Digestive Disorders and Primal Diet? page

[paleopoop]

Hi there, I am in great great need of some input!

I have many digestive problems, which seem to be helped going primal BUT cause me problems that I think prevent me thriving on it as a lifestyle.

I suffer from fructose AND FAT malabsorption, small bowel bacterial overgrowth, bile salt malabsorption and Sphincter of Oddi Disfunction. As a result, although a 'healthy' weight I am very malnourished and tend to swing between eating extremes and my liver is generally very unhealthy and I store fat like a whale. I am on a lot of drugs (mainly metabolisers and antibiotics) which help to a degree, but I feel I struggle to eat enough fat- too much causes horrible results so It is hard to get the balance and I often stick to purely lean meats.

I crave sugars after my stomach has gone out of whack due to the bacterial overgrowth and this means I find it hard not to down pints and pints of milk/eat sugar straight from the jar. Not healthy, certainly doesn't make me happy.

I nearly died due to my digestive issues, had a BMI of 11 and was hospitalised for nearly a year. They informed me that I would never be able to eat solid food and I managed to ween myself off tube feeding onto solids (which I'm very proud of!) I feel a lot of my issues with sugar stem from suffering severe starvation but I find that I feel much BETTER when I get my fat levels sorted and I am running on fats.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice about how to manage my diet better? I eat no-FODMAP prescribed diet, but a lot of the 'safe' foods I can't digest. I have in the past tried carb rotation, rotating higher carb days with higher fat days and that seemed to work (carbs coming from vegetables, mainly sweet potato) but I would probably need to do it in a more structured way for a longer period of time to work out if it's really effective.

My BMI is currently 22, nice and healthy with lots of muscle (I lift heavy *pride*) and BF of 18% but I am always in SO much pain and can be stuck in the toilet up to 40 times a day. I know my conditions are medical but I feel that optimal diet manipulation can't fail to help, if I can stabilise the extremes then the middle ground will surely be a happier place!? Although I have plenty of good ideas, my history of starvation (and the memories of how HORRENDOUS that was) and my bodily functions (my transit time can be less than an hour- which I've had doctors tell me they thought was impossible until they witnessed it) often send me to eating extremes (not to mention a lot of mental turmoil) I am nervous of eating too little, I am nervous of eating too much. Although my low weight was not due to mental health issues (i.e. I didn't have anorexia) starvation does leave mental scars that are hard to heal and make finding consistency in eating hard work.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Lewis]

I think these problems are too deep and serious, and it's beyond suggestions on a message board. I'd suggest you need someone really good to work with.

Possibly the Paleo Physicians Network.

Or this lady is an expert on SIBO:

Dr Siebecker's Bio - SIBO- Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth

[VeggieLover]

Hey- I kind of have the same issues, or at least I just found out some more details about my conditions. Apparently I have protein deficiency and fat malabsorbtion too, and cannot digest sugars well. I was told that the key to all of this is really good digestive enzymes, all the plant based ones used to digest those things (lipase, protease for protein etc). I would look into this seriously if I were you. Do you have any good practionners to work with in your area?

[lissee]

I think these problems are too deep and serious, and it's beyond suggestions on a message board. I'd suggest you need someone really good to work with.

Possibly the Paleo Physicians Network.

Or this lady is an expert on SIBO:

Dr Siebecker's Bio - SIBO- Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth

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