Sometimes people ask me with what condition I have been diagnosed, relating to my gut issues. The problem is that there are really just blanket terms for most gut issues, such IBD or IBS or colitis. Colitis, with which I was diagnosed once, just means inflammation of the colon. It doesn't specify the root cause at all. So, really, it tells us absolutely nothing!
Same with irritable bowel disease, or irritable bowel syndrome (been diagnosed with that one). Or gastroenteritis (with which I have also been diagnosed). Or Crohn's. Then there's fructose malabsorption (have had some positive breath tests for that, then retested and was negative). There's fructan intolerance. And SIBO (had one positive test for that), then retested and was negative). Oh and there's sucrase insuffiency, too! No one seems to really know what causes any of these, of course!
So really, it seems to me, all of these labels are saying the same thing: "your gut is messed up, and we don't know why, nor really how to fix it. Here's some pills, now go away."
However, one thing that I do know is that when I eat zero carb keto, my gut is fine (knock on wood). Do we call that a remission? We could, I guess. But really it just comes down to removing the source of the inflammation. For me, the inflammation seems to come from plants and dairy. What do we want to call that? Plant and dairy intolerance? (It's not lactose intolerance either, been tested for that! And tested for casein intolerance!) And does it really matter what it's called?
The main thing is to identify the inflammation source, and remove it! The name is a moot point. For me, what helped was to keep a food journal, and try some elimination. I also tried some terrible ideas, like probiotics and prebiotics and fermented items. Just aggravated the problem! And of course "more fiber" "more fruits and vegetables" - that just made things a million times worse too! And actually smoking
helped during flareups (and you can find research studies to back up smoking being helpful for colitis!). So sometimes you have to actually do the opposite of what is typically recommended! Like eating nice fatty meat!
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Grassfed lamb chop with sea salt
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