$500,000 for your poop (remember who referred you if you are accepted, not everyone is "just right", read the blog):
Monday, July 7, 2025
Saturday, January 4, 2025
The Past Ten Years
Please watch this video below the Christmas tree photo. It is about 45 minutes and hopefully you will learn somethings about your own healthcare.
https://youtu.be/zxst9056R9o
Sunday, December 3, 2023
Irritable bowel syndrome - end results
I have now told this story several times.All I can say is after being careful with my eating and following doctor's orders, I have come a long way from the original diagnosis when I started this blog.
The Rite-Aid digestive enzymes was bought by GNC, General Nutrition Centers. It is now called super digestive enzymes, and comes in various sizes. It isn't cheap however it REALLY helps. In fact, this is going to sound a little crude but, if your farts stink, you've got something wrong inside. I added to the mix a number of food supplements, and read the labels often now. Companies stick sugar, and use the terminology, "other natural ingredients, like that means they are good for you, when they may not be. So find your food compass, and pay attention.
I found a book I can recommend that has been helpful called Fiber Fueled. The doctor that wrote it basically says that there are 400,000 varieties of edible plants and to "eat the rainbow", meaning all the different colors of edible plants. I discovered sunberries this way, papayas, mangos, and some other fun foods.
I also found a phytonutrient called Rezealiant Premium Feast. This stuff is really amazing. The day after I starting using it, adding it to a sort of "tea" mix I make, my headaches went away. I place a small amount of it with warm tap water, a NUUN hydration fizzy tablet (also has electrolytes)(And was recently purchased by Nestle so hopefully the recipe stays the same) and a couple packets of stevia sweetener. And you can make variations of this, I've put some instant coffee in this mix along with powdered milk, and it makes a nice foamy coffee flavored tea, that is fun to drink.
I have more to tell. the last nine years have really been a fiasco (Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors comes to mind), and very costly in terms of time spent to achieve the health I had lost when I was diagnosed with a possible pre-cancerous condition in my esophagus, and similar in my stomach from GERD, lesions on my liver and pancreas, diverticulitis, hypertension, and a small possible endocrine-tumor on my pancreas... to have arrived recently with a diagnosis from Sloan-Kettering in New York city, a five star cancer center.
The Rite-Aid digestive enzymes was bought by GNC, General Nutrition Centers. It is now called super digestive enzymes, and comes in various sizes. It isn't cheap however it REALLY helps. In fact, this is going to sound a little crude but, if your farts stink, you've got something wrong inside. I added to the mix a number of food supplements, and read the labels often now. Companies stick sugar, and use the terminology, "other natural ingredients, like that means they are good for you, when they may not be. So find your food compass, and pay attention.
I found a book I can recommend that has been helpful called Fiber Fueled. The doctor that wrote it basically says that there are 400,000 varieties of edible plants and to "eat the rainbow", meaning all the different colors of edible plants. I discovered sunberries this way, papayas, mangos, and some other fun foods.
I also found a phytonutrient called Rezealiant Premium Feast. This stuff is really amazing. The day after I starting using it, adding it to a sort of "tea" mix I make, my headaches went away. I place a small amount of it with warm tap water, a NUUN hydration fizzy tablet (also has electrolytes)(And was recently purchased by Nestle so hopefully the recipe stays the same) and a couple packets of stevia sweetener. And you can make variations of this, I've put some instant coffee in this mix along with powdered milk, and it makes a nice foamy coffee flavored tea, that is fun to drink.
I have more to tell. the last nine years have really been a fiasco (Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors comes to mind), and very costly in terms of time spent to achieve the health I had lost when I was diagnosed with a possible pre-cancerous condition in my esophagus, and similar in my stomach from GERD, lesions on my liver and pancreas, diverticulitis, hypertension, and a small possible endocrine-tumor on my pancreas... to have arrived recently with a diagnosis from Sloan-Kettering in New York city, a five star cancer center.
The cytology report came back: esophagus, healthy, the stomach: healthy, the liver, healthy, and yes the pancreas has a possible tumor on it, however it hasn't changed size in the nine years we've been keeping an eye on it, and so it is unlikely to be a problem anytime soon.
The doctor said: I will talk to you again after another MRI with and without contrast.
The doctor said: I will talk to you again after another MRI with and without contrast.
Sunday, October 1, 2023
18 years later
It really has been incredibly frustrating to get here eighteen years later...
And find out from Sloan-Kettering in New York City, that everything my local hospital healthcare provider said was wrong with me, now apparently appears that my health concerns are all now normal.
Eight years ago the doctors locally diagnosed me with a growth on my pancreas. That was several years after being diagnosed with IBS, initiable bowel syndrome, and putting myself on a diet of no white flour, no bananas because they turn to sugar in the blood stream too fast.
And no sugar. This left me with basically, flax flour, almond flour, peanut butter flour, and vegetables.
Along the way I discovered a product called Rezealiant Premium Feast. This stuff is amazing. When you open a jar of it, the aroma is simply fantastic, after using it like tea, my blood pressure dropped off, and has been reading as normal ever since. It is full of phytonutrients made from a long list of various fruits and vegetables. I place a small tablespoon helping along with a NUUN hydration fizzy tablet and two packets of stevia sweetener nearly every day, sometimes twice a day. Really wonderful stuff.
The other thing that seems to have made a really big change with my insides is reading a book called Fiber Fueled. The Doctor of this book basically says there are 400,000 varieties of edible plants, so sample all of them. What happens is you ingest living plant material and this works with your internal biome to help your body heal on the inside, healing your gut. What I came to realize is that if your farts stink, you've got something wrong inside and your diet needs to go back to the 400,000 varieties of edible plants.
So... last week I go visit Sloan-Kettering because about eight weeks ago the local hospital couldn't do a biopsy, When I woke in post-op, he said, paraphrasing, I wasn't able to do the biopsy. What? I didn't actually say that. How is that possible I said?
He replied, some days I can do it and some days I can't.
Then with a sense of urgency he says, I want you to go see our surgeon Thursday, like a sense of urgency exists. I suggested how about Rochester. He said yeh, do that. So I cancelled the Thursday appointment, then go in on Friday because my nose is running like a faucet.
