Cannot say enough about L-Glutamine and Pro-biotics for MC

Stanz · Post by **Stanz** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 3:43 pm

Brandy, I appreciated your pulling it up, I hope the L-G helps you.

Stanz · Post by **Stanz** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 3:58 pm

Mandy,

I did some searching and found the following, don't really understand much of this, but I believe I had already focused in on the L-G from research prior to finding PP.

Glutathione is a tripeptide, consisting of the three amino acids, cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine. Glutathione is found and manufactured in every cell in the body, but is found in highest concentrations in the heart, muscle tissue and the liver. Glutathione is critical for healthy immune system function and necessary for various liver detoxification processes. Glutathione also acts as an antioxidant that acts to prevent oxidative stress in most cells and help to trap free radicals that can damage DNA and RNA.

http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/life-scienc ... amine.html

Gloria · Post by **Gloria** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:28 pm

Tex wrote:L-glutamine is found naturally in beef, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, dairy products, wheat, cabbage, beets, beans, spinach, and small amounts can be found in many vegetable juices.

It is possible that I'm deficient in L-glutamine because I haven't eaten any of those foods for at least two years, though I did eat beef, chicken, beets and tomato juice prior to the MRT test two years ago.

I'll try to get some L-glutamine and see if it makes a difference. Thanks for the reminder, Stanz.

Gloria

Stanz · Post by **Stanz** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 8:45 pm

I can't seem to post any links.........about what happened to the MAP test. Infuriating.
Do a Google search for "blood test for MAP" and read the first link and then the one from the free library about reducing the risk of Crohns disease.

Giving another shot at adding hot links to these articles: http://crohnsawareness.com/blog/2011/09 ... -the-sand/

Interesting - I can successfully add the one above, but the next one erases the whole post, so try copy and pasting this one: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Reducing+ ... 0115496611

You have to copy and paste the whole link, not just what shows up here in blue for some reason. Be sure to click on the first "this" highlighted in the first article, but the second doesn't work.

patc73 · Post by **patc73** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 2:40 pm

Joan, I found a great probiotic at Sam's Club that comes in a double pack of 42-caplet boxes (84 total) for under $30. It's called Member's Mark 4X Probiotic, and it is really helping me avoid D most days if I take it every morning. I haven't had a bad reaction to it, and it's GF, but does contain soy.

Stanz · Post by **Stanz** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 5:17 pm

Another link about the Crohn's MAP connection by a UW professor: http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/t ... d-of/30509

The comments section is very interesting.

Post by **tex** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 7:05 pm

Connie,

The reason why some URLs aren't interpreted properly by most browsers is because they contain illegal characters, (such as the apostrophe in the word "Crohn's", in the second link in your second post in this thread, thus preventing the php interpreter from properly converting it into a link).

Also, some URLs contain illegal characters that are php commands, and therefore they can't be properly interpreted by browsers when the medium is a discussion board, because most discussion boards are written in php code, so when the interpreter gets to the illegal command, it interprets it as a php command, usually resulting in either undesirable or sometimes catastrophic outcomes, (as you discovered). It's considered bad netiquette to use such characters, but some unsophisticated folks do it anyway, making it virtually impossible to cite their sites on discussion boards.

Thanks for the links, by the way,
Tex

Stanz · Post by **Stanz** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 8:19 pm

Damn unsophisticated folks, but I think I found a way to get past them in correcting my previous post and subsequent posts today.

So, in my unrelenting apparent need to focus on blaming MAP for everything in my family history, my urine test results came back today with this note from the NP I saw yesterday:

Hi Connie,
 Your culture results are back. Your culture did not tell us much because there was contamination (most likely due to improper wiping before you gave your sample). If your symptoms are resolving with Bactrim, there is no further need for evaluation. If the medication is not decreasing your symptoms, then we will need you to come back in to obtain another sample.

Urine Culture

   Source...............: Urine

   Culture:
   Multiple organisms are present indicating probable
   contamination or colonization not related to
   infection.

   Further work-up of these organisms may result in
   clinically misleading information due to the low
   numbers and/or mixture of organisms present.
   Recollection is suggested if clinically indicated.

So, I don't know what these "multiple organisms" were, but I wrote back to my PCP and also the NP (who doesn't know me, so was uncomfortable in ordering blood tests, with this:

Am puzzled about my recent UTI test results showing "multiple organisms". I have an appt. w/you next Th. at which time I was hoping to get tested for MAP. I have now taken half the Bactrim so it's probably too early to tell if it's working. I did have a fever last night, am normal today, but do not feel well. I have been in an intestinal flare for several months now, despite a strictly GF diet.

