NOW SYMPTOM FREE FROM, sibo/candida symptoms, liver pain/ right shoulder pain, bloating, fatigue/low energy/exhaustion, stiff painful joints, constipation etc

OK, first of all I included candida and SIBO in the forums posted to, because I thought I suffered both for years and tried approaching things at that angle.

In my specific case I now believe the main underlying problem is a combination of liver damage/ fatty liver (high liver enzymes + high triglycerides & cholesterol on blood work) and leaky gut. While both those factors contributed to over growth of bad bacteria, focusing on the bad bacteria was definitely a symptom based approach I wouldn't personally recommend.

Any time I tried to go low carb it made me feel worse, of course that makes sense since my body cant really digest fats much at all. So, as an extension of that Liver Flushes made me feel horrible, I've only done a few because I couldn't handle how bad they made me feel. I believe I just put more stress on my liver and made things worse though doing those. I'm speculating they work for people with a strong liver and a congested gall bladder, but of course I don't truly know why that approach work for some people and not others. (I felt relief on low carb high fat when my body was stronger, but only temporarily, and I've definitely felt relief on a low carb low fat diet, but, you know, you're basically just starving yourself at that point)

I combined a few different popular healing approaches, and it took a lot of trial and error to get things right.

The foundation is a high carb low fat high carb (80/10/10) fruit diet in combination with 2-4 quarts of vegetable juice a day, particularly beets carrots and apples (but also cucumber Celery fennel summer squash etc). When I just did high fruit I still felt horrible, it fixed my constipation but my "candida symptoms" (actually liver symptoms) like brain fog skin itching bloating etc etc continued on the high carb low fat diet (though I definitely had more energy)

It was when I added the beet carrot and apple juice everything changed. I will also note that I've done juicing with a higher fat diet and I thought that I just couldn't tolerate juice because I would always feel unwell when I drank it. Once I went low fat this wasn't the case.

The change was quick and dramatic. I went from being exhausted in pain irritable with constant liver pain. To walking 2-3 hours a day, holding down a yoga practice, getting a job that will be full time soon (before I was definitely too sick to work). I couldn't imagine doing those things 6-12 months ago. I didn't have a social life now I have quite an active one.

I think this would be the appropriate time to mention, that while I am doing high carb low fat, I'm not vegan or vegetarian. To the contrary I would describe what I'm doing as high carb low fat paleo. I've excluded starches, grains, beans etc. (I can get away with them in moderation but feel best without them) My diet is basically fruit, vegetable juice, fish and a limited amount of poultry.

I take a multi vitamin, synergy multi, I take 1 a day for any nutritional gaps, but the diet alone renders an excellent nutrient profile! Sometimes I'm a little low in selenium zinc or vitamin e.

heres a good sample day
http://imgur.com/a/3tkxg

I will make a note that a big reason why I have more energy is /surprise/ i'm eating way more calories. I used to eat like 800-1000 a day, no wonder I was so tired. Now I usually get anywhere from 1800 to 2500. (note:it took me a solid month to work up to that) I'm mentioning this to the adrenal fatigue people because I legitimately had symptoms of adrenal fatigue. Like... b5 would give me a rush, frequent clear urination, and I had a tendency to wake up at 3am. The only way I would consider doing anything even remotely productive is if I drank enough caffeine, and of course if I drank caffeine more than 2 or 3 days in a row I would feel awful. All of this is going away on a high calorie high carb low fat diet. I definitely have tons of energy without any caffeine. While I believe my liver was the core of my issue, I believe adrenal fatigue resulted from that continued stress on the body, but I did catch it before I became severe. Also, a good acupuncturist helped a lot with adrenal fatigue as well.

Also, I noticed in an old post I said how I wouldn't eat until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. My acupuncturist encouraged me to start eating breakfast around 6 or 7 am. Again, before going HCLF 80/10/10 paleo + juicing, it was super tough to do and I kind of felt like I was in a coma all the time, plus it took time to get used to eating during the day again. Now I eat whenever I want during the day. I'm usually hungry and want food when I wake up at around 6 or 7am, and have no problems digesting. At first when I was healing I needed to walk immediately after I ate so my body could process the food. But it's getting to a point now where I can eat, and then sit down and do sedentary work or relax, without feeling groggy. I havn't been able to do that in literally years.

While this approach has helped me feel vital and healthy, I am going to add a couple additional methods, in order to get to the core of the problem and really heal myself. So perhaps eventually I will heal my many numerous food allergies and be able to eat a more "normal" diet.

1. 1/2 a teaspoon of milk thistle twice a day. a friend of mine who is a herbalist says milk thistle is the best herb to heal liver /damage/ but it must be taken for a long period of time, like 12 months, in order to really help.

2. 2 cups of bone broth a day. Since I now live in a city where I can buy bone broth I'm just going to buy some thats made properly with good quality bones. If you are going to make bone broth yourself it is an involved lengthy process and you need to do it properly to really get the benefits

here are some bone broth tips

http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/common-mistakes/article/common-mistakes-bone-broth

I will update on my progress once I've finished my course of bone broth and milk thistle. or report any adverse effects. Hopefully this helps someone out there, I've tried many approaches and I've had problems for over 7 years now, I know I'm not the only person out there who would thrive on this approach. Tweet