You got to remember, you’re putting a donor’s fecal matter into your body, so there is potentially a clash.
It’s a little bit like getting someone else’s kidney or getting someone else’s eye. In those cases, people are often on life long anti-rejection medications.
In the case of fecal microbial transplantation, there could be warfare between the new and host microbes.
But, in my opinion, the main reason this procedure “fails” is that many people consider it to be a “cure-all.” The patient gets the transplant and then returns to their nor1mal lifestyle. Often this lifestyle includes a poor diet, too much stress, and other unhealthy habits. In other words, the patient didn’t make sufficient changes to the other variables that impact gut health.
This is what one of the doctors at the Center for Digestive Diseases told me personally when we were having dinner. In his opinion, the reason why 20 patients failed in their pilot test a few years ago is that none of them made sufficient diet or lifestyle changes.
That’s why all 20 cases failed to achieve the desired results.
When you get an FMT, you need to follow an extremely healthy diet for a long time. You may even want to look at the donor’s diet. Find out what the donor was eating and drinking to see if you can promote a compatible gut microflora.
For example, if the donor is vegan, it’s probably not a good idea to be eating steak three times a week.
Think logically about what you’re doing once you have a FMT.
A FMT may not be the be-all end-all, but if you make sufficient changes, it may well make a positive difference to your health.
To start with, let’s talk about medical tests that the medical doctor’s going to do.
A lot of these tests are performed, really, to see what kind of illness or sickness you have so then they can correct that sickness or illness. However, these tests can also be used to monitor your health, so you don’t get sick int the first place.
A lot of these markers we’re going to talk about will point you in the right direction to what needs fixing up.
Blood tests can be divided into several categories: lipids (fats in the blood), inflammatory markers, blood sugar markers, thyroid test, kidney and liver tests, homocysteine, and vitamin and mineral markers. There’s also the CBC (complete blood count).
Lipids: These tests include HDL (good cholesterol), LDL (supposedly the bad fats), and triglycerides (influenced by the amount of sugar and carbs in your diet).
But, remember, about 50% of people who have heart attacks, for example, don’t have elevated cholesterol. Don’t let anyone tell you that if your bad cholesterol is slightly elevated, you need to go on a statin drug immediately.
One question I ask people is, “Have you had a relation very close to
you who is passed away, 50 or younger, with a heart attack or a stroke or an aneurism, anything like that?”
If they say, “Yes, absolutely,” or, “My grandma did,” or, “My auntie,” or several people, then we definitely have deeper look into the whole blood fat
Inflammatory markers: These markers include c-reactive protein high-sensitivity c-reactive protein and ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate).
CRP is a protein in the blood that elevates with inflammation. We know there’s a fire, but we don’t know where the source of the fire is.
Knowing there’s inflammation is useless unless you know where the inflammation originates.
The high-sensitivity c-reactive protein relates more to cardiovascular
inflammation in particular. If hsCRP is elevated, it’s a pretty good indication of a cardiac issue.
Inflammation is considered the mother of all diseases. It’s one of the key things that pushes a person into cancer, diabetes, or heart disease, or
neurodegenerative disease.
Guess where most inflammation starts with people, in the gut.
Blood sugar and related: Measuring blood sugar is important for people who are pre-diabetic, have adrenal problems, live a high-stress life, or have hypoglycemia.
Hemoglobin A1C measures blood sugar stability over six weeks.
Fasting insulin levels is important to measure in anyone who has blood sugar problems.
Cortisol is a stress hormone that can significantly impact blood sugar. Salivary cortisol can be a useful test in those situations.
Thyroid tests: Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) is an important investigation in certain circumstances. If TSH is borderline, I do further tests, including T3, T4, and thyroid antibodies.
If the patient has a clear cut thyroid issue, I will also measure their iodine levels. The iodine challenge test is the best one for measuring this mineral.
Kidney function tests: Creatinine clearance and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) give an indication of kidney function.
Your kidneys decline in function, by default, as you get older. That’s why the big thing is to drink water all the time, less caffeine, and less alcohol.
Liver function tests: Liver function tests include AST, ALT, GGT, and alkaline phosphatase. GGT can be elevated if people are drinking significant amounts of alcohol.
It’s especially important to test liver function if you’re taking pharmaceutical medications.
B12 levels: This is an important test that I have ordered for innumerable patients.
Vitamin D: Vitamin D level is an important test that often gets overlooked. I have seen people change their lives once they corrected a vitamin D deficiency. Anxiety disappeared, sleep improved, and chronic diseases went away.
Homocysteine levels: Homocysteine is a naturally occurring compound. It is usually broken down through the methylation cycle. If it doesn’t break down, the levels can become high and cause problems.
CBC: This test measures red blood cells, white blood cells, and hemoglobin levels.
Electrolytes: Potassium and sodium are useful markers for adrenal fatigue.
Iron markers: Ferritin, transferrin, and iron saturation are important markers.
You may want to get it tested, for example, every three to six months. You can record the results in a spreadsheet and keep track of changes over time.
If you have a powerful craving for carbohydrates like chips, French fries, and white bread, there could be several things going on.
The first thing to identify is, does the food that you crave contain a lot of sweet or a lot of salt?
If you are craving salty carbohydrates, I would want to know if you’re drinking enough water. Probably not is my guess.
And the second thing I would want to know if if you are calcium deficient?
The third possibility is that you have adrenal fatigue or another type of adrenal problem.