I also did research on testing for MAP and found that it's quite complicated and that there's a huge controversy about it's connection to bowel disorders.  I had just showered, had clean clothes on and had not used the bathroom before I came in. I believe that I thoroughly cleaned with the wipe before I took the sample. I had to drink 2 cups of water before I could produce a small sample. With my history of weird infections, I wonder if I should come in and leave another urine sample before I see you. Prior to this flare it's been ages since I've had any health issues, but my recent BP results are troubling, as they have always been on the low range. I was negative for the markers for MRSA and this UTI is the first I've had since Dr. Donohue prescribed the Cipro for what we suspected was MRSA - which stopped the staph-like issues I'd had for years - but also seemed to kick off the MC. Stress and anti-biotics are the 2 main precursors for the onset of unremitting MC symptoms.

  I cannot tell if my colonoscopy results included testing for MAP.
============

I doubt that the GI ever ordered that my colonoscopy samples be tested for MAP. This involves submitting tissue samples that would be cultured over several days and probably cost prohibitive for them, despite the over 2K charge they made against my insurance for the colonoscopy and despite that the link between MAP and GI disorders has been documented for MANY years, even with recent research. Can only imagine that this "disconnect" is what may have been causal in the GI who did my colonoscopy leaving OHSU to go to the Naturopathic side.

There is something seriously wrong and I know I'm preaching to the choir, and I know I need to blame something, but this is just a new wrinkle in my health history that I feel is significant. TWO THIRDS of the Crohn's patients that were involved in the study I linked to earlier were found to have MAP. That is pretty conclusive, IMO. Did they get it from dairy? Did they get it from meat? Pasteurization doesn't kill MAP, animals with Johnne's Disease are slaughtered and sold for meat. The USDA serves 2 masters, don't imagine Agri-business is much different worldwide. Yet these "healers" - isn't that who our doctors are supposed to be? - just either are completely NOT CURIOUS - as we are - or they are just collecting a REALLY BIG paycheck at our expense and don't remember why they became doctors in the first place --that being an altruistic desire (hopefully) rather than $

http://www.crohns.org/treatment/borody.htm

Dr. Borody's clinic is often cited, most recently, on this issue. Sorry, I know I am manic, I'm just so tired of being sick. I have always had low BP, now I wake up feeling like I'm on speed.

Post by **tex** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 8:45 pm

Connie wrote:Yet these "healers" - isn't that who our doctors are supposed to be? - just either are completely NOT CURIOUS - as we are - or they are just collecting a REALLY BIG paycheck at our expense and don't remember why they became doctors in the first place --that being an altruistic desire (hopefully) rather than $

It's not their fault - it's a hazard of their profession. IOW, it comes with the turf. Here's why, (in my opinion), doctors and medical researchers are no good at finding solutions to new problems - they're not creative thinkers. Instead, they're "exclusive" thinkers. You and I, and most of the members of this board, are "inclusive" thinkers.

Conventional, logical, analytical thinkers are exclusive thinkers which means they exclude all information that is not related to the problem. They look for ways to eliminate possibilities. Creative geniuses are inclusive thinkers which mean they look for ways to include everything, including things that are dissimilar and totally unrelated. Generating associations and connections between unrelated or dissimilar subjects is how they provoke different thinking patterns in their brain. These new patterns lead to new connections which give them a different way to focus on the information and different ways to interpret what they are focusing on. This is how original and truly novel ideas are created. Albert Einstein once famously remarked "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

Also, this description, (from the previous page on the site at the link below), is right on target:

Expect the experts to be negative. The more expert and specialized a person becomes, the more their mindset becomes narrowed and the more fixated they become on confirming what they believe to be absolute. Consequently, when confronted with new and different ideas, their focus will be on conformity. Does it conform with what I know is right? If not, experts will spend all their time showing and explaining why it can't be done and why it can't work. They will not look for ways to make it work or get it done because this might demonstrate that what they regarded as absolute is not absolute at all.

That is precisely why most doctors seem to be so closed-minded - they can't afford not to be, because of their insecurity about everything they have learned, that they believe to be an absolute truth. (Remember, most doctors believe that there are no grey areas, only absolutes).

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cre ... ing?page=2

Tex

Stanz · Post by **Stanz** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 9:06 pm

I'm going to have to let this percolate awhile, Tex, but I appreciate your response. Your comments give me pause as to the difference between creative thinkers and exclusive thinkers. I know you are just short of being an MD, not sure of your therapy credentials, but would recommend you as an MSW.

