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Okay I know you missed my questions !!!
I noticed my question has been asked time and time again but no so specific to my own issues. I recently had blood work done and a gut test. Bernadette, I know you know my case better than anyone since you have experience with me.My concern are about the opportunistic bacterias. Although my microbiome seems to now be perfectly blanced, the opportunist bacteria seems to be high.
H Pylori is back in small amounts in my gut. The test also shows HIGH amounts of Klebsiella spp. & citrobacter fundii and other new opportunistic bacteria ( unsure if you remember But I had Invisalign that later on shifted my teeth and created a pocket in my mouth from THAT shift. Now my doctor has mentioned to laser it so the gum can grow a bit and the pocket isnt as wide) I don’t have anything else in my mouth that bacteria could hide in like root canals or anything like that.
Now before I get to the line of questions to help me figure out the case, I do not have an autoimmune disease either* but it does seem to have repressed my thyroid functioning.
*Side Note: I got covid again a second time back in late Dec ’22 till January. Ended up with bloodshot eye on my left and terrible pain in my neck from it for 2-3 months.
My questions are: How to deal with such minuscule amount of hpylori / Klebsiella ( it isnt causing me issues yet but now I understand why my neck on the left side / joints on the left where slightly enflamed for the 3 months after I got covid. A cytokine storm! Also, learning my kiddo might have H Pylori as well. Anywho, it’s really taxing my adrenals !!!!
Please lmk if you need the actual #s of all this and blood as I have both.
Thank you!!!!
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8 Replies
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Hey ,
Did we miss your question? If so, we are sorry! Let’s dive right into your question!
The microbiome is very much alive and always changing and adapting to its environment. It is influenced for example by bile since bile influences the pH in the gut. The microbiome is influenced by the immune system, stress, motility and what you eat. Especially foods can change the microbiome quickly, which is a good thing since the microbiome tries to adapt to what you feed it.
Even small amounts of opportunistic bacteria have their place in the microbiome. They help for example prime the immune system and when everything works well, the immune system helps keeps the balance so these species don’t overgrow.
Having enough nutrients in the diet to support the immune system (like vitamin D, vitamin A, zinc, folate and vitamin B12) is therefore important to help balance the immune system.
Having an optimal bile flow helps the environment of the gut to keep the balance in the microbiome as well. Here nutrients like taurine, glycine and vitamin B6 play an essential role since they are necessary to produce bile salts. Drinking enough water (such basic advice, but the majority of people struggle with this!) is essential for this as well.
Bile is produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder and the health of these organs plays an important role as well.
Depending on what kind of blood values you measured we could help you to see if your liver doesn’t struggle and your immune system is functioning optimally. If you feel like sharing them, please do!
H. Pylori
Although H. pylori have a bad reputation, it is also a bacteria an endemic species that live in small amounts in our GI tract (particularly in the stomach). Finding small amounts on a test can therefore occur. H. Pylori can grow once the stomach is lesser acid. To get an indication about if you have low stomach acid you could for example do the baking soda test or a hydrochloric dosing challenge test (just click the link – and if it doesn’t work, I have uploaded the handout below).Things that reduce stomach acid often can be stress or simply bad eating hygiene. These lifestyle factors are equally important to address. If you like to reduce H. Pylori overgrowth, supplements like mastic gum, zinc carnosine, Matula tea and DGL Licorice can help. A supplement that contains a nice blend of some of these ingredients is a product from Designs for Health called gastromend.
The B Better library has a video on this topic right here.
Klebsiella spp & citrobacter fundii
High levels of Klebsiella are indeed associated with inflammatory disease states. Klebsiella is also known to produce histamine, which is a balanced gut that is simply broken down by the DAO enzyme produced by the lining of the gut. When the lining of the gut is damaged (leaky gut), the DAO enzyme production might go down and some gut healing needs to take place as well. If you experience symptoms that are related to elevations in histamine, I would recommend temporarily avoiding high-histamine foods (This handout can help you!). Supplementing with the DAO enzyme can help you as well until the gut has healed. Things that help the gut heal are for example
• Aloe Vera
• Bone Broth
• Zinc carnosine
• L-Glutamine
• Cabbage juiceThere are more options of course. But reducing the number of klebsiella spp and citrobacter fundii should be the first priority.