The walk-in physician says to me, look, if this is pancreatic cancer go to Sloan-Kettering in New York City, they are five star healthcare. So I did. The words come to mind: It's been a heluva ride. This past weekend the biopsy reports came back, nothing wrong with my liver (previously diagnosed with lesions), nothing wrong with my esophagus (previously diagnosed with pre-cancerous Barrett's esophagus), nothing wrong with my pancreas, except the bile duct is a little dilated (previously measured at something like 22 millimeters), now only eight millimeters.
I have a tele-video call tomorrow to speak with the Sloan-Kettering doctor.
I suspect he will say, we're going to monitor it every six months. I hope somehow those of you that find this blog find it useful, and that somehow it provides hope, and that if you feel like you aren't getting five star rated treatment, go get an opinion where it is rated five stars.
If you want to see more of what I do please visit my internet site at luxoreum.com.
Friday, August 23, 2019
It has been a while since I blogged about IBS, irritable bowel syndrome.
My sister-in-law told me said she was seeing ads for a product featuring bromelain.
I did some research on the net and bromelain is part of the inner core of the Pineapple.
And I found an ad for a doctor offering this in pill form and it was about $70 for a thirty day bottle.
A few days later I went into Rite Aid and found a dietary supplement called:
DIGESTIVE ENZYME
And it has the Rite Aid logo on it.
$10 for 100 capsules.
I really have to say this has made a huge difference for me.
I take one or two of these occasionally and no more smelly gas, no more runny runs to the restroom.
Go for it.
Monday, July 15, 2019
Update for IBS and Type II diabetes
I have, over the last two years found some good news.
I stopped the watermelon eating pre my Doctor, it has WAAAAy too much natural sugar in it.
For IBS, GNC has a food enzyme that has helped me quite a lot.
It is a generic food supplement in a white plastic bottle and states "Super Digestive Enzyme"
Made by GNC.
I also have Type II diabetes.
For this watch this video by Susan Hallberg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1vvigy5tQ&t=2s
Essentially she talks about no bananas, no sugar, no rice, no potatoes, no grains, and this means no breads.
You can have breads made from coconut flour, almond flour and flax seed flour. Your first Google search will show loafs of bread at $10 and $11 dollars, not including shipping.
I have been off and on about making my own coconut bread, almond flour bread.
And then I went into the local food store and they have THREE types of pizza made with cauliflower flour (say that fast three times), and coconut and almond flour.
Not great flavoring kind of blandish, but not bad either. And the company that makes these foods is called :
Realgoodfoods.com
This means I am no longer required to make my own. :)
The link above probably isn't right for you if you are vegan. And... there are plenty of "mail it to me" recipe box companies now like Hello Fresh, Home Chef and many others.
And
I found Truvia and Stevia. I like the Truvia product better, both are made from the stevia plant. The FDA isn't qualifying them yet as absolutely safe, but they aren't saying they are hazardous either. Do your research.. I do notice that I seem to get a headache when eating the Stevia Raw brand, while the Truvia brand doesn't have that issue.
And...
There is a new drug on the market by Lilly company called Trulicity.
It is a self injection once a week. I like it. I have to take Lipitor and Metformin one and twice daily and the Trulicity is once a week.
by Lilly.
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Good foods list
Updated 1 4 2024
I keep discovering new things and remembering old things that prove to be valuable.
Recently I asked a local grocer about lowering my triglycerides.
He laughed a little and said eat oatmeal.
I bought some oatmeal and made a few oatmeal cookies.
I changed the recipe a little, changing out the sugar for monk fruit, which you almost can't taste.
And added a few things like cinnamon, some sunflower smooth and creamy peanut butter,
I bought some oatmeal and made a few oatmeal cookies.
I changed the recipe a little, changing out the sugar for monk fruit, which you almost can't taste.
And added a few things like cinnamon, some sunflower smooth and creamy peanut butter,
and some peppermint oil which really has a nice after taste.
Here is a photo of the finished batch from today:
Here is a photo of the finished batch from today:
Everything below this line is outdated and old information.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today on the MSN website they ran a story about frozen foods. It is a list of foods to avoid.
Among them are a recommendation I made to help you with your IBS issues.
The frozen waffles I wrote about are on this bad frozen foods list, they do however suggest there are good "other brand" frozen food waffles that are better food for you.
And they recommend a smoothie mix similar to what I have also described.
As I read more and learn more processed white sugar/s are not good for us.
My smoothie mix involves taking almond milk, fresh frozen fruit and a good yogurt, avoid the sugary stuff, and toss it into a high speed blender with plenty of ice.
I particularly like to add peanut butter. I know there are many of you on controlled food diets that can't handle peanut butter. Find an alternative.
I recently found Nutella at the grocery. It is made from hazelnuts and mixed with cocoa. I like it so far.
Also I have to say high speed blenders are hard on the ears. I put a mixing bowl and a towel over my high speed blender when I flip the switch so the high powered audio doesn't hurt the ears, and my hearing.
Does anyone know where to get a super quiet high speed blender yet?
here is the latest I could find quickly on that front:
http://www.hottenreviews.com/2013-blender-review-early-release/
Be fore-warned that reviews site has pop-up ads. And it is possible that site is a sponsored site.
Among them are a recommendation I made to help you with your IBS issues.
The frozen waffles I wrote about are on this bad frozen foods list, they do however suggest there are good "other brand" frozen food waffles that are better food for you.
And they recommend a smoothie mix similar to what I have also described.
As I read more and learn more processed white sugar/s are not good for us.
My smoothie mix involves taking almond milk, fresh frozen fruit and a good yogurt, avoid the sugary stuff, and toss it into a high speed blender with plenty of ice.
I particularly like to add peanut butter. I know there are many of you on controlled food diets that can't handle peanut butter. Find an alternative.
I recently found Nutella at the grocery. It is made from hazelnuts and mixed with cocoa. I like it so far.
Also I have to say high speed blenders are hard on the ears. I put a mixing bowl and a towel over my high speed blender when I flip the switch so the high powered audio doesn't hurt the ears, and my hearing.
