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Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

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Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#91

Post by pling »

jmhain wrote: post #4

Be very careful with probiotics; just loading your system with random strains of bacteria from your local health food store can have serious consequences. I have IBS and an anxiety disorder that had been in remission for years. I tried Primadophilus Optima and it wrecked me. I went from a mild IBS-C to severe IBS-D, and my panic attacks came back with an intensity unlike anything I've ever experienced. I don't doubt…

This.

Ex IBS sufferer here.

Fixed it myself after 3 years of hell from doctors who quite clearly were a) short of any realistic knowledge on the matter and b) quite clearly using me as an experimental subject for everything the drug company was pushing at the time.

Worked out how to reset it myself: just drank water for the best part of two weeks and low end carbs (bran flakes with water on) and nothing else. Felt like crap for about 4 days then started to improve. After my butt stopped wrenching daily, I introduced normal foods back one at a time over the space of 3 months, ending with meat and heavy carbs.

I got these steps from a microbiologist rather than a doctor.

That worked for me wonderfully.

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#92

Post by abcd_f »

jmhain wrote: post #50
erichmond wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IBS seems like the doctors way of saying "We don't know what your problem is". Doctors told me I had IBS for 10 years, then a friend suggested to stop eating wheat, and 95% of my symptoms went away. I'm actually about to start testing a FODMAP diet to see if I can improve my health any further. Have you tried anything to improve your health, or did you just accept the IBS diagnosis? I only ask because I've seen no re…

I've tried eliminating wheat, sugar (in case it was fructose malabsorption), dairy, etc. I've tried tons of supplements like fish oil or vitamin D. Interestingly, each of those except dairy had very positive effects on my health in general (weight loss, clearer skin, elimination of seasonal depression) but had little effect on IBS symptoms. What did improve it (but not eliminate it) was taking an SSRI, which isn't su…

Have you tried fasting?

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#93

Post by mtift »

erichmond wrote: post #19
jmhain wrote: post #4

Be very careful with probiotics; just loading your system with random strains of bacteria from your local health food store can have serious consequences. I have IBS and an anxiety disorder that had been in remission for years. I tried Primadophilus Optima and it wrecked me. I went from a mild IBS-C to severe IBS-D, and my panic attacks came back with an intensity unlike anything I've ever experienced. I don't doubt…

IBS seems like the doctors way of saying "We don't know what your problem is". Doctors told me I had IBS for 10 years, then a friend suggested to stop eating wheat, and 95% of my symptoms went away. I'm actually about to start testing a FODMAP diet to see if I can improve my health any further. Have you tried anything to improve your health, or did you just accept the IBS diagnosis? I only ask because I've seen no re…

IBS is a "diagnosis of exclusion," so in some sense it is not a "real thing," but more accurately the "absence of other things." I really hated that answer, but it's the conclusion that more than a half-dozen different gastroenterologists came to after trying countless tests on me over the course of many years.

After a lifetime of trying to be gluten free (on and off), with limited success, I started a low-FODMAP diet on December 15, 2012 and it completely changed my life. I could not find many dietitians that knew much about it, so I mostly followed the advice of books like IBS: Free at Last! (http://amzn.com/0982063520). Now I feel much more empowered and in control.

Also, not all FODMAPs are equal. Each individual has to figure out which FODMAPs cause the most problems. Being "low FODMAP" is WAY different from being "gluten free." I eat FODMAPs all the time -- I just limit certain ones more than others and I know my limits. And even after 19 months of being low-FODMAP, I still have to consult my list of foods regularly.

Only after doctors have ruled out Crohn's disease, celiac disease, diverticulitis, endometriosis, cancer, etc., and suggest you have IBS, I highly recommend trying a low-FODMAP diet.

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#94

Post by Shizka »

jmhain wrote: post #4

Be very careful with probiotics; just loading your system with random strains of bacteria from your local health food store can have serious consequences. I have IBS and an anxiety disorder that had been in remission for years. I tried Primadophilus Optima and it wrecked me. I went from a mild IBS-C to severe IBS-D, and my panic attacks came back with an intensity unlike anything I've ever experienced. I don't doubt…

If you still have IBS you might want to try http://nordicrebalance.dk/en

I was told about it recently and am going to start treatment in a couple of weeks. They claim a 95% rate in chance of improvement amongst test subjects according to [1]. There are also a few more studies on their website supporting the product. They do however seem to be a relatively new company and I haven't been able to find much information besides their website. I have been told that the doctors behind it have been researching IBS and CD for about 20 years, so that seems to be a plus.

[1]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11711768

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#95

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

The book 'Not All in the Mind'[1], published in 1976, is definitely worth a read. It's been a while since I picked it up and my copy is in another state while I'm away from work, but I remember it being very pertinent to this conversation. (I'd write more about, but it's 01:00 where I am and I'm falling asleep at the keyboard).

1. http://www.amazon.com/Not-All-Mind-Richard-Mackarness/dp/033...