Supplements with antimicrobials can help reduce the amount. A broad spectrum supplement that I personally advise often is Candibactin AR + BR. Another antimicrobial I often recommend is Biocidin.
Some foods that have antimicrobial properties could help you here as well, like:
• Caprylic acid found in coconut oil or in MCT oil
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Especially oil that leaves a peppery or bitter taste on your tongue is good since this means it contains a lot of polyphenols
• GarlicAdding a probiotic could help you as well. Strains that help are for example: Lactobacillus acidophilus‚ Bifidobacterium bifidum‚ Bifidobacterium longum‚ Lactobacillus rhamnosus‚ Bifidobacterium breve‚ Lactobacillus casei‚
A broad spectrum probiotic I often recommend to my clients is Ther-Biotic complete from Klaire Labs
If yeast isn’t a problem for you, you could also use Saccharomyces boulardii.
I hope you have some answers to your questions. If I missed something, let me know! Posting your labs will help us to provide you with more targeted advice.
I hope this helps!
[Hydrochloric acid supplement recommended dosage challenge.pdf]
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apologies for missing your question. Not sure how we all missed it. Daniel already gave excellent suggestions, but please share the results if you don’t mind so we can take a look and see if there’s anything else we’d recommend.
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, here is the handout that helps you to avoid high-histamine foods. I’m posting it as a pdf as well since I’m unsure if you will be able to open the pdf[SIGHI-Leaflet_HistamineEliminationDiet.pdf]
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No worries, I know you both are very busy! Attached both current gut and blood test. My adrenals seem to be taking a hit and I am literally peeing my potassium away through by having bacterias making me feel somewhat “not fresh” down there. ( I think I spoke to Bernadette about this two months ago? ). It’s making me hard to retain my pee essentially.
My thyroid got repressed after c0v!d. >.< * [8affee78-f8e5-4252-aa2b-a000917be261 (1).pdf][document__33_.pdf] -
Also to follow up, went to my holistic dentist yesterday, said my mouth has no issues but I am wearing a mouth guard due to slight grinding. ( maybe H pylori has to do with this? )
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Thanks for sharing your results with us. So yes, like you said, there is some H Pylori overgrowth that could probably be resolved with a course of Matula tea. I can’t remember if you’ve ever taken Matula tea before but I usually tell my clients to take it twice per day, 30 mins before or 2 hours after food.
The opportunistic overgrowth is being allowed to happen due to low gut immunity (low sIgA), so your focus should be on boosting sIgA (secretory immunoglobulin-A) by optimizing immune nutrients vitamin D, zinc, and A, and other strategies like omega-3, s. boulardii, etc. which I share in this video here inside the Gut Health Masterclass.
You can also look at direct immunoglobulin support which I discuss in this video here on probiotics and gut immunity.
And given the high zonulin, there is likely some enhanced intestinal permeability (leaky gut) from gluten in your diet (if you’re resumed eating it again) and/or the bacterial byproducts of the microbial overgrowth called LPS (lipopolysaccharides) which can cause a lot of inflammation and wear and tear on the integrity of the gut lining. So a course of broad-specturm antimicrobials like Biocidin as Daniel had suggested, is probably a good idea in this case too.
So to summarize, I would address the H Pylori overgrowth, support gut immunity and overall immune nutrients, and do a round of anti-microbials.
In addition, since your TSH is quite elevated, I would ask your doctor to check your iodine status with a loaded iodine urine test since there are no thyroid antibodies present.
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I have taken it twice before for my previous H Pylori quests but I cannot do it now due to budget reasons , I cannot justify 212$ on a tea atm. Is there anything else? Mastic Gum is the next one I was told.
Thank you so much! I did not know about the iodine but since I am peeing a lot, I am assuming its just going right out too!
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GastroMend by Designs for Health is a great product that has a combo of mastic gum, DGL licorice and zinc carnosine that I’ve used successfully with clients too.
And here’s the video on iodine testing to help you ask for the right one.
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