Does anyone know where to get a super quiet high speed blender yet?
here is the latest I could find quickly on that front:
http://www.hottenreviews.com/2013-blender-review-early-release/
Be fore-warned that reviews site has pop-up ads. And it is possible that site is a sponsored site.
Friday, August 12, 2016
Watermelon
I don't know why, but ever since I started eating watermelon this summer my IBS has subsided quite a bit.
The problem with eating watermelon is it has very high sugar content.
And I have changed a little of my intake of pills.
----------------- Updated this entry 1 4 2024:
When you have about 45 minutes watch this Youtube video about the last ten years of my life and health.
When you have about 45 minutes watch this Youtube video about the last ten years of my life and health.
https://youtu.be/zxst9056R9o
Among the interesting new foods and food supplements are a phytonutrient called
Among the interesting new foods and food supplements are a phytonutrient called
Rezealiant Premium Feast. This stuff is also wonderful just like the super digestive enzymes below.
You will have to do on internet search to find it if this link doesn't work: Rezealiant
You will have to do on internet search to find it if this link doesn't work: Rezealiant
I also started to read a book called Fiber Fueled.
Quickly speaking the doctor that wrote this basically says there are 400,000 varieties of edible
plants. To nourish your inside "gut" biome, and heal yourself from inside out, he recommends
eating the rainbow variety of various colored foods. Explore foods.
That isn't all, you will have to read it to find out more.
Fiber Fueled
Be careful. I recently found some kind of white blob in a popular soup company can of soup.
I placed all of it in plastic bags, one for the blob, one for the remaining soup, and shipped it off
That isn't all, you will have to read it to find out more.
Fiber Fueled
Be careful. I recently found some kind of white blob in a popular soup company can of soup.
I placed all of it in plastic bags, one for the blob, one for the remaining soup, and shipped it off
to the soup maker company.
They replied with a set of coupons entitling me to some more of their cans of soup along with a letter of concern about having found this can of soup to be a problem.
----------------------Everything below this line is old and outdated information except the Super digestive enzyme, they are now available at GNC Centers and have a different label.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I now take two lecithin gels each morning along with my complement of multi-vitamin, Ocu-vite, Citracal, baby aspirin, and a metamucil fiber pill or two.
I wish I could have watermelon every morning for breakfast.
Update 3 10 2020.
I became type II diabetic about the time of this original post. I thought I was eating well, reading labels that said, "natural" and so on.
These labels really aren't accurate, you have to turn the packaging around and look at the ingredients, look at the sugar content, look at the carbs and such.
I check to see if it is less than 6,7,8,9 percent daily sugar.
GNC Super digestive enzymes
I now take two lecithin gels each morning along with my complement of multi-vitamin, Ocu-vite, Citracal, baby aspirin, and a metamucil fiber pill or two.
I wish I could have watermelon every morning for breakfast.
Update 3 10 2020.
I became type II diabetic about the time of this original post. I thought I was eating well, reading labels that said, "natural" and so on.
These labels really aren't accurate, you have to turn the packaging around and look at the ingredients, look at the sugar content, look at the carbs and such.
I check to see if it is less than 6,7,8,9 percent daily sugar.
GNC Super digestive enzymes
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Breakdown
My IBS returned briefly over the last few days. Mildly so, gas, bloating and a spat of diarrhea.
In my mind, what I think I can connect it to was having eaten at some fast food restaurants.
Two in particular come to mind: one has burritos for sale, the other is known for how many of its burgers it has sold. In the latter case it was a baked good that caused me to start having gas and feel myself bloating around the midriff. In the former case it was the shredded chicken burritos I had on two consecutive days.
I also found an article, although where I read this at this time eludes me, that people with a lower interior body temperature live longer. It was tied to the idea that people who eat less, and even sometimes starve, tend to live longer. Somehow the process of eating less does something to increase lifetime.
I do notice when I pass gas that they feel incredibly warm.
And I started thinking last week that some foods, mainly solids, are probably more work for your digestive system to process than say soups are, and I suppose vegetables are easier too since they have a higher moisture content as well, and that this making-it-easier on your digestive system by eating vegetables and soups somehow contributes to making it easier for your digestive system to process those foods, and (I am speculating here) it makes sense that somehow, since the "engine" is not working so hard, this helps to lower the interior body temperature as well.
Which brings me back to what a friend told me about his research into IBS and the lower intestine's inability to process food like it should. He said the lower intestine loses its ability to absorb moisture.
So may-be... part of the whole issue with IBS is having overworked the lower intestine and it is kind of saying: "I give up."
My own research has also found that the lower intestine gets this way because somehow lecithin isn't getting to the lower intestine.
When I started feeling bloated 3 days ago, I suspected the baked good from the billion burgers sold place, and so I took 2 lecithin gels with my usual intake of pills the next day, 2 days ago.
3 days ago the morning after in the restroom was not fun. 2 days ago the morning after was not an issue.
My belief is, lecithin gels, somehow help when taken before having those nice baked goods.
I also went from one lecithin gel to two lecithin gels that day, to see if it makes a difference. It seems to.
Addendum to the above: I was just reading an issue of Time Magazine and there is an article about a father who invents an electronic pancreas. I mention this because the pancreas is tied to your blood sugar for various reasons but my understanding is primarily because the pancreas function is to release insulin, which controls blood sugar.
One of the issues my doctor has been keeping an eye on is a small growth on my pancreas. If you read my earlier post you know this.
I surmise that because I haven't eaten well over the years and spent a lot of time drinking high fructose corn syrup based carbonated liquids (sodas) that this has stressed out my pancreas which was trying to keep my blood sugar where it should be all those years, forcing my pancreas to over work and pump more insulin into my blood to cut back on the sugar overload from the drinks.
Which in turn has created this small growth on my pancreas.
The last EUS...
(Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a procedure that allows a doctor to obtain images and information about the digestive tract and the surrounding tissue and organs, including the lungs. Ultrasound testing uses sound waves to make a picture of internal organs.) - WebMD.com
Therefore, I need to help my digestive system by further adjusting my diet. Which is why I believe the more liquid idea of soups, and the healthier suggestions people make of "eat more vegetables" makes sense.
