100% better with naturopathic meds and fermented food

[AndysMom]

I will say that everybody's journey is different, but hopefully you can glean something from mine as I have done from many others who posted on this forum. Let me also say that I was a huge skeptic of natural medicine. I really had my doubts about curing serious illnesses without pharmaceuticals. But, I researched C Diff a ton and I knew that it is caused by an imbalance of gut bacteria so I decided to give the NMD a chance. I'm very glad I did. I am completely, utterly back to normal, every day, without gas, bloating, irregular bowel, etc.

I was the unfortunate recipient of C. difficile as a result of a hospital stay where I was given broad spectrum antibiotics for a foot injury. I was never told by the hospital how vulnerable I was to C Diff so I went on my merry way after my foot was healed. The C Diff started about 3 weeks after release. I was prescribed Flagyl and the side effects were horrific so I quit taking it after 8 days. The C Diff returned with a vengeance. My doctor wanted me to take another 10 days of flagyl. I said NO WAY. A GI doctor wanted to put me on tapered vancomycin for 6 weeks, I said NO WAY and the same to Difficid. My insurance wasn't going to fully cover either, so I looked to a naturopath. I decided that if the naturopath treatment failed too, then I was going to try to be included in a clinical trial for fecal microbe transplant through the Mayo Clinic. I'm happy to report that the naturopathic protocol worked 100% for me and I'm completed back to normal.

The NMD told me he was confident that this protocol would work and it did. Plus, I read dozens if not a hundred articles about C Diff. It was a full time job for a couple of weeks. It's all about the gut bacteria and you've got to get it back in balance. That won't happen overnight and it won't happen with one probiotic or one cure all. You've got to incorporate a bunch of learning into a protocol for yourself.

First, I changed my diet. C Diff loves sugar. I stopped all sugary foods and foods that convert to sugar including juices, melon, bread, pasta, potatoes, processed food of any kind, sweets, cheese, etc. I stopped eating beef and pork and stopped drinking alcohol. I started eating fermented foods: kimchi, miso, tempeh, goat milk kefir, plain nonfat low sugar greek yogurt (check the labels, Chobani is the lowest sugar), Kombucha, sauerkraut, etc. I made my own Kimchi and Kefir.

Next, I took a supplement called GI Microb-X, two times a day on empty stomach**. **Empty stomach means 1.5 hours before you eat or 1.5 hours after you eat. You want the supplement to pass through the stomach without being digested. This supplement was given to me by naturopath. Then I took 2 GI Reset supplements twice a day with food. This supplement serves to protect and calm your irritated colon. Then I took refrigerated probiotics twice a day with food. Must be multi-species, 25+ billion CFUs, refrigerated. I took Klaire labs, Ther-Biotic complete but I also took Garden of Life RAW Probiotics and Garden of Life 5 day MAX Care (powder). I used each of these intermittently, but usually took about 200 billion a day for about two weeks solid. One note of caution, as with any probiotic protocol, you need to be careful about too much yeast. You can get yeast infection. If you feel one starting to come on, cut back on the probiotics that have a lot of yeast and take a sitz bath with a few inches of water with a cup of baking soda dissolved.

This would be my normal day:
Breakfast: hot water with 1/2 lemon squeezed and green tea. Plain yogurt with 1/2 of barely yellow banana (ripe bananas are bad), a couple strawberries (ok'd by doc), and honey and chia. Low sugar Protein bar after non-aerobic work out. Yes, I still had my coffee with 1 t. of coconut oil in the a.m. Took supplements and probiotics with food. Sometimes took the Microb-X in the mid morning or in-between lunch and dinner and always took Microb-X before bed. Lunch: quinoa mediterrean salad (quinoa, parsley, tomato, mint, English cucumber, green onion, olive oil and lemon juice dressing), rice crackers, Kefir, Kimchi. Take probiotics. Dinner: white rice, kimchi, Kefir, supplements, alittle wild caught fish and a green veggie. Microb-X before bed.

I did this routine for 3 weeks straight and everyday my symptoms got better. However, one day I did eat a bunch of cantaloupe and the CDiff came back with a vengeance. I ran to the Doc and we agreed that the melon (which has high sugar content) sent me back all the way to zero. I was sick for two days and then woke up on day 3 and was back on track.

It has been a month of completely normal stomach and bowel activity. I'm still eating the food above but eating my regular diet too, which is really not that much different anymore. I have cut out the alcohol and the meat almost completely. Feel much better without it anyways.

I realize that everybody's symptoms are different, some are really super bad and others more mild. I would say that mine were on the more mild side as I did not have vomiting and stomach cramps. But I am convinced that the protocol I followed healed me. I have great empathy for people going through this. There were days and days that I thought I'd never get over this. Running to the bathroom sometimes 30 times a day.

In the end, each of us has to be our own health advocate. I am still disgusted that the hospital and the doctors who treated me with the foot injury did not warn me of the dangers of broad spectrum antibiotics. Shameful. And I'm disgusted that traditional medical doctors don't explain that this disease is basically an imbalance in gut flora. Duh. It's so simple and yet they continue to prescribe these terrible antibiotics to treat an infection caused by antibiotics. Makes NO SENSE to me at all.

Good luck everybody. Know that you can cure this yourself with knowledge and patience. C Diff is epidemic and it is the over use of antibiotics that is driving this. Please know that taking these long courses of antibiotics can harm your body in other ways like UTIs, bladder infections and other very serious issues like IBD and IBS. Changing your diet and relationship towards food is hard and listening to somebody other than you MD is scary, but isn't it worth it to try especially when people are having success?

[Bobbie]

Congrats and thx for posting. We don't endorse any method of "curing" c diff but your post contains a lot of common sense.

I agree overuse of antibiotics has caused an epidemic of c diff. Now, if only doc's - and patients - realized it. I have friends who run to a doc and demand an antibiotic for every little sniffle. They know my story,but we all think,"It won't happen to me" - until it does.

We need more diagnostic tests and fewer broad spectrum antibiotics - probably won"t happen - more money in meds.

Keep in touch.

[beth22]

Some non antibiotic treatments are in clinical trials too - ecobiotics and some others. The idea is to re-populate the GI Tract with beneficial bacteria.