Vitamin D and zinc

[jbrohlr]

I cut back on the salt (2 weeks ago) and my situation improved within a couple of days. Especially with sweet potatoes - I was salting the sweet potatoes heavily in order to replace the butter I could not use. Even after two years of the diet restrictions, in my weaker moments I still miss butter and cheese.

I have to confess that I also quit on my ground turkey the day before I read about too much salt being an issue. I did not think it was the turkey itself but perhaps a cross contamination. Jury's still out though - I'll revisit the turkey in a couple of weeks.

This is good news obviously; however, I struggle to maintain my current weight (I'm significantly underweight), still have mucous in my stool and occasional abdominal discomfort along with more gas than I normally have. So, I'm still in a "not a flare but not remission" area, as I like to call it.

I really appreciate all the information on this site. Don't know where I would be without the MC Foundation - probably taking a lot of medication that does not work.

John R.

[charlie fh]

Hi !

Thats interesting. Ive also noticed very slight improvements from cutting down the salt intake. Whats more, its good to know if i have a bad day i might be able to relate it back to excess salt etc.

Ive recently been wondering if there is an optimal vit d / magnesium ratio. Ive been looking into it and there is info suggesting vit d needs magnesium to be better absorbed and vice versa. I wonder if theres a sweet spot for optimal absorbtion of both things ?? perhaps you know tex?

In other news , i have noticed i react way more to non organic produce. Mainly veg. Im thinking this must be down to the glyphosate or pesticide on non organic produce. nasty stuff. i beleive you have lots more of it in the states too than over here in europe. food for thought no pun intended .

[tex]

A good general rule of thumb is to take 100 mg of magnesium for every thousand IU of vitamin D3. Obviously, this won't work if we're taking megadoses of vitamin D, because we can only absorb so much magnesium In any given amount of time. This is one of the reasons why taking vitamin D daily is more effective, (better absorbed), than taking it in larger weekly, or monthly doses, as some doctors recommend. We can't tolerate megadoses of magnesium.

Tex

[jbrohlr]

There are arguments about glyphosate causing health problems - even being the cause of the rise in celiac/gluten sensitivity. I don't think there is any definitive evidence though. Still, I buy organic sweet potatoes when available, wash them, and pare off the skin before I cook them. I think being paranoid about what goes in your mouth is not a bad idea, unless you take it to the point of getting stressed about it.

Two weeks after reducing the salt I've even experienced some constipation. Might be that my inflammation has evolved into the constipation/diarrhea cycle that some MC'ers experience, but I am going to be optimistic and start ingesting a small amount of magnesium glycinate - took 25 mg yesterday with my late morning breakfast and will do so again today.

John R.

[tex]

There's a tremendous amount of speculation about glyphosate, but science continues to prove that it's safe to use, when used properly, like any other chemical. All chemicals are hazardous, when used improperly. Last year,even the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) concluded that glyphosate is not carcinogenic, although it can cause serious eye damage and may be toxic to aquatic species when used improperly.

As far as celiac disease is concerned, it's always been with us, ever since wheat was introduced into the human diet over 10,000 years ago. The primary reason it has appeared to be increasing in recent decades is because the public is much more aware of it now, and so they are much more likely to ask their doctor to test for it. Doctors have historically failed to properly diagnose cases of celiac disease for 3 major reasons:

1. The treatment for celiac disease doesn't require a prescription, so drug reps don't constantly remind doctors to test for it as they do for most other diseases (because those other diseases require treatment using expensive medications).

2. The celiac blood test that doctors use is so inaccurate that it fails to diagnose most cases of celiac disease. The diagnostic criteria are so strict that the test will only detect a percentage of fully developed celiac cases that have been active for years. Celiac cases that are not yet mature, cannot be diagnosed using conventional celiac diagnosing requirements.

3. There's no money in it, so no one is likely to ever develop a more accurate celiac diagnostic test. The main reason that celiac disease diagnoses appear to be increasing is probably due to the fact that many doctors are beginning to relax their diagnostic criteria, to a more realistic level, so that more cases are accurately diagnosed. Some are now even beginning to diagnose celiac disease in patients for whom a gluten-free diet resolves their symptoms. Duh!

It's now generally accepted that non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a major problem (more common than celiac based gluten sensitivity) for many patients, and the medical community has no official test that they can use to diagnose non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Consequently, the medical community is still pretty much living in the dark ages regarding gluten sensitivity.

And note that non-celiac gluten sensitivity is still actually celiac disease, because it's still a result of gluten sensitivity, just like celiac disease. The only reason it's labeled differently, is because of the unrealistically strict diagnostic criteria for celiac disease in the first place. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, . . .

Obviously, these are my opinions, and not the official medical opinion.

Organic foods in general are usually much safer for us, because their inspection/certification requirements are so much stricter.

Tex

[charlie fh]

I think i will avoid glyphosate if i can.

something else ive recently had which is weird.. maybe someone has some info that can help me..
Ive been eating white rice with no issues for years but seemingly overnight i get very bloated and uncomfortable when i eat exactly the same rice . nothing has changed .. im not in a flare or anything but i just seem to get very bloated after white rice which lasts until the next day. why has this happened?? Is it the microbiome changing?? bad batch of rice?? very odd.

anyhow hope all well !

[tex]

That's a symptom of poor digestion, so that batch of rice is either cross contaminated, or you've developed a sensitivity to rice. There's also the possibility that something else in your meal is confounding the issue, and the rice is simply an innocent bystander, caught in the crossfire.

Tex

[charlie fh]

hi Tex .
its very odd ! my digestion has been a little slower lately but everything else is normal .. stool etc. rice was always my go to safe food option so would be amazed if i have developed a sensitivity and i only have it with stews that i know are safe for me. whats also odd is i dont get bloated right away but about 6 hours later... lots of gas . which made me think it may be some bacteria causing all the gas..?? god knows.