Making it easier to digest the foods I eat might help lower my internal body temperature as well, which takes me back to that article suggesting that people live longer who eat less.
Friday, March 25, 2016
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Some of this blog is not pretty. If you have issues about reading about blood and bleeding you may not wish to continue.
Maybe someone else should read it for you.
From the scientific point of view it was interesting to say the least.
A few years before I had been diagnosed with hypertension with a little higher than normal blood pressure. The prescription was to start taking an acidophilus - probiotic, a baby aspirin, a multivitamin, Citracal (because it was determined I had low calcium content and low vitamin C), and later after a visit to the eye doctor I was also prescribed Ocuvite, which is a lutein food supplement which contains vitamins for your eyes because I have a slight degeneration in my macula, which is the surface in the back of the eye that light hits and you see with. You may recall learning about rods and cones, the macula is where they live.
Over the last few years I have learned a few more things about my health and have also learned some of the issues can be fixed, others managed, and some are going to simply stay that way.
I was diagnosed with diverticulitis. It sounds wicked. It can lead to colon cancer and having your insides cut out if you let it get away from you. The acidophilus prescription is to address diverticulitis but you need to know some things about acidophilus-probiotics. I will explain more down below.
And I was also told to start adding more fiber to my diet. So I now take quite a few pills, mostly food supplements and vitamins, daily.
And I also eat differently.
- First:
STOP DRINKING HIGH FRUCTOSE
CORN SYRUP PRODUCTS
Look at the label, read it.
CORN SYRUP PRODUCTS
Look at the label, read it.
You will notice some carbonated drinks now have pure sugar in them instead of high fructose corn syrup. I can only guess at why this change is taking place. My belief is people are becoming aware that high fructose content is bad for you and the companies that make these products are probably simply trying to keep selling to their marketplace. It really doesn't make sense to kill your customers.
Even carbonated water is a mild acid. There is some discussion now that acidifying the body helps cancer to start. So you want to keep that in mind. And don't confuse this kind of acidifying with acidophilus, they are two entirely different things.
Which brings me to one more health issue I was diagnosed with, Barrett's Esophagus. From what I have been able to briefly research on the internet, which is probably not the best information, Barrett's occurs from your body making a kind of adjustment to the portion of the esophagus that attaches to the stomach. It is a result of Gerd, acid reflux disease, which can arise from not eating well.
I love pizza. Don't we all. In some forms pizza is really good for you, but most of what we are regularly served, while it tastes great and it goes down easy, creates problems later on.
Pepperoni pizza with extra cheese please. I LOVE IT. But it is bad news. When you are done eating it your stomach has to digest it. Cheese is hard for your stomach to digest. So your stomach has to generate more acid to dissolve the cheese content.
Which brings me to one more health issue I was diagnosed with, Barrett's Esophagus. From what I have been able to briefly research on the internet, which is probably not the best information, Barrett's occurs from your body making a kind of adjustment to the portion of the esophagus that attaches to the stomach. It is a result of Gerd, acid reflux disease, which can arise from not eating well.
I love pizza. Don't we all. In some forms pizza is really good for you, but most of what we are regularly served, while it tastes great and it goes down easy, creates problems later on.
Pepperoni pizza with extra cheese please. I LOVE IT. But it is bad news. When you are done eating it your stomach has to digest it. Cheese is hard for your stomach to digest. So your stomach has to generate more acid to dissolve the cheese content.
Over the years I used to wake up about 2 or 3 am and go puke. Because, I was told by a physician later on, there was so much acid built up in my stomach it had to get rid of it.
She also told me to take baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, and water to help neutralize it. It tastes terrible, and it works but it is only addressing the issue. Over time you still create a problem for your poor stomach to deal with.
This concoction, while it takes care of the acid stomach, raises your blood pressure as well because of the sodium content. I can say if you find yourself with an acid stomach you can use this concoction, but over time you gotta stop it, and the over eating of pizza which is doing this to you.
If you are eating like this and your body is reacting like this you probably have Gerd and should probably go see a doctor and have an upper GI scoping done.
Which is when we found another issue of mine.
We found I had a small growth on my pancreas. The doctor explained that if this is pancreatic cancer, which is what Steve Jobs died from, it is serious and we need to keep an eye on it to decide what to do.
We kept scoping me, and sending me for CAT scans for about a year, and the growth didn't change any, plus I read somewhere that cat scans can lead to issues later on in life so I asked that we use X-rays instead, and now I am on a regular schedule, for the time being, to go back and have x-rays to make sure that growth isn't doing anything unusual.
She also told me to take baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, and water to help neutralize it. It tastes terrible, and it works but it is only addressing the issue. Over time you still create a problem for your poor stomach to deal with.
This concoction, while it takes care of the acid stomach, raises your blood pressure as well because of the sodium content. I can say if you find yourself with an acid stomach you can use this concoction, but over time you gotta stop it, and the over eating of pizza which is doing this to you.
If you are eating like this and your body is reacting like this you probably have Gerd and should probably go see a doctor and have an upper GI scoping done.
Which is when we found another issue of mine.
We found I had a small growth on my pancreas. The doctor explained that if this is pancreatic cancer, which is what Steve Jobs died from, it is serious and we need to keep an eye on it to decide what to do.
We kept scoping me, and sending me for CAT scans for about a year, and the growth didn't change any, plus I read somewhere that cat scans can lead to issues later on in life so I asked that we use X-rays instead, and now I am on a regular schedule, for the time being, to go back and have x-rays to make sure that growth isn't doing anything unusual.
So, growth on the pancreas, Barrett's Esophagus, IBS, fatty liver deposits, hypertension and I had some issues with my blood. That's a nice list of ailments.
The very first thing the doctors did was give me an injection of vitamins, a huge dose. I had a headache for a week. They said it was because I had been given such a high dose. That helped get my blood levels back to normal.
So far the little growth on the pancreas has turned out to be just that and nothing more.
Barretts Esophagus was suspect because when we did an upper GI scoping that part of the stomach and lower esophagus had a salmon pink coloration. It is something to be concerned with as it might mean I was pre-cancerous.
