Food Testing

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Hello, I have a couple of questions before going forward with food sensitivity testing. My flair-ups for CC (diagnosed November 2019) seem to be food driven. I already know I cannot eat gluten as a lower GI test revealed my Anti-gliadin as high (162) indicating I cannot tolerate gluten. I’m assuming I have other food intolerance's as well because I'm off gluten and still having flair ups.
I want to proceed with the EnteroLabs testing, but my health practitioner cautioned me against it right now. She stated that because my gut in not healed it will show food sensitivities all over the board. I’m a little confused. How can I ‘heal my gut’ while continuing to eat foods that are creating the problems? Isn’t it better to test now while continuing to have food issues? If I never figure out what my food intolerance's are how will it ever heal?
Also, she said my CC is the result of ‘leaky gut’ caused by the gluten intolerance which created SIBO (not tested for this, only assumed by my GI test).
Anyway, I assumed it was the other way around. That CC can cause SIBO, but SIBO cannot cause CC. So, She is trying to get rid of the SIBO which she says will get rid of the CC. Thanks!

[tex]

Hi Christine,

Welcome to the group. You are correct. Your health practitioner is either confused or knows very little about CC (or both). The best time to get tested is now, so that you don't have to guess at what you should be eating. We have found the EnteroLab tests to be very accurate. They might miss a food sensitivity in rare situations, but one thing they don't give is a lot of false positives. If EnteroLab says you need to avoid a certain food — you need to avoid that food. Food sensitivities can change over time, so if you don't believe you are sensitive to certain foods, you can retest those foods by trial and error yourself (one at a time) after you're in remission. But the faster you can reach remission, the better off you are. Why would anyone want to prolong the misery?

At least that's my opinion, FWIW.

Tex

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Thank you Tex! Both for the welcome and the answer. I thought she was incorrect, but I'm not the expert. However, I am under her care as well as my Gastro doc. It seems clearer each day that neither of them are up on CC. If it weren't for this group and the MCF information, I would be lost. Because of my PC physician and my health practitioner, I haven't been able to get an accurate Celiac diagnosis. They both instructed me to go off gluten prior to any blood or biopsy testing. So, when I had my colonoscopy the Celiac biopsy came back negative as I was off gluten too long. The stool test did show high though which leads me to believe I may have it. Since I have eliminated gluten (7 months now) and am still having issues, I am leaning towards other food triggers. I went on the Low FODMAP diet and found some relief. I do know I need to eat low carb, low fat and NO SUGAR or gluten for any kind of success. It'll be interesting to see what other food triggers I come back with though. Thanks again for the information and the support. I am scouring each topic on here to learn all I can.

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Tex, Do you happen to know if CC or any of the MC's are autoimmune?

[Here]

"This review gives an update on the immunological aspects of collagenous colitis and lymphocytic colitis."

Microscopic Colitis: What Do We Know About Pathogenesis?
Pisani et al
Inflamm Bowel Dis 2016;22:450–458

https://academic.oup.com/ibdjournal/art ... bd0450.pdf

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Thank you. Very interesting read.

[carolm]

Hi Christine,
I have just a couple of random thoughts. One is that I wouldn’t worry about Celiac testing if I were you. The treatment for celiac is to eliminate gluten from your diet and your CC is going to make you do that anyway, so no point in stressing over Celiac. You are already treating it.

Two, I’ll echo what Tex said... do get your Enterolab tests done now. It will be the fast track to getting you on a course of what you can safely eat and what to avoid. In the meantime, if you haven’t stopped eating dairy and soy, I’d highly recommend it. If your flare continues then eliminate eggs. I think most of us opted for panels A and C for Enterolab testing. It is well worth the price.

My LC is most definitely autoimmune in nature. Some sources state that leaky gut triggers autoimmune diseases. Certainly when we focus on reducing inflammation, we improve. So the challenge is nailing down the sources of inflammation, with food intolerances being the major source, and that takes us back to why Enterolab is so beneficial.

I’m sorry that you had to find us but you are most definitely in the right place. I am in remission because of the advice I received on this board. No one gets it like those of us who are living with the disease.

Best wishes,
Carol
PS- I also tested positive for SIBO and did the treatment (Biocidin) about 1 year ago but it set off a 3 week flare and I felt it was a waste of time and an unnecessary stressor. Pursue your diet changes first then see where you are. Sibo is not the cause of MC.

[tex]

Christine,

I'll add my opinion to Carol's point about treating SIBO being a waste of time. Virtually all of us have SIBO when our MC is active. Gut bacteria profiles are determined primarily by what we eat and how well our digestive system performs. When our digestion goes haywire, or we change our diet, our gut bacteria profile will change rapidly as opportunistic bacteria adapt to take advantage of the changes and some previously-established bacteria die out. SIBO is irrelevant to our treatment, because when we resolve our MC symptoms and settle on a stable diet, SIBO will fade away. SIBO is only one of many satellite issues caused by MC. All of them will fade away when MC is resolved.

The medical world is full of practitioners who treat patients for all sorts of issues caused by MC, claiming to be treating the MC. But virtually all of those treatments only add to the practitioners bank account while providing no long-term benefits for MC patients. Stop the inflammation by correcting your diet, and you will resolve the disease. Most everything else is a moot point.

Tex

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Hi Carol,
I agree. I went ahead and ordered the tests A1-C1. I totally believe that I got this from eating gluten which created the leaky gut, which then created the SIBO. To the best that I can, I have eliminated gluten (always hidden or cross contamination) and have found some relief, but I'm still having issues, so that means there's something else dietary triggering it. (I tested high for autoimmune, but my doctor refuses to go any further to look at it as she says 'false' positives and high readings aren't always true... (hmmm...with my symptoms? Are you kidding me?)