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#96

Post by jmhain »

abcd_f wrote: post #92
jmhain wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried eliminating wheat, sugar (in case it was fructose malabsorption), dairy, etc. I've tried tons of supplements like fish oil or vitamin D. Interestingly, each of those except dairy had very positive effects on my health in general (weight loss, clearer skin, elimination of seasonal depression) but had little effect on IBS symptoms. What did improve it (but not eliminate it) was taking an SSRI, which isn't su…

Have you tried fasting?

Multiple times and not just for IBS but many reasons ranging from breaking a weight loss plateau to preventing anxiety attacks after the probiotics. It definitely reduces IBS symptoms while I'm not eating, but the hunger makes me unable to think about anything but food.

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#97

Post by jmhain »

ar4s wrote: post #76
jmhain wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried eliminating wheat, sugar (in case it was fructose malabsorption), dairy, etc. I've tried tons of supplements like fish oil or vitamin D. Interestingly, each of those except dairy had very positive effects on my health in general (weight loss, clearer skin, elimination of seasonal depression) but had little effect on IBS symptoms. What did improve it (but not eliminate it) was taking an SSRI, which isn't su…

Have you considered doing a fecal transplant?

I'm willing to try anything safe and shown to be effective scientifically. However, at the moment I have poor health insurance and little disposable income, and my GI doc wants me to do a CT scan that would cost me $1600 out of pocket to rule out IBD and a few other things before continuing. So basically I've hit a brick wall for the time being.

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#98

Post by cpncrunch »

gouggoug wrote: post #85
cpncrunch wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So essentially changing diet is partly (or mostly) a placebo effect. IMO it is better to understand the causes of IBS/anxiety/stress and make changes to your lifestyle that address the root cause, rather than believing dubious science about gluten. (I'm not saying that you personally believe this crap science, but there are a lot of people out there who do). That has certainly worked well for me. I still do have IBS…

> So essentially changing diet is partly (or mostly) a placebo effect. IMO it is better to understand the causes of IBS/anxiety/stress and make changes to your lifestyle that address the root cause, rather than believing dubious science about gluten. That sounds very much like the approach a software/hardware engineer would have towards a bug. And it's great! However, I'd say that the human body can't really be appro…

Yes, it's a little more difficult pinning down problems with the human body than in a piece of code, and these kind of functional problems even seem to have stumped most of the medical profession. However I see it as an engineering challenge. Essentially you are looking at a complex system and trying to solve a problem in a piece of machinery that you don't have any information about. Sometimes working around bugs in android or iOS can involve similar detective work.

In terms of IBS, there is very little doubt that in my own situation that stress causes the IBS rather than the other way around. Diarrhea during the week, followed by constipation during weekends. Or diarrhea preceeding before a novel event. These are repeatable and predictable - it just requires taking a close look at your situation and seeing if you can see any correlations. Unfortunately it can be easy to get fooled into seeing correlations that don't exist.

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#99

Post by jmhain »

calinet6 wrote: post #71
jmhain wrote: post #4

Be very careful with probiotics; just loading your system with random strains of bacteria from your local health food store can have serious consequences. I have IBS and an anxiety disorder that had been in remission for years. I tried Primadophilus Optima and it wrecked me. I went from a mild IBS-C to severe IBS-D, and my panic attacks came back with an intensity unlike anything I've ever experienced. I don't doubt…

Just to provide an alternate anecdote, I take probiotics fairly regularly (one to three in sequence every 1-2 weeks, or whenever I get out of whack) and have only had neutral or positive results. The flora in the probiotic is really nothing that shouldn't already be in a healthy gut, although of course you do want to be very careful as it's clear that your gut micro-biome is very important to your overall health. Jus…

> The flora in the probiotic is really nothing that shouldn't already be in a healthy gut

Perhaps the important factor isn't which species are present, but their distribution or some other factor of which we are still ignorant. In any case, I'm glad you've seen positive results and I may try them again in the future with single-strain supplements once this ordeal is long behind me.

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#100

Post by mtdewcmu »

vidarh wrote: post #80
ggchappell wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. But note that "can be" does not mean "will be". For example, AIDS is a syndrome (thus the "S") whose causes have been pretty well understood for some time. However, it is still defined as a syndrome.

As far as I understand it, AIDS is a syndrome rather than a disease because while the cause of the immune system deficiency has a single cause, many of the symptoms are caused by secondary problems that arise because of the immune system deficiency, and so the symptoms do not have a single direct cause, even though they're all indirectly the result of HIV, and the immune deficiency itself is a direct result of HIV

I think it would be more accurate to say that AIDS is a syndrome because it's defined as such. You can also speak of HIV disease[1]. HIV disease would be the disease associated with the human immunodeficiency virus. AIDS refers to a particular syndrome. They mostly overlap, but they describe slightly different concepts. My speculation is that the reason the distinction persists is mainly historical: AIDS was described and became well known before the HIV virus was discovered and was demonstrated as the causative agent.

[1] http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/211316-overview

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