From what I have learned Barretts Esophagus occurs from too much acid reflux (too much cheesy oily pizza or similar types of foods that result in an acid stomach). The body starts to change the cells in that area to look more like cells of the upper intestine. My only guess is that the stomach and your body change the cell types there to better accommodate the eating disorder you have and by making this change it somehow helps.
The very first thing the doctors did was give me an injection of vitamins, a huge dose. I had a headache for a week. They said it was because I had been given such a high dose. That helped get my blood levels back to normal.
So far the little growth on the pancreas has turned out to be just that and nothing more.
Barretts Esophagus was suspect because when we did an upper GI scoping that part of the stomach and lower esophagus had a salmon pink coloration. It is something to be concerned with as it might mean I was pre-cancerous.
From what I have learned Barretts Esophagus occurs from too much acid reflux (too much cheesy oily pizza or similar types of foods that result in an acid stomach). The body starts to change the cells in that area to look more like cells of the upper intestine. My only guess is that the stomach and your body change the cell types there to better accommodate the eating disorder you have and by making this change it somehow helps.
All I can say about this is I have changed my diet.
I started eating honey. I had heard on the People's Pharmacy one morning about how sugar can be used to bandage cuts. It started me reading about honey. Honey is made up of 32 sugars. Good sugars. They are not processed sugar. Natural sugars.
Eating honey became important. And has changed the chemistry of my body. I can drink a soda now, but I can tell it isn't good for me, and I feel a little weird afterwards. So I tell myself that's my body telling me to stop drinking the stuff.
The fatty liver deposits... it is surmised by my doctors that has occurred because I tend to eat a high carbohydrate diet. Breads, crackers, cookies, foods with lots of doughy materials.
I am really not concerned about that as I have also recently learned that the liver is pretty resilient. So I am taking a little bit of a risk and hoping that by adjusting the rest of my diet, it will also help my liver.
The first colonoscopy is recommended I believe once you hit fifty. They did that. I had a couple polyps which are little growths in the intestine that kind of look like a miniature thumb sticking up. The doctor easily clipped those off (the first President Bush had them, not really an issue if you start eating well again), and this is when we found out I had diverticulitis.
Diverticulitis arrives in your life from eating too much cheese, or any food that makes you constipated, and so you squeeze really hard to move it out the exit.
It also gives you hemorrhoids, which are veins inside your rear exit that swell to try and help with the constipation.
Your body really tries hard to keep you alive.
The prescription for diverticulitis is don't eat foods that make you constipated. And to take an acidophilus-probiotic pill daily.
Your lower colon, when you are young, is a nice long round tube.
People from the east and south east of Asia don't have issues with this because their diets consist of a lot of fiber products.
Your colon, over time, changes shape, especially if you get constipated a lot. It is similar to developing a muscular physique, with none of the pretty looking side effects. What happens is the colon develops accordion-like folds, and these folds can trap and hold bad bacteria, which can eat away at the colon and give your scepticitis (your waste product starts to seep into your blood), and colon cancer.
Acidophilus-probiotic is the current way to manage this as it is a capsule with good bacteria in it that you eat and will help the colon keep the bad bacteria from getting out of hand.
HOWEVER, and I complained about this to my doctor, she is pretty fun by the way, I say that because I think we have good conversations, she wants me to be more informed.
The doctor didn't get into any detail about QUALITY of probiotics, and how much bacteria there can be between different brands.
So I started with an over the counter green labeled as healthy branded bottle from the local drug store.
But coupled with the IBS issue, what I was taking, I didn't realize until much later, wasn't making the grade.
That little green bottle looked good but the bacteria count is only a million, and THIS IS IMPORTANT, it also wasn't refrigerated. The directions state to refrigerate after opening, but who knows how long those little bacterials were sitting on that counter slowly dying off?
I happen to be in the local foodstore and turned a corner and there was this fridge in the health food section just off the pharmacy section. I curiously open it and the bottles there are acidophilus-probiotics.
Big difference though. Bacteria count a BILLION, not a million, and refrigerated. The little germy things were alive. Number 5 is ALIVE.
My doctor shook her head when we discussed this. She said she knew, but didn't really answer to this. My guess is they aren't allowed to make an endorsement of any kind.
I could have ... well I mean after the horror show in the restroom do I even want to think about not having enough bacteria in my lower intestine? When you start seeing pictures of your insides you kind of understand the wake up call.
And somewhere along the way of researching everything I discovered some interesting factoids. You can't believe everything the internet tosses at you. But I think this is accurate enough it may help you if you find yourself in a similar situation. You probably wouldn't be reading this otherwise.
The lower colon starts the diarrhea issue because, apparently (I learned this by word of mouth) it can't absorb moisture. And this is a result of a lack of lecithin in one's diet.
I read more about this online, the problem is the upper intestine tends to take all the lecithin out of foods before it gets to the lower colon, so the lower colon, kind of can't recover once you get to the diarrhea stage, you have to help it.
Which is when I discovered the typical over the counter anti-diarrhea drugs. In the words of another friend, be careful how you use it, because it can make you constipated as well. Just little baby blue pills about the size of a grain of rice.
Back to the IBS.
I went to the grocer to get food. I decided more fiber. So I bought a raisin bran cereal, some bran muffins, bananas, Metamucil (fiber capsules) and who knows what else.
This is when the IBS started.
Boom, major discomfort in the lower abdomen, and a red slurry in the toilet bowl that was right out of a horror flick.
Unreal diarrhea. Like every couple hours, 'sorry, 'gotta run, 'cause I got the runs.
And a garlic flavored flatulation (farts). I mean deep garlic flavor. It'd make vampires run for the hills. Wicked, very bad, garlic, weee --- eeew.
For about three months I was like this.
The doctor says that may have been a little too much fiber.
So what started to fix it?
I got on the net, 'visited the Mayo website, 'visited WebMD website. Which all pretty much say you have to start the bland diet. Its like bananas, rice, mild products.
WHICH DIDN'T WORK FOR ME.
Anything that granulated like crackers, or had sesame seeds or well I forget the list, didn't work.
I was still gurgling, bloating, garlicky.
