Re: Disheartened

Myself along with numerous people go through what you are going through right now.
Most likely you have a combination of things going on that is feeding this vicious cycle. For example if you have taken Antibiotics in the past, if you have abused antiacids or acid pump inhibitors, if you have blocked bile flow, you will most likely have dysbiosis in your gut, meaning you have an overgrowth of unwanted organisms. Digestion is a finely tuned mechanism, and if one of the components is missing it will trigger an avalanche of things. For example, heartburn patients are typically prescribed antacids or other things to reduce acid formation, when the fact is most people actually have heartburn because of low stomach acid (as we age, we tend to form less HCl). The acid is critical to digestion of proteins and to sterilize food. Now, if you low stomach acid and on top of that you take antacids, you are not able to fully digest protein, which will remain in the gut putrefying. On top of that you allow bacteria like H pylori to thrive in your stomach along with other organisms in the gut, since you have low flow of HCl to keep the infection away. Now the protein that remains undigested will be the food source for the bacteria that is spreading in your gut. Other organisms that rely on fermentation will grow unchecked and thrive on partially digested food; bloating is just a symptom of the overgrowth of organisms eating (releasing CO2 and other gases).
There are other ways to get to this point, like abusing Antibiotics , where they wipeout your good flora and allow candida, and more resistant types of bacteria to grow in the place where good flora was.

The issue is that when you are at this point it might take great commitment to reestabilish balance in the gut; betaine HCl can quick start digestion and sterilize food for those with low acid. Digestive enzymes are critical because with dysbiosis you are likely to have restricted amount of available enzymes for digestion; probiotics are important for the obvious reasons, its all about competition for space in the gut, so if you dose upon the good guys, they can steal some seats from the bad guys.

Unfortunately a lot of people have attempted those things and although commitment and balance of those things is key to sucess, it might take more drastic measures to get rid of the bad guys. I've been reading that a modified liquid diet for 10-21days can starve all the bad guys while nourishing your body. The liquid diet would be based on enteral formulas composed of the most basic forms of nutrients (aminoacids, efas, simple carbs, vits, minerals); this requires no digestion and will be readily absorbed before being available to the bad guys in the gut. Without undigested food in the gut the bad guys will starve to death. In more resistant type of dysbiosis, Antibiotics are presecribed during this diet, although I don't think antibiotics are good to take so maybe oregano oil, silver solution or Grapefruit-Seed-Extract could be taken if dysbiosis comes back.

Mike