[tex]

A reaction that begins three to six hours after exposure is a typical MC IgA reaction (due to a food sensitivity). I developed a similar reaction to beef — bloating, but no diarrhea, and the next day I will have a headache and a pain in my upper back. So I don't eat beef, any more.

Tex

[charlie fh]

I wonder why ive developed this reaction to rice seemingly overnight. i literally woke up in the night when symptoms first started and i thought it was weird. perhaps a bit of leaky gut ?? i might try a different type of rice to see what happens . i have been under a bit of stress recently so perhaps thats it.
C

[charlie fh]

I Forgot to add... and this may sound stupid but how do we actually become bloated if its from an Iga food reaction? How is the gas produced? i always assumed it was a fermentation process.. or bacteria..

Thanks Tex

[tex]

There are no stupid questions about MC — It's a disease that doctors don't understand.The bloating is due to a fermentation process of the partially digested food as it reaches the intestines. That's why it takes several hours to begin. In other words, in the warm, moist environment of the digestive system, some, or all of the chyme (partially digested food) spoils, with the assistance of gut bacteria. The mechanism by which this occurs is not fully understood. For some unknown reason, medical researchers have never bothered to thoroughly investigate the process.

Tex

[charlie fh]

Thanks . yes i wish there was more info on these things.. i expect all the anti acid companys would be out of buissness if there was.

How does (how do you think) the iga reactions occur and how does that correlate with bloating? this is something i have never understood. So the bacteria cause the bloating through fermentation but hows does this correlate with the immune system ?

C

[tex]

Lymphocytic colitis is caused by an increased infusion of lymphocytes into the epithelial layer of the intestines, and this is the primary diagnostic criterion for LC. This is an IgA reaction, and t's an immune system response to various inflammatory agents. The initial inflammation can be caused by bacterial or viral infection, parasites, stress, certain medications, and a few other things. Research shows that the inflammation triggers increased intestinal porosity (leaky gut), and leaky gut leads to the development of food sensitivities. Once the inflammation triggers the disease, then the disease tends to perpetuate itself, due to the food sensitivities that are created as a result of the inflammation. To stop the inflammation from recurring with each meal, we have to avoid every food, medication, and supplement that's causing our immune system to produce antibodies. MC is usually not caused by food sensitivities, but food sensitivities tend to develop after the disease begins. The molecules of which food is composed, are long chains of amino acids. Normally, proper digestion reduces those long chains of amino acids to individual amino acids, or short chains of them, so that our body can then use them as nutrition, or building materials for new cells.

Peptides are simply medium-length chains of amino acids that are the result of incomplete digestion of a food molecule. No one can completely digest gluten. And when gluten is digested, the process results in the creation of hundreds of peptides. But although no one can completely digest gluten, that usually that doesn't matter. It only matters if a person has increased intestinal permeability (commonly known as leaky gut). But research shows that gluten sensitivity can cause leaky gut and this can allow partially-digested peptides from certain foods to enter the bloodstream, which provokes an immune system response (because those peptides are obviously not supposed to be in the blood). The immune system then begins to react to certain proteins in those foods every time they are eaten, thus causing chronic inflammation . This is why some of the foods that we have been eating for most of our life can suddenly begin to cause chronic inflammation by provoking our immune system to produce antibodies against them. Because of the inability to digest gluten, leaky gut makes all of us with this condition sensitive to gluten, which means that we have to totally avoid all foods that contain wheat, rye, barley, and for most of us, also oats. About two-thirds of us are also sensitive to cow's milk, which means that we have to avoid all dairy products. Over half of us are sensitive to soy and/or chicken eggs.

Note that we react to many of the proteins in the common foods that we have eaten all our lives. Interestingly, we rarely react to the proteins in foods that we have rarely eaten prior to developing MC.

Similar to food sensitivities, certain drugs can also cause the immune system to produce antibodies that trigger MC symptoms. In some cases, just stopping the use of those drugs can bring remission of the MC symptoms. These drugs include antibiotics, NSAIDs, PPIs, SSRIs, SNRIs, statins, bisphosphonates, ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, and others. But in many cases, food sensitivities develop before the use of the drug is stopped, so the diet must also be changed in addition to avoiding the drug that causes the inflammation. But the bottom line is that if we stop the antibodies from being produced by avoiding the offending foods or drugs, then we can stop the inflammation from being produced and the symptoms will begin to fade away, as our digestive system heals. And the symptoms will stay away as long as we are very careful with our diet (and the medications we use).

Once the inflammation that triggers MC becomes chronic, we slowly lose the ability to produce various digestive enzymes in our small intestine, and our pancreas, and this leads to the incomplete digestion that causes the compromised chyme to undergo fermentation, bloating, diarrhea, etc. In a nutshell, this is basically how the syndrome develops. Once we get the inflammation under control, our enzyme-producing abilities will slowly return, although sometimes it won't return to normal levels.

Tex

[charlie fh]

Thanks !. interesting. I feel stress can cause bloating with me too . in fact the rice situation i reffered to earlier in this thread was most likely from stress. I had some again recently and was fine. Very odd

I have been very wired for no reason lately which is definately affecting my gut/MC. I wondered if it was the methyl B's and stopped but this has not helped. My mind is very active at night and i seem to have developed muscle twitches / spasms while trying to sleep. I can only describe it as an intense nervousness. Its really getting to me. Im scraping the barrel asking for any advice but if something comes to mind please let me know. I feel it is all gut related . I havnt changed anything else btw . Im not in a flare but my gut is more out of sync than uaual.

I did wonder if it was low magnesium. i take 400mg a day so thought that enough..

any advice would be very helpful

Charlie