Then some guy had written where he found coconut macaroons helped. I bought a box of them. They did help, in fact that was the turning point. But they kind of act like sand paper as they exit.
Oh yes. Did I mention that over the course of about 60 days I lost about 35 pounds?
That I actually liked, but the method left something to be desired.
Coconut macaroons. I can say start there.
Then I also discovered the local food store has these fruit snacks. Which are fruit puree's. The kids love them. this local food store chain has them like giant licorice sticks.
I REALLY LOVE THEM.
They are all natural ingredients.
Add these to your diet. Try anyway, see if it helps. And I discovered the anti-diarrhea stuff, so I took one of those little blue pills and broke it into thirds to begin with. And I also bought some lecithin gels. And my doctor also prescribed fish oil pills, this to help with the hypertension I believe, and diet in general, and for the heart, fish oil, omega threes, are good for the heart.
I found a study going on in Europe about the lecithin issue and asked to be on a mailing list. No reply.
So I took it upon myself to start including lecithin with my other food supplements, and my doctor okays it. My thinking is if you include it, and even if only a little makes its way to the lower intestine, that little bit helps the colon to recover the ability to absorb moisture and cut back the diarrhea.
I am also finding out along the way that foods that have preservatives in them give me headaches.
You name it, beer, any alcohol product, breads, etcetera...
Try to eliminate preservatives from your food intake. It helps.
And I discovered the frozen vegetables department, and frozen waffles, the kind you "let go of", and olive oil for cooking foods in.
Okay?
I start my day in a couple different ways. Once I get up and head to the kitchen I take a refrigerated, billion count acidpohilus-probiotic capsule. Then I decide on one of three breakfast dishes with the occasional odd thing tossed in for variety.
I either eat a frozen waffle with honey as the syrup, with butter, or a frozen croissant sandwich (my meat content for the day), or I toss some olive oil and frozen vegetables mix into the pan and cook them up for ten minutes and add cheese on top at the end.
I occasionally toss in chicken sausages.
When I go back to the bathroom each morning, I take a baby aspirin, for my blood pressure, a multivitamin (I like the chewable gummies), an Ocuvite, for my eyes, fish oil pill, for my heart and blood pressure, Citracal, for whatever the doctor said it was for, a lecithin gel, and I keep the fiber pills around for when I eat cheese products and take one to three of these before eating any cheese foods.
Like pizza.
I also discovered the veggies-only frozen pizzas at the local grocer. No preservatives as well. GOOD.
Try a Margarita pizza.
My blood pressure has come down, I now regularly read normal blood pressure.
The garlic issue went away shortly after the coconut macaroons started, but I stopped those and moved to the fruit puree snacks.
When I started the honey and waffles everything returned to normal, when I had diarrhea I took a third of the anti-diarrhea stuff with something to eat, but now haven't had that for some time.
It is a year later.
I can pretty much eat anything I want now, but I am leary that my body still needs time to heal, so I am sticking to my self-made diet.
It is working for me, I hope it helps you get started back to a normal way of eating, and a normal time in the bathroom.
We are still taking the occasional scan to see how that little growth on my pancreas is doing. There is no fix for the Barretts, but after taking a tissue sample the doctor seems to think it is now a non-issue.
I still have the occasional time when I eat something and it feels like a sharp quarter went down there instead of food.
I am reading labels a lot more. Things like preservatives, canola oil, which is reputedly made from the same seed that militaries make a nerve gas weapon from, and any label that has about three hundred ingredients in it (you find these in vending machines, remember the shelf life of the twinkie? Humans aren't twinkies).
And in general I feel a lot better.
I have also bought a food blender and make peanut butter, blueberry yogurt, and fruit mix smoothies with almond cashew milk. The local grocer has these little plastic things with a mix of fruits in them, I bust that thing open and toss about half the contents into the blender and spin that mix.
--- Also I suggest you put a towel over the blender and a bowl. I do this to keep the high speed whir from affecting my ears too much. My grand dad was hard of hearing when he died and my currently 93 year old Mom is also now hard of hearing. We have to take care of ourselves.
I started eating honey. I had heard on the People's Pharmacy one morning about how sugar can be used to bandage cuts. It started me reading about honey. Honey is made up of 32 sugars. Good sugars. They are not processed sugar. Natural sugars.
Eating honey became important. And has changed the chemistry of my body. I can drink a soda now, but I can tell it isn't good for me, and I feel a little weird afterwards. So I tell myself that's my body telling me to stop drinking the stuff.
The fatty liver deposits... it is surmised by my doctors that has occurred because I tend to eat a high carbohydrate diet. Breads, crackers, cookies, foods with lots of doughy materials.
I am really not concerned about that as I have also recently learned that the liver is pretty resilient. So I am taking a little bit of a risk and hoping that by adjusting the rest of my diet, it will also help my liver.
The first colonoscopy is recommended I believe once you hit fifty. They did that. I had a couple polyps which are little growths in the intestine that kind of look like a miniature thumb sticking up. The doctor easily clipped those off (the first President Bush had them, not really an issue if you start eating well again), and this is when we found out I had diverticulitis.
Diverticulitis arrives in your life from eating too much cheese, or any food that makes you constipated, and so you squeeze really hard to move it out the exit.
It also gives you hemorrhoids, which are veins inside your rear exit that swell to try and help with the constipation.
Your body really tries hard to keep you alive.
The prescription for diverticulitis is don't eat foods that make you constipated. And to take an acidophilus-probiotic pill daily.
Your lower colon, when you are young, is a nice long round tube.
People from the east and south east of Asia don't have issues with this because their diets consist of a lot of fiber products.
Your colon, over time, changes shape, especially if you get constipated a lot. It is similar to developing a muscular physique, with none of the pretty looking side effects. What happens is the colon develops accordion-like folds, and these folds can trap and hold bad bacteria, which can eat away at the colon and give your scepticitis (your waste product starts to seep into your blood), and colon cancer.
Acidophilus-probiotic is the current way to manage this as it is a capsule with good bacteria in it that you eat and will help the colon keep the bad bacteria from getting out of hand.
HOWEVER, and I complained about this to my doctor, she is pretty fun by the way, I say that because I think we have good conversations, she wants me to be more informed.
