Re: Mastic Gum temporarily ended my CFS, why would it stop working?

Choline I've been getting for years and years as part of a b-vitamin supplement but it hasn't made an obvious difference. I thought ox bile would make a difference too but it didn't do anything noteworthy after a while of testing.

>>could try a higher dose for a short period of time to see if that resolves the problem.

The first time I got back to health HCL and digestive enzymes were vital to the recovery process, I was chronically constipated to a rather severe degree and immediately after i started taking those two regularity returned. I've been taking the digestive enzymes continuously since then, I've tried taking large doses of them at times to see if there would be any effect but nothing happened. I strongly suspected that my HCL is lacking as all the symptoms seem to match up rather nicely but all i seem to get now is burning from taking it, a single tablet or capsule(tried both) is enough to cause some painful burning which occurs in my gut a few hours after the protein containing meal it take it with. Been able to get half a tablet to not cause burning with meals of that size but there is no difference in stool composition or energy levels from doing so.

>if the hcl is burning then I would not push it any further. If the gut is damaged due to infection then you will not digest anything correctly. The gut is a complex environment and can be the source of other problems.

I've read that some peoples digestive tracts are too damaged to take HCL at the therapeutic level and must be healed beforehand. I don't know if this is the case with me, there are no doctors anywhere near me who have heidelburg capsule tests for me to figure out my stomach acid status which is unfortunate.

It's baffling to me that undigested bits are still coming through even though I've tried ox bile, enzymes, and hcl; I don't know of any other substance that a healthy gut would produce to try to replace.

>again if there is infection then the gut is damaged. This is always the case if the infetion is chronic. The immune system produces strong oxides which are meant to kill pathogens, these oxides also damage your tissue.

> You could try some butyrate and see if that helps. Butyrate can fix damaged guts. I also like anti-inflammatory herbs like red tea which has strong anti oxidants specifically for the gut - also like turmeric and ashwaghanda. All of these are tonifying herbs which help rebuild and don't shift other body functions. By this I mean that some herbs can be stimulatory which may be good in certain situations, something like Korean ginseng. Tonifying herbs are also known as adaptogens.



Been thinking ill try a juice fast since it would provide nutrients that are very easy on digestion but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I tried B12 specifically (methylcobalmin version or however it's spelled) for a month. Read in a book by Andy Cutler that B12 can be supplemented in very high doses and followed that suggestion after trying it at lower doses, nothing obvious happened.

>supplementing b12 without other b vits can be a wrong direction. B vits compete with each other so if you push one up, the others may fall this is also true with minerals and amino acids.

>Folic acid is synergistic with b12 and may be low to begin with. NOW has a liposomal form of b12 & folic acid. Liposomals are superior in terms of getting to the target areas. The price is very reasonable.

I have done 4 doctors data hair tests, all of them came up (extremely) high copper so i tired limiting copper and supplementing high levels of zinc but I couldn't get any response. I posted the results of the first 3 http://www.livingnetwork.co.za/chelationnetwork/hairtest/hairtest3/ mine is number 506. The first three also show very high zinc levels, the final one doesn't have zinc in the red. At first I was sure I had found my problem in the copper but I read that stomach acid is needed to absorb copper and zinc, that the liver and gallbladder must be functioning well to keep copper levels from getting too high, that bile components are reabsorbed if the stool stays in the gut too long which might include copper, that healthy villi are needed to properly handle zinc and copper, that copper is regulated by the adrenals, that the adrenals are out of whack if the thyroid is having problems. I've no idea what to do with information like this that just points in all directions at once.

>excess copper can inhibit the liver. Copper metabolism is influenced by adrenal function as well, usually copper will accumulate if the adrenal function is low.

> I looked at the report and see that calcium and magnesium are quite high which indicates a low thyroid condition. Sodium and potassium are low which indicates an adrenal burnout problem. So you would be categorized as a slow metaboliser with low adrenal function. The slow metaboliser has a high calcium to phosphorous ratio. Thyroid and parathyroid regulate calcium metabolism. High calcium can assist viral infections which may explain your Epstein Barr problems and possibly other viral infections. But if you have a chronic infection in the body then you become more susceptible to viral infections. In other words, the immune system is consumed with trying to control the primary infection that other infections can leak into the system. Lyme poeple call this co-infections but don't get caught up in the specific co-infection types, e.g. you will get more viral flare ups and not the co-infections that Lymers talk about. This is also known as Th1/Th2 shifting.

>The adrenals typically burn out due to chronic infection as they are involved in immunity. Adrenal burnout also occurs due to high toxin levels in the body and will also suffer if nutrients are not being replenished but considering that you are targeting nutrition then I would look at the immune and toxin problem. IMO I like the Trace Element test for mineral analysis for several reasons, they can help pinpoint problems where other providers leave a lot of gray area.

>DD has a great test for heavy metal detection (Heavy Metal Challenge) which is the best test to assess heavy metals. Hair tests can be helpful in this regard only if exposure is current but if metals are locked up in storage (and this is most likely the case with most people) then hair tests cannot detect this problem.

As far as infection goes, I have had chronic reactivated epstein barr virus come up every time i have had a test run for it(3 or 4). Tried monolauren and colostrum in hopes that antivirals/immune boosters would do something but those two didn't.

>Have you tried any lysine for the viral issues?

>Reading your comments on symptoms leads me to believe that you have some type of infection (several symptoms including night person which is also known as photophobia caused by infections, mostly dysregulation in the HPA axis) I would suggest doing a test with ParaWellness Labs to check for parasitic infection or some other trusted labs. I can provide those names for you if you want them. I suspect the infection is gut related and could be protozoa, rogue bacteria or other parasites.

Thank you for the thought out response, i appreciate your help

>you are welcome, glad I can help. Tweet