I did/ still do the Low FODMAP diet (phase 1) staying lower fat and carbs and after 6 weeks I started adding back dairy, eggs, nuts, soy, rice, oats and corn. I have heartburn, but sometimes it's an hour later, but sometimes not until the next day and sometimes not at all. I honestly can't figure out what sets it off, it's always different.

When I had eliminated all those above in phase 1, I got the big "D" under control, (that stopped when the gluten stopped) but I still have heartburn issues. I was ready to just drink water as my diet! I can eat oatmeal every morning for days at a time and then suddenly, I get a reaction (heartburn) from oatmeal. It's too much to try and figure out!

I am on a protocol of Biocidin, L-Glutamine, Vit-D3, digestive enzymes and a probiotic. I'm not too sure about the probiotic being beneficial as I have been told bacteria is bacteria whether it's good or bad and I'm trying to kill it off the bad (SIBO) so I'm probably killing the good as well. I find relief with the Biocidin as when I stop it I get worse. I also stopped going to my HP as she is insistent on the Celiac test before going any further and I refuse to eat any gluten just to have a test result, so now I'm flying solo treating it on my own.

I am unbelievably grateful to have found this group and the MCF website as no one- not my doctor's or Health Practitioner, friends, or family know anything about this disease. My Gastro doctor to me to resume a 'normal' diet. HA! That went really well, lol.

So, thank you for all your help and I am so glad I have your support

Best regards,

Christine

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Tex,
I didn't know that about SIBO. I have felt like a cat chasing my tail for the last 6 months trying to deal with that first. I'm really trying to get a handle on the diet and as I told Carol, I went ahead and ordered the tests from Enterolabs. I feel like a mad scientist right now trying to figure out all the different variables associated with this. The diet being the hardest.

Thanks for the info!

Grateful

Christine

[tex]

Christine,

Virtually all of us are sensitive to the avenin in oats — it's a low-octane version of the gluten in wheat. If I were in your position, and I seriously wanted to reach remission, I would stop the oats, dairy, soy, and eggs (in addition to the gluten). For about 90 % of us, that would do the trick. Once we reach remission and heal for a few weeks or so, we can experiment with adding eggs, dairy products, and soy back into our diet (one at a time). But in your case, that will be unnecessary, because your EnteroLab results will tell you what you need to continue to avoid.

Tex

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Tex,
I also didn't know that about the oats. I am amazed by what I am learning here! I will take that into consideration. What do people eat with MC if no eggs, dairy or oats? That kind of gets rid of breakfast for me. I am thinking about a water diet, lol.

Thank you!

Christine

PS. How do I change my avatar? I tried selecting from the gallery, but it won't change.

[tex]

Some of us can eat eggs and bacon or sausage (if pork is safe). For the rest of us, especially early on, when we're unsure of our safe foods, Our breakfast can look just like any other meal. Often it's leftovers from dinner the day before. I've even eaten fried catfish for breakfast while I was recovering. For those of us not sensitive to corn or rice, Corn Chex or Rice Chex with almond milk are an option, but those (processed foods) usually work better after remission has been reached and some healing has occurred.

You should be able to just select an avatar and submit it, then save your profile. In rare cases, the system may have to be coaxed, but I can force it to assign you a new avatar if you can give me some idea of what you want. Or if you email me and attach a jpg image, I will be happy to convert it into an avatar and upload it into your profile so that it will automatically display. You can easily email me by clicking on the "email" button at the right end of the buttons at the bottom of this post. The system will automatically open an email-composing window in your browser.

Tex

[carolm]

Christine, I make my own turkey sausage- sometimes as patties and sometimes with gravy. Here’s the recipe. It’s super easy to make and my family loves this recipe. As patties, this is a very portable food if you need to grab something as you head out the door. The gravy is very good over roasted red potatoes.

1 lb ground turkey
1 teasp each sage, coriander, thyme, parsley
salt and crushed red peppers to taste (optional)

Mix spices with turkey and cook in a skillet, saving pan drippings for gravy (below).

For the gravy:
1 tablesp almond flour
1 tablesp arrowroot powder (or sometimes I use only potato starch)
1 can coconut milk
2 teasp sage
1 teasp paprika
1/2 cup chicken stock if needed

1. Sauté sausage in large skillet until completely cooked. Remove sausage from pan, saving about 2 tablespoons of the drippings from the sausage. Keep these drippings in the pan. 2. Add the almond flour and arrowroot powder to the skillet, and whisk with the sausage fat over medium-low heat, until a paste is formed, working to scrape up some of the sausage drippings. 3. Pour in about ¼ of the coconut milk, the sage, and paprika at this point, and bring to medium heat, stirring often and scraping up the browned sausage bits. 4. Add remaining coconut milk, stirring as you go, and bring to light simmer. Add sausage back in, and simmer until gravy reaches desired thickness 5. If gravy becomes too thick, thin out with some of the chicken stock.

I serve this with roasted red potatoes and green beans. I've not made this with pork but it's listed in the cookbook as an option.

This is from the cookbook Paleo Comfort Foods by Julie and Charles Mayfield. This cookbook is one of the best I think.
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Thank you so much Carol! Just this morning I ran out of the house not having anything for my lunch. Being able to have something gut friendly already prepared would be wonderful! I will also look into the cookbook as well. Again, thank you, thank you!!