The doctor didn't get into any detail about QUALITY of probiotics, and how much bacteria there can be between different brands.
So I started with an over the counter green labeled as healthy branded bottle from the local drug store.
But coupled with the IBS issue, what I was taking, I didn't realize until much later, wasn't making the grade.
That little green bottle looked good but the bacteria count is only a million, and THIS IS IMPORTANT, it also wasn't refrigerated. The directions state to refrigerate after opening, but who knows how long those little bacterials were sitting on that counter slowly dying off?
I happen to be in the local foodstore and turned a corner and there was this fridge in the health food section just off the pharmacy section. I curiously open it and the bottles there are acidophilus-probiotics.
Big difference though. Bacteria count a BILLION, not a million, and refrigerated. The little germy things were alive. Number 5 is ALIVE.
My doctor shook her head when we discussed this. She said she knew, but didn't really answer to this. My guess is they aren't allowed to make an endorsement of any kind.
I could have ... well I mean after the horror show in the restroom do I even want to think about not having enough bacteria in my lower intestine? When you start seeing pictures of your insides you kind of understand the wake up call.
And somewhere along the way of researching everything I discovered some interesting factoids. You can't believe everything the internet tosses at you. But I think this is accurate enough it may help you if you find yourself in a similar situation. You probably wouldn't be reading this otherwise.
The lower colon starts the diarrhea issue because, apparently (I learned this by word of mouth) it can't absorb moisture. And this is a result of a lack of lecithin in one's diet.
I read more about this online, the problem is the upper intestine tends to take all the lecithin out of foods before it gets to the lower colon, so the lower colon, kind of can't recover once you get to the diarrhea stage, you have to help it.
Which is when I discovered the typical over the counter anti-diarrhea drugs. In the words of another friend, be careful how you use it, because it can make you constipated as well. Just little baby blue pills about the size of a grain of rice.
Back to the IBS.
I went to the grocer to get food. I decided more fiber. So I bought a raisin bran cereal, some bran muffins, bananas, Metamucil (fiber capsules) and who knows what else.
This is when the IBS started.
Boom, major discomfort in the lower abdomen, and a red slurry in the toilet bowl that was right out of a horror flick.
Unreal diarrhea. Like every couple hours, 'sorry, 'gotta run, 'cause I got the runs.
And a garlic flavored flatulation (farts). I mean deep garlic flavor. It'd make vampires run for the hills. Wicked, very bad, garlic, weee --- eeew.
For about three months I was like this.
The doctor says that may have been a little too much fiber.
So what started to fix it?
I got on the net, 'visited the Mayo website, 'visited WebMD website. Which all pretty much say you have to start the bland diet. Its like bananas, rice, mild products.
WHICH DIDN'T WORK FOR ME.
Anything that granulated like crackers, or had sesame seeds or well I forget the list, didn't work.
I was still gurgling, bloating, garlicky.
Then some guy had written where he found coconut macaroons helped. I bought a box of them. They did help, in fact that was the turning point. But they kind of act like sand paper as they exit.
Oh yes. Did I mention that over the course of about 60 days I lost about 35 pounds?
That I actually liked, but the method left something to be desired.
Coconut macaroons. I can say start there.
Then I also discovered the local food store has these fruit snacks. Which are fruit puree's. The kids love them. this local food store chain has them like giant licorice sticks.
I REALLY LOVE THEM.
They are all natural ingredients.
Add these to your diet. Try anyway, see if it helps. And I discovered the anti-diarrhea stuff, so I took one of those little blue pills and broke it into thirds to begin with. And I also bought some lecithin gels. And my doctor also prescribed fish oil pills, this to help with the hypertension I believe, and diet in general, and for the heart, fish oil, omega threes, are good for the heart.
I found a study going on in Europe about the lecithin issue and asked to be on a mailing list. No reply.
So I took it upon myself to start including lecithin with my other food supplements, and my doctor okays it. My thinking is if you include it, and even if only a little makes its way to the lower intestine, that little bit helps the colon to recover the ability to absorb moisture and cut back the diarrhea.
I am also finding out along the way that foods that have preservatives in them give me headaches.
You name it, beer, any alcohol product, breads, etcetera...
Try to eliminate preservatives from your food intake. It helps.
And I discovered the frozen vegetables department, and frozen waffles, the kind you "let go of", and olive oil for cooking foods in.
Okay?
I start my day in a couple different ways. Once I get up and head to the kitchen I take a refrigerated, billion count acidpohilus-probiotic capsule. Then I decide on one of three breakfast dishes with the occasional odd thing tossed in for variety.
I either eat a frozen waffle with honey as the syrup, with butter, or a frozen croissant sandwich (my meat content for the day), or I toss some olive oil and frozen vegetables mix into the pan and cook them up for ten minutes and add cheese on top at the end.
I occasionally toss in chicken sausages.
When I go back to the bathroom each morning, I take a baby aspirin, for my blood pressure, a multivitamin (I like the chewable gummies), an Ocuvite, for my eyes, fish oil pill, for my heart and blood pressure, Citracal, for whatever the doctor said it was for, a lecithin gel, and I keep the fiber pills around for when I eat cheese products and take one to three of these before eating any cheese foods.
Like pizza.
I also discovered the veggies-only frozen pizzas at the local grocer. No preservatives as well. GOOD.
Try a Margarita pizza.
My blood pressure has come down, I now regularly read normal blood pressure.
The garlic issue went away shortly after the coconut macaroons started, but I stopped those and moved to the fruit puree snacks.
When I started the honey and waffles everything returned to normal, when I had diarrhea I took a third of the anti-diarrhea stuff with something to eat, but now haven't had that for some time.
It is a year later.
I can pretty much eat anything I want now, but I am leary that my body still needs time to heal, so I am sticking to my self-made diet.
It is working for me, I hope it helps you get started back to a normal way of eating, and a normal time in the bathroom.
We are still taking the occasional scan to see how that little growth on my pancreas is doing. There is no fix for the Barretts, but after taking a tissue sample the doctor seems to think it is now a non-issue.
I still have the occasional time when I eat something and it feels like a sharp quarter went down there instead of food.
