can one food reaction cause leaky gut?

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carolm
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can one food reaction cause leaky gut?

Post by carolm »

Hi all,
I did a food challenge of spinach last Monday and I got my answer which was that I need to avoid spinach as much as soy and gluten. On Tuesday morning it even gave me D and mucus, and I am C prominent. D is a rarity for me.

I have felt rotten all week. Yesterday I was even somewhat light headed. My question for the group is: Can 1 food reaction like this cause leaky gut to return? I haven't had lightheadness for months.

thanks
Carol
“.... people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
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Lesley
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Post by Lesley »

Carol,
As one C dominant MC to another - I wish I could help.
How did you do the challenge? What are you eating?
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humbird753
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Post by humbird753 »

Hi Carol - I am one who has D dominant with my MC. When I have D a lot in a day/week it does cause me to be light headed. Wondering if you are becoming dehydrated due to D. Only my opinion. Maybe someone else has a better answer.

Paula
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tex
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Post by tex »

Hi Carol,

IMO, it probably takes years for a leaky gut to heal, even with the best of care. As leaky gut develops, the tight junctions (the zonula occludens) become increasingly sensitive (it takes less to cause them to open), and they begin to open wider and stay open longer after each exposure to a food or drug sensitivity.

Once treatment has been initiated, as the healing process progresses, the zonula slowly become less sensitive, but this process apparently takes a relatively long time, and until healing is complete, it doesn't take much to trigger a substantial reaction, because similar to the effects of residual anti-gliadin antibodies, (which have a 4-month half-life), there is a residual elevated sensitivity level in the tight junctions that is very slow to dissipate.

You must be really sensitive to spinach. That may be because of it's high oxalate content. For some MC patients, oxalates can trigger the equivalent of the short bowel syndrome, (IMO). Other foods that have a high oxalate content include beets, chocolate, nuts, rhubarb, strawberries, and tea.

Tex
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It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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carolm
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Post by carolm »

Hi all,
After my strong reaction I went through my list of MRT foods and marked the ones that are high in histamine. I've done other food challenges and even was accidentally glutened once this summer but didn't react at strongly as I did this time.

Lesley, the way I challenge is that I'll eat known safe foods (my usual rotation) and I eat the 'challenged food' 3 consecutive days. If I have no problems then I consider it good and I go back to baseline for one day (my basic safe diet), then I pick another food from my MRT list to challenge. I was looking for something to replace green beans which came up as a yellow for me. Spinach was in the green BUT it's a high histamine food. Now I know, high-histamine outranks the MRT listing. Just like Enterolab results take priority over MRT results. I only had one serving of spinach!

Paula you make a good point. It could be a combination of things like lack of calories and dehydration. I was fatigued. I had acupuncture today and when he checked my energy points they were all down, enough that he commented on it.

Tex, I really appreciate your thoughts. Although I thought I was healing well I can't be complacent or think I'm out of the woods. It's only been 13 months since my diagnosis -- although it feels much longer. I appreciate the list of foods with high oxalate levels. Another thing to mark on my MRT list and to be aware of.

thanks all,
Carol
“.... people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
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Post by brandy »

Hi Carol,

I takes me anywhere from 4 days to 2-1/2 weeks (when I test nuts) to bounce back from a test food reaction. I think it has been about 13 months since my diagnosis and I feel like I still have significant healing to do.

Except for raw veggies, lettuce and nuts I'm doing pretty well. The weird thing is I could eat spring mix from the farmers market last winter/early spring when it was in season but I can't eat spring mix from the grocery store so I've backed away from raw veggies and lettuce for now. I guess I'll retest in 6 months.

Best wishes Brandy
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carolm
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Post by carolm »

Hi Brandy,
My hay fever allergies have been a bear, but I am better today for sure. I think the spinach reaction is behind me now, although it took a week!. Norman even visited. Can't complain about that. My gut has been quiet today. I hope it continues. I need to be out of town over the weekend so I am eating very carefully this week.

I haven't had any adverse effects from the Quercetin. I think I'll have to take it awhile longer to determine if I'm getting good effects. I asked my acupuncturist to address abdominal cramping I've been having off and on, so we started that last Friday. I'm making double sure I'm eating low histamine, thinking that might be contributing to some cramping. The cramping wasn't awful but enough that it signaled me that something is still an irritant.
And so it goes.... it's a process of chipping away at the problem. But we are getting closer, aren't we?

Carol
“.... people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
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