[Daniel]

Hey ,

How did things go with the Facebook group? Did you get what you wanted?

[Daniel]

Sorry, I forgot to mention! I would start with half a dose extra and see how you feel first!

[Daniel]

Hey ,

There can be several reasons why you experience chronic coughing. The most common reasons are tobacco, postnasal drip, asthma and acid reflux. With a postnasal drip, you can feel a liquid running through the back of your throat. Food sensitivities could cause these, in particular dairy.

If you also have a postnasal drip, I recommend seeing what happens when you eliminate dairy products for 4 weeks. A clear sign of food sensitivities causing your cough is when symptoms reduce after a few weeks. Another clear warning that food sensitivities cause these problems is when the symptoms come back when you reintroduce the foods you eliminated.

Be aware that you need to eliminate these foods 100%.

If you want to know the specific details on how to do an elimination diet and reintroduce foods, I recommend you read this handout. Since most of the time post nasal drip is caused by dairy products I would recommend you to look at this document where you can find hidden dairy products.

Supporting the immune system is also important. Nutrients like vitamin D, zinc, vitamin A and folate are specifically important to the immune system. Make sure you have enough of them in the diet. Here is a handout in which you can find B’s immune-boosting protocol. It also has a homemade cough remedy you could try.

Again, let us know if you experience other symptoms as well, like wheezing and shortness of breath, or heartburn because they need a different approach.

Hashimoto’s
If you like to go a step further, there is a connection between Hashimoto’s and food sensitivities.

Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease. With an autoimmune disease, there is often a connection to gut health. The gut might have an increased enhanced gut permeability (often called ‘leaky gut’) causing undigested foods to enter the body. The immune system then, in time, starts to react more efficiently and aggressively to these undigested foods. In fact, this is exactly how food intolerances are created. But if these undigested foods might resemble tissues from the body (and with Hashimoto’s, this is of course the thyroid tissue), the immune system starts affecting these tissues. Things that cause a leaky gut are for example:
• Stress
• Medications like antibiotics, oral contraceptives and use of NSAIDs 
• Gluten 
• Gut diseases like Celiac disease and Irritated Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Other sources of inflammation in the gut for example high histamine levels.

It is therefore helpful for us to know if you also experience gut-related symptoms like: gas, bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, pain & cramps.

What can you do?
Supporting the gut can be done on various levels. I already mentioned vitamin D. Having optimal vitamin D levels will also help to close the doors (tight junctions) between the cells in the gut.

With autoimmune diseases, I often recommend my clients to eliminate dairy and gluten. Preferably not only gluten, but all grains.

Adding in nutrients and supplements that heal the gut might help as well. Things like zinc l-carnosine, aloe vera, miscellaneous herbs, bone broth, L- glutamine, and cabbage juice are all options. There are also really great supplements on the market that are blends of these ingredients, for example:
• DGL PLus from Pure Encapsulations (doesn’t contain glutamine)
• GI Revive from Designs for Health (which does contain glutamine)

Labs
Thank you for posting your labs! I assume you are using thyroid medication. Did you recently change the dosage of your medication? And are you currently experiencing any thyroid-related symptoms?

There are some elevations in bilirubin. This can be caused by biliary congestion for example or an increased breakdown of red blood cells since bilirubin is a breakdown product of red blood cells.

Did your doctor choose to explore why your bilirubin is elevated? Tests that usually are done are 
• Liver function tests. Blood tests measure certain enzymes or proteins in your blood. Besides ALT (which was measured in your labs) there are other liver function tests, like AST and Alkaline Phosphatase
• Albumin and total protein. Levels of albumin — a protein made by the liver — and total protein show how well your liver is making certain proteins. These proteins are necessary for your body to fight infections and perform other functions.
• Complete blood count. This test measures several components and features of your blood.

If biliary congestion is at play I often recommend the use of D-limonene, D-limonene is a supplement that is often used to help bile flow. I usually recommend my clients around 1000 mg/day for 2 months.

Having an optimal bile flow is important for gut health as well since bile helps to grow the beneficial bacteria in your gut and keep the opportunistic bacteria away.

I know I spend a lot of time diving into gut health. It often is important when the auto-immune disease is at play.

[Daniel]

Hey ,

Welcome to the forum! Since you are new here and we have lots of content I am going to recommend you to read our handout: ‘Your guide to understanding Estrogen’. 

Endometriosis is often worsened by estrogen dominance (which is explained in the guide). The guide tells you
• What estrogen dominance is and what symptoms it gives
• What test options help you to understand your female hormone balance
• How to help detoxify estrogen.

If you read it and have questions, let us know! You can ask them in the ‘Ask your questions’ area.

[Daniel]

Hey ,

I would stay with this B complex. With my clients, I would recommend to ad a liquid folate product so you can finetune serum levels. For example Super Liquid Folate from Designs for Health. It also contains a little bit of vitamin B12.

Vitamin D is fat-soluble and gets even better absorbed with food. I would definitely recommend combining all fat-soluble vitamins with foods that contain a little bit of fat.

Epsom salts can be used as a source of magnesium. I personally don’t recommend them often because of 2 reasons:
• If you like to use Epsom salt in baths, you need to do this consistently. I find that most of my clients don’t stay consistent with this method.
• Magnesium Sulphate is also used as a supplement. It has a more laxative effect and we aren’t exactly sure how well magnesium sulphate is absorbed in the gut.

A well-absorbable alternative for magnesium is magnesium glycinate. Did you try this form of magnesium?

If you are low on calcium and vitamin D, raising vitamin D could impact calcium absorption already a lot raising your serum levels. If you like to use supplements temporarily (since vitamin D isn’t raised in a few days), you could add a supplement, and see how it makes you feel.