I am reading labels a lot more. Things like preservatives, canola oil, which is reputedly made from the same seed that militaries make a nerve gas weapon from, and any label that has about three hundred ingredients in it (you find these in vending machines, remember the shelf life of the twinkie? Humans aren't twinkies).
And in general I feel a lot better.
I have also bought a food blender and make peanut butter, blueberry yogurt, and fruit mix smoothies with almond cashew milk. The local grocer has these little plastic things with a mix of fruits in them, I bust that thing open and toss about half the contents into the blender and spin that mix.
--- Also I suggest you put a towel over the blender and a bowl. I do this to keep the high speed whir from affecting my ears too much. My grand dad was hard of hearing when he died and my currently 93 year old Mom is also now hard of hearing. We have to take care of ourselves.
I also got concerned about dairy products in general this past year. We have a friend who is a dairy farmer and he said we "scientifickize" (homogenization and pasteurization) cow milk so much it is nothing more than flavored water with little health benefits.
Our dairy farmer friend said if we simply drank it naturally we'd be better off. I think I am inclined to agree with that because there are natural enzymes in untouched, unprocessed cow milk that help it to digest.
And I read that we get plenty of calcium from other foods, so for me, I asked myself why drink cows' milk at all?
Which is when I discovered almond milk, then cashew-almond milk. Its right next to the dairy milk. It does cost about a buck more.
It tastes great. Nutty. 'Sorry for those of you that are nut sensitive. There are alternatives out there.
I did make a choice later. I started with almond milk but found it made my bladder a little itchier than usual. Then I found the almond-cashew milk. WOW. And it is great for making smoothies with.
And every once in a while I add some peppermint oil to my smoothie mixes.
During the rest of the day I eat the fruit sticks, one small cup of coffee, occasionally buy a fast food sandwich, pan fry in olive oil frozen fish (I like flounder), and have salads a little more often. And I eat a lot of the veggie pizzas.
And I drink a lot of ice water.
That is about it. No more IBS, at least so far, and the rest we are keeping an eye on.
-Chuck
Please leave comments if this helps you and suggestions on what helps you.
IBS is not fun.
IBS is not fun.
Update June 6th, 2016:
Everything is still going well. I remembered something along the way I had forgotten which is that solid foods are also hard on your digestive system to break down and digest. My Mom has been eating soups regularly for decades, much if it produce out of her own garden.
So I have started to have more soups. I like soups, all kinds of soups, except if it is hot and muggy out. Because I don't like borscht or cold soups.
We are going to do another scoping in July 2016. We did a major MRI scan, I was in that thing for about 45 minutes and the music was too loud. And the technician had to keep redoing everything because he let me keep my pants on and they had a metal something in them and it kept interfering with the scan. So he had to keep retaking pictures.
Someone needs to invent a better MRI machine.
So the discussion I had with my Doctor that is in charge of this whole thing says the pictures they took show the growth on the pancreas, and a little growth on my liver now. The results letter from the MRI scans went on with technical stuff for a long time speculating this and that. My doctor said not much has changed and it has been over a year. He said if I have pancreatic cancer this might be good or bad. Apparently pancreatic cancer can kind of act like nothing is happening for quite a long period of time. He said though that my blood work isn't showing any signs of any issues. He cautioned on this though because the scanner takes pictures by the slice. And he said it is the tiny width of space between slices that is of concern.
And the MRI tech letter suggested there may or may not be a connection between my pancreas growth and my liver growth. The doctor seems to think they are unrelated, that the MRI letter is only speculating on what could be.
SO...
I get to go have another upper GI scoping but this time they are going to bring in a pathologist while I am in the OR. Apparently they are going to stick those two little growths, withdraw some cells and have the pathologist look at them.
The doctor doesn't seem to think they will do any surgery then, BUT he did say they have the two doctors that do this type of surgery here in the area and that's a good thing. And they probably won't operate while I am there, I have to imagine that if they are going to the trouble of having the pathologist there they might decide then and there to do the surgery.
And, if so, it sounds like it is a good thing, because the doctor said they re-plumb the pancreas area, and I hope that means things will work better from then on. Not that you could tell.
Anyway I am doing okay. I hope you do too.
Everything is still going well. I remembered something along the way I had forgotten which is that solid foods are also hard on your digestive system to break down and digest. My Mom has been eating soups regularly for decades, much if it produce out of her own garden.
So I have started to have more soups. I like soups, all kinds of soups, except if it is hot and muggy out. Because I don't like borscht or cold soups.
We are going to do another scoping in July 2016. We did a major MRI scan, I was in that thing for about 45 minutes and the music was too loud. And the technician had to keep redoing everything because he let me keep my pants on and they had a metal something in them and it kept interfering with the scan. So he had to keep retaking pictures.
Someone needs to invent a better MRI machine.
So the discussion I had with my Doctor that is in charge of this whole thing says the pictures they took show the growth on the pancreas, and a little growth on my liver now. The results letter from the MRI scans went on with technical stuff for a long time speculating this and that. My doctor said not much has changed and it has been over a year. He said if I have pancreatic cancer this might be good or bad. Apparently pancreatic cancer can kind of act like nothing is happening for quite a long period of time. He said though that my blood work isn't showing any signs of any issues. He cautioned on this though because the scanner takes pictures by the slice. And he said it is the tiny width of space between slices that is of concern.
And the MRI tech letter suggested there may or may not be a connection between my pancreas growth and my liver growth. The doctor seems to think they are unrelated, that the MRI letter is only speculating on what could be.
SO...
I get to go have another upper GI scoping but this time they are going to bring in a pathologist while I am in the OR. Apparently they are going to stick those two little growths, withdraw some cells and have the pathologist look at them.
The doctor doesn't seem to think they will do any surgery then, BUT he did say they have the two doctors that do this type of surgery here in the area and that's a good thing. And they probably won't operate while I am there, I have to imagine that if they are going to the trouble of having the pathologist there they might decide then and there to do the surgery.
And, if so, it sounds like it is a good thing, because the doctor said they re-plumb the pancreas area, and I hope that means things will work better from then on. Not that you could tell.
Anyway I am doing okay. I hope you do too.
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