on track. But I would like regular blood tests to find out if my nutrition absorption is improving. That would at least motivate me to keep eating this restricted diet.

Good to hear your story as a warning.

Re: Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

#110

Post by xupybd »

jim-jim-jim wrote: post #25
dcx wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as someone who went through this, running experiments with your diet is absolutely worth trying. It worked for me. There is actually a specific medical practice for this: look up "FODMAP". The idea is to temporarily cut out all likely suspects for a short period, see if that fixes things, and then gradually reintroduce them to identify the culprit. A gastroenterologist recommended this to me. It didn't help…

Sorry, I didn't want to turn my original post into an essay, but I've already done low FODMAP and various other restricted diets for diagnostic purposes, without any noticeable shift in symptoms. Only bread and sugar seem to be correlated, and not strongly. To me it's a curious symptom rather than the root of the issue.

Have you had the celiac blood test?
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