I remember when my oldest daughter, who enters Nursing School next week, was just a post grad doing research and found that so many of her peers had a background as actors. She thought this was pretty unusual, that this had some meaning, that somehow they were born curious and inventive and open-minded and searching. So, now I wonder if this is why so many of them were also bi-polar/autism-spectrum people that she eventually found hard to deal with and led her to leave the research arena. She was an actress, very creative, she's also a convinced that her brain works "differently".

I wonder how much of this had to do with her now becoming a nurse. I hope this is why they gave her the scholarship.

Post by **tex** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 10:10 pm

Connie,

Well, look at the way most doctors or researchers approach a problem. If a diagnosis is not obvious, they proceed by ruling out various possibilities, and for some strange reason, they assume that the system is perfect, so that what's left, must be disease X. (Disease Y, or Z is not even on their radar, because they are either considered to be "rare", or some corrupt, or misapplied, or misinterpreted test happened to disqualify them right off the bat).

IOW, they try to exclude possibilities, in order to reach a diagnosis, but they never even consider including additional possibilities that don't fit the common pattern, and since uncommon issues don't fit the common pattern, the odds of them being properly analyzed/diagnosed are slim to none.

I truly believe that many physicians, nurses, and researchers entered the profession precisely for the reasons you listed, (curious and inventive and open-minded and searching), but the training programs that they have to go through, takes the individualism, and the creativity out of them, and teaches them to be conformists, and trains them to think within the confines of the "rules" of the system. It's a system of absolutes, based on analyzing and treating isolated parts of the body, while ignoring the concept of the body as a whole.

Tex

Stanz · Post by **Stanz** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 3:59 am

9. There is no such thing as failure. Whenever you try to do something and do not succeed, you do not fail. You have learned something that does not work. Always ask "What have I learned about what doesn't work?", "Can this explain something that I didn't set out to explain?", and "What have I discovered that I didn't set out to discover?" Whenever someone tells you that they have never made a mistake, you are talking to someone who has never tried anything new.

That whole article is great, Tex, I particularly like the above.

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:27 am

Hi Connie,

I do have a question maybe you can help me with? Do you take the L Glutamine year round or just to resolve a flare?

I look forward to your reply. Brandy

Stanz · Post by **Stanz** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 12:27 pm

Hi Brandy,

I don't remember exactly how long things took to clear up the first time, but my colonoscopy and dx was in mid-Oct. '09, so by the end of Nov.'09 my D had stopped using this protocol:

2 rounded Tsp. Glutamine Powder - 3 times a day (Vital Nutrients)
2 PB 8 Pro-Biotic Acidophilus (Nutrition Now)
2 Loperamide Hydrochloride – 2 mg. /3 times a day (Kirkland Brand)
1 Proboulardi 2 times a day (Metagenics)
2 Vitamin D3 (2000 I.U.)
1 Tbsp. Organic Coconut Oil (Aunt Patty’s)

I probably did this for about 6 months, but quit the imodium and probably the coconut oil after a few weeks. Then I gradually cut back to 2 rounded tsp/day of L-G and one Proboulardi. I know I wrote about it here when I decided to go cold-turkey off the L-G and Pro-biotics, but I think it was in June '11 and by then was feeling so normal for so long that I'd been pretty sporadic about it for quite awhile and actually thought I may be cured.

This latest bout is really unusual for me. I've had a few days here and there all along when I'd have a bit of D, but this one took me by surprise. The antibiotics have now brought back half baked Normans for the last few days and I feel awful and am a bit worried about the "multiple organisms" cause I rarely have stomach aches, almost never have had heartburn, but was awake most of the night last night with it. All I ate yesterday was a home-made soup of chicken, chx broth, squash, fresh tomato, carrots, onion, garlic and some seasonings - all of which have never bothered me before.

In looking at the list of what I took I realize that I was taking 4,000 IU of D3 and now I'm taking 5,000 and wondering if this could be the cause of my high BP/Pulse. It's all a big puzzle for all of us, isn't it?

Post by **tex** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 1:28 pm

Connie,

The antibiotic that you're taking isn't by any chance erythromycin, is it? Erythromycin in combination with certain BP meds, such as verapamil or diltiazem, can be dangerous. If you happen to be taking such a combination, stop taking the erythromycin immediately, and call your doctor for a prescription for a different antibiotic.

Tex