| My Mom used to celebrate loose bowels because she thought she would lose weight!So I did the same till I had 10+ urgent episodes a day, had to plan my day around bathrooms and carried extra clothes in my car at all times. I learned in my teens and 20’s that when my hormones were shifting my Lupus antibodies would flare and these bouts would happen. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, perimenopause threw me a gut curveball with a side of a pandemic virus that hits the gut. In January of 2023 I traveled with my Dad to see an indoor dirt track race called the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It had been a dream for both of us to go together since Dad raced these same cars for decades.New water exposure, a big crowd from all over the world and a hotel stay. Both of us ended up pretty sick on our way home and it kicked off a major gut flare for me. I was feeling really confident about my health at the time and I didn’t bring my probiotics or Chinese Herbs for travel diarrhea – Shen Ling Bai Zhu Pian – https://www.activeherb.com/shenling/I didn’t even pack the ones for over indulgence on rich foods and alcohol, Ping Wei Pian – https://www.activeherb.com/pingwei/, since I chose to stay at a place with a kitchenette so we could eat our own food. I won’t forget those when I travel ever again!When it comes to probiotics and travel I often bring Seed or MegaSpore Biotic as they do not need refrigeration and sometimes I’ll have a little VSL#3 (if going to Mexico, Belize or South America) and SacroB – Saccharomyces boulardii for a yeast over growth flare up that triggers diarrhea and lots of bloating (usually this goes if I know I may have a tropical drink or two like in Grand Cayman annually). For those of you have histamine flare ups Probiota HistaminX by Seeking Health would be your travel probiotic as it’s less likely to pop off the histamines.I’m also big on supporting the gut lining on a daily basis, I use iCell Water from NuBioAge – it has glutamine, glycine, creatine, taurine, leucine and more to help with daily support and lately I’ve been doing quarterly cycling of Biolongevity’s BioGut Pro or NuBioAge Guttides – https://shop.nubioage.com/DOCJKRAUSE since Integrative Peptides’ Gut Feeling has been harder to get with the new peptide regulations. BioGut Pro and Guttides have all the peptides to strengthen the gut lining fast. https://biolongevitysupplements.com/product/biogutpro/ If you do end up getting sick and you’re in need of rebooting your gut immunity colostrum from SilverFern, Microbiome labs (MegaIgg) or Mt Capra – powder used daily for 90 days can be quite helpful. If your mood is off and you’re not feeling like yourself it’s possible there’s a shift in your gut bugs messing with your neurotransmitters, like tryptophan and even histamine.You make more neurochemicals in your gut than your brain and the neurochemical tryptophan has a lot to do with gut motility. Tryptophan shifts can have you feeling down, flat and depressed since this is a precursor in the production of serotonin and estrogen, if the gut microbiome is off in recycling or regulating estrogen sometimes a little L-tryptophan 500-1500 mg daily can help regulate the gut a bit. Histamine can bring anger, irritability, agitation with lots of bloating and some itching too. Histamine is a huge factor in the gut with diarrhea – sometimes taking an anti-histamine over the counter like Xyrtec or Claritin 24 hour can help. Nettles + Quercetin is the natural anti-histamine and D-Hist from Orthomoledular is my go-to.Both histamines and tryptophan promote motility in the gut so being able to regulate them can slow down the bowels a bit. I often pair the anti-histamine with a Shen Ling (Chinese Herbal) above. Oddly enough sometimes using pancreatic enzymes paired with gut lining enzymes can help slow down diarrhea as well, I like Holozymes by Healthy Gut Company. What you eat matters when you have loose bowels and I highly recommend stopping coffee, iced anything, all raw foods, fatty rich foods, cold smoothies or ones with frozen fruits or ice in them. Opt for foods that help astringe the liquid in the bowels: cooked apple/apple sauce for the apple pectin.Cook 3-4 organic apples down with skins on and eat 1/4 cup at a time 3-4 times a day.Pomegranate juice also is a Chinese Medicine recommendation for helping with diarrhea in addition to increasing white rice, cream of rice, and cooked carrots with baked chicken.I could talk for days on gut remedies yet these are the most effective I’ve seen. If you’re struggling try these out and if they don’t do the trick it’s time to get some stool testing and perhaps even an organic acids test, the Gut Zoomer by Vibrant America combines both of these well and I’m using it more in the practice lately as the gut issues seem to be ramping up in the last year. Gut issues are tricky and aren’t one size fits all situations so if you’re struggling, reach out to someone to test and not guess. Here’s to healthy happy guts, Dr. J PS: If you’d like a complete guide to putting diarrhea in check, you can download it here. |
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