Just go low and slow since calcium can cause constipation.

I hope these tips help you!

[Daniel]

Hey ,

I was just wondering if you already tried the baking soda test!

Corn is one of the more common food sensitivities and yes, that can cause bloating.

Often we can develop food sensitivities to the foods we eat the most. The list of foods you mentioned could therefore be something you could try to replace for a few weeks. See if the bloating gets reduced.

Are you craving chips because you crave salty foods? If so, this can be an indication to stress. With depressed cortisol, we tend to loose sodium leaving us with cravings to salty snacks. And unfortunately, chips can cause bloating for a variety of reasons. But if it is the salt you need, you could try sole!

[Daniel]

Hey ,

How was your cleanse experience? Did it went well?

[Daniel]

Hey ,

How did things go with the mold inspector? Just asking because I was curious!

[Daniel]

Hey ,

I hope you could already implement some of Bernadette’s excellent tips. Sorry that the response is a little late!

Cortisol affects our electrolyte balance. The body tries to elevate blood pressure, heartbeat and blood sugar with stress.

I believe these blood draws were taken soberly in the morning, weren’t they? If so, the optimal for blood glucose would be levels below 90. Elevations above can happen because of stress (which can influence the immune system) or insulin resistance. So this measurement is not really precise to measure stress, but it can be a clue.

Elevations of hemoglobin could be due to dehydration. There could be different reasons of course – but does this one resonate with you?

I hope you experiencing relief by now!

Elevations in creatinine and CRP are probably caused by the UTI  since both markers get elevated with infections.

[Daniel]

Hey ,

I was wondering how things went with your doctor! What did you decide to do?

[Daniel]

Hey ,

It was my pleasure!

[Daniel]

With vitamin D I usually recommend my clients to use the liquid vitamin D/K2 from Thorne.

To give you better advice on the B supplements, could you tell me which supplement you used?

With calcium, I personally would focus on foods, but if that is tricky I often recommend calcium chelates like calcium malate. In your specific case, I wouldn’t recommend avoiding calcium citrate.

Calcium supplements can contribute to constipation, so go slow and easy there.

Calcium malate from design for health or Dicalcium Malate from Thorne is 2 excellent choices. I wouldn’t consume more than 500-600 mg of calcium from supplements though.

For some reason, I can’t find the ingredient list of the B12 product you mentioned. Methylcobalamin and Adenosylcobalamin are often the ingredients I like to see in a supplement. Perhaps you can share with me what the label says?

[Daniel]

Hey ,

First of all, your gut feeling is right!

Antibiotics can be helpful and lifesaving, but the benefits come often with a price. Having a broad spectrum probiotic like for example Ther-biotic Complete from Klaire Labs is one I often recommend. Fermented foods can be even more therapeutic than probiotics since the diversity of strains and amount of probiotics is often higher. Good sources of probiotics are for example kefir, kombucha, kimchi, beet kwas and sauerkraut.

If you like to dive deeper into what specific beneficial bacteria might help you with loose stools, gas & boating I would recommend reading this handout here.
 
Hashimoto’s & the gut
There is often a relationship between auto-immune diseases like Hashimoto’s and the gut and yes, probiotics can also play an important role in the healing process. But there is more nuance to it than that. Often with an auto-immune disease the gut lining is more ‘leaky’ and lets undigested food pass into the body. In time, the immune system might develop antibodies to parts in the food, that have a high resemblance with body tissues.

In some cases, this enhanced leakiness of the gut is because of antibiotic use, lack of fibre in the diet, stress, and dysbiosis. But sometimes people experience an overgrowth of microbes in the small intestine. SIBO (or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) is an example that can contribute to damage to the gut lining. Taking probiotics in such a case isn’t going to help you and might even worsen the dynamic.

But let’s take a step back to your specific situation.

When an infection doesn’t heal or comes back, I often recommend my clients to support their immune systems. Nutrients needed by the immune system are vitamin D, vitamin A, zinc and B vitamins. In the handout, B’s medicine cabinet must-haves & Go-To immune boosting protocol, you can find a protocol on how to support your immune system. In this handout, you can also find tips on what to use with a throat infection.

If you like to support & heal your gut temporarily removing gluten (preferably grains in general) and dairy is something that could help.

Meanwhile helping the gut to heal with specific foods and nutrients can help speed up the process. Obviously, it would be best to start with this when you are off antibiotics. Here are some suggestions for that:
• Zinc carnosine can help repair the gut lining
• miscellaneous herbs (like marshmallow root and slippery elm for example)
• L-Glutamine
• Aloe Vera
• Cabbage juice

Supplements containing a nice blend of ingredients are DGL PLus from Pure encapsulations and Gi Revive from Designs for Health.

Digestive enzymes can help with bringing balance back in the gut as well. Having good amounts of stomach acid kills is the first line of defence against opportunistic bacteria. If you like to investigate if you have enough stomach acid you can try the baking soda test or the HCl acid dosage challenge. Bile helps to create a friendly environment for the endemic bacteria while it can help opportunistic microbes in the gut.

Thyroid Support
Nutrients needed for a healthy thyroid are not only Iodine but also nutrients like iron, zinc, magnesium, vitamins D & A, selenium and protein. Here is a handout if you like to dive deeper into this topic.

I hope you have some additional tools to work on your health problems!

Let me know if you would like to have more information!

[Daniel]

Hey ,

Too bad! Most chewable products have some flavours added to them to make them more likeable. Nature’s way has for example a DGL chewable. It does contain sorbitol and mannitol.

Other products often contain xylitol, like for example DGL Root extract from Natural Factors.

I don’t know any of them that are totally free from them, unfortunately.

[Daniel]

, 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]