Let’s remove those three possibilities.
Water has a tremendous regulatory effect on the gut. It helps the body immensely to improve digestion. Water also helps with the movement of food through the body and appetite regulation and control;
Water also influences various hormones that help regulate appetite as well as serotonin production and release.
I have found that regularly drinking a few glasses of water throughout the day can tremendously reduce carb cravings.
A lot of people who love bread and cookies and cakes and muffins often will have coffee or beverages also that contain sugar.
They become dehydrated because they don’t have enough water in their diet.
Your urine should be relatively clear. If it is dark yellow or strong smelling, there is a good chance that you are dehydrated.
Next is calcium deficiency. If you crave French fries or potato chips, it is quite common to have a calcium deficiency. By increasing the calcium-containing foods in your diet, you can reduce your cravings for carbohydrates.
Some of my clients who started to drink unpasteurized cow’s milk began to notice that they didn’t crave carbs anymore.
A long time ago, people had adequate amounts of magnesium and calcium in their diet. Back then, the milling process and the production of grains was different; the soils were better quality; we weren’t using fertilizers that were stripping minerals from food.
Today, people often lack calcium and magnesium in their diets. The result is all sorts of cravings and desires for highly process foods.
Some foods that are a good source of calcium include sesame seeds, broccoli, and sardines.
Adrenal fatigue can also trigger carbohydrate cravings.
Many people today have problems with stress. Stress can put a lot of strain on the adrenal and thyroid glands.
The adrenal glands make the hormone aldosterone. Aldosterone regulates potassium and sodium. If the adrenal glands are producing enough aldosterone, sodium levels can drop because of excessive excretion of salt.
When sodium levels go down, cravings for salty foods is trigger. It can also leave people feeling weak and dizzy.
Potassium and sodium imbalance can cause muscle weakness and cardiac problems like arrhythmias.
If you have those types of symptoms and you are also craving salt, have your adrenal function checked out.
If you have carbohydrate cravings, it makes sense to address dehydration, mineral deficiency, and adrenal function. Making sure you are living a low-stress life is also critical.
People have been following gluten-free diets for a long time. When I first started clinical practice, it was mainly people with celiac disease who were eating gluten-free.
Now, it seems as if a lot of people are going gluten-free as part of a trend rather than for health reasons.
There is no argument that people with diagnosed celiac disease need to follow a scrupulously gluten-free diet.
If you don’t have celiac disease but think that going gluten-free is going to fix your health problem, I can’t help you there.
Sometimes when people take gluten out of their diet, they are also taking out the good fibre that contributes to gut health.
Many people lack sufficient fiber in their diet as it is. Now if they are going to take every single tiny little piece of gluten out of their diet, they’re going to be in for a big shock. Lack of fiber will cause digestive problems.
Another thing to remember is that going gluten-free doesn’t mean that your diet instantly becomes health. This is what I can’t understand. Many patients I’ve spoken to over the years who have taken gluten out of their diets still drink beer or wine or alcohol.
“Oh yeah, but I’m drinking gluten free beer.”
Well hang on a minute, didn’t you take gluten out of your diet to fix up your low sex drive or your hair loss, or the fact that you’ve got an itchy ear, or that your eyes fluttering or that you’ve got weight to lose?
In my opinion, if you are having digestive issues, taking gluten out of your diet is not the first thing you should do.
Instead, take alcohol out of your diet. Start eating healthy foods, not food that comes in boxes and cans.
A gluten-free diet is not a health panacea. Instead, take a look at your lifestyle and your diet combined.
I truly believe that most people with a healthy digestive system can tolerate gluten to some degree.
I’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of patients just in the last two or three years. I’ve put them back into gluten and they’re perfectly fine.
Their bowel function is normal, they are sleeping well, they haven’t noticed any side effects.
Instead of jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon, if you have GI problems, get a comprehensive stool analysis. Have your diet and lifestyle assessed by a naturopath or integrative medicine doctor.
Next, address the problems. It could be stress. It could be alcohol. It could be the medications you’re taking. I consider all of these factors more important than following a gluten-free diet.
“Is there a connection between ammonia and Candida?”
There’s definitely a connection between ammonia and Candida.
Ammonia is a compound that’s normally found in the body, mainly
through the breakdown of amino acids.
Ammonia is not harmful in and of itself. It usually gets shunted into the liver via the portal vein. Liver cells then break down ammonia into urea, which gets used in the Krebs cycle to produce energy.
It’s important that your liver is in excellent shape when you have Candida.
Drinking alcohol is going to interfere with liver function. If your liver isn’t working well, you can experience a build-up of ammonia in the body.
Candida albicans is the main fungal pathogen that causes problems for humans.
Candida can actively change its cellular form into a hyphal form, and it does so by altering the pH around it. Candida can change the pH from four to seven in less than 12 hours.
Candida likes an alkaline environment when elongating. The increase in pH allows Candida to disseminate throughout the body. The alkaline pH allows for the auto-induction of the yeast-hyphal transition, a critical virulence trait.
Extracellular alkalization has been reported to occur in several fungus species. That is one reason you need to be careful about ammonia production if you have a Candida infection.
An overabundance of ammonia has been linked to brain fog.
Often when there is a problem with yeat of fungus, there are pH problems in the gut. The alteration in gut pH can favor dysbiotic bacteria.
The gut likes a stable pH. By changing body pH, Candida albicans can create a tremendous amount of disarray in the GI tract.