Gut Health
3 weeks off dairy and my skin is less angry?
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3 weeks off dairy and my skin is less angry?
Not sure if it's coincidence but I cut cheese + milk (still eating butter) for 3 weeks and the cystic bumps on my chin are way less. Acid reflux also down like 60%. Anyone else? Gonna keep going another month to be sure. Didn't change anything else, same workout, same sleep, same stress level (lol).
Logged my bloating for 60 days. Here is what my data shows.
Ok so I tracked bloating 0-10 every day for 60 days along with what I ate. Pulled it into a spreadsheet. Top 3 triggers for me: 1. onions (avg +3.2 bloat score) 2. whey protein (+2.1) 3. kombucha of all things (+1.8) Biggest non-triggers that surprised me: gluten (neutral), coffee (neutral). I was convinced gluten was the issue. nope. for me at least. If anyone wants the template I made lmk. n=1 disclaimer obviously.
afternoon bloat after protein shakes - fixed
bro if you're bloated every afternoon and drinking whey, try switching to isolate or a plant blend. did it on a whim 2 weeks ago and my 3pm gut punch is gone. wild. same calories same macros, just the protein source.
does stress literally destroy your stomach or is it just me
i had a insane work week and my IBS flared up on day 3 on the dot. couldn't eat anything without running to the bathroom. took 4 days of calm to reset. is there actually like a hotline between your brain and gut that i can unplug lmao
creatine + bloating - is it the creatine or just water weight
started creatine 5g/day 3 weeks ago. feel like my stomach is puffier but lifts are going up. reading mixed stuff online. is this real GI bloating or just intramuscular water? anyone notice a difference with different forms (mono vs HCL)?
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simplified my breakfast and stopped bloating all morning
old breakfast: oatmeal, berries, almond milk, chia, protein powder, peanut butter. 7 ingredients. new breakfast: 2 eggs + half an avocado + sourdough toast. turns out my stomach did NOT like the smoothie-bowl chaos. less is more.
fermented foods every day for a month - update
started adding either sauerkraut, kimchi, or kefir to one meal a day. week 1 was rough honestly, lots of gas. by week 3 my stomach was noticeably flatter in the evenings. week 4 constipation basically gone. i eat a decent amount of fiber already so ymmv. the kimchi is addictive btw, put it on eggs, thank me later
recipe: the soup my gut needed this week
boil bone broth, throw in ginger, carrots, leeks (green parts only if onions hate you), a soft boiled egg on top. eat slow. this is basically all i could stomach after a flare up and it got me back to normal in 2 days. not a cure, just a soft landing. 🥣
the celery juice people were right and i hate it
ok so i was dragged into doing 16oz celery juice every morning for 30 days by my sister. taste: ew. first 5 days: gassy hell. day 10 onward my morning bloat just... stopped. i still don't believe the mystical claims around it but something about chugging a bunch of water/electrolytes/fiber adjacent liquid first thing seems to work for me. will i keep doing it? unclear. would i recommend it? sigh.
before you spend $80/mo on probiotics read this
quick PSA. most of the good data on probiotics is strain-specific. a label saying '50 billion CFU' means literally nothing without knowing the strain. look up the exact strain (like L. rhamnosus GG for example) in pubmed for your condition. if the bottle just says 'proprietary blend' with no strain IDs, it's marketing. not saying probiotics don't work. saying do 5 min of reading before dropping real money.
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any hashis folks here dealing with constant IBS?
so hashimotos diagnosed 3 yrs ago. even on levo and TSH is normal, my gut is a mess. alternating C and D, bloating, the works. tried low fodmap twice. tried digestive enzymes. tried betaine HCL. i'm tired lol. wondering if anyone with autoimmune stuff found something that actually moved the needle? not looking for advice exactly, more like company + ideas to bring to my GI
GERD basically gone after cutting carbs, hear me out
52yo dude. had reflux for 15 yrs. PPI on and off. cut grains + sugar in jan, not even full carnivore, just mostly meat eggs fish veg. reflux is 90% gone. lost 18 lbs as a side effect. my cardiologist is mad at me but the numbers are fine. keep ur eye rolls to yourself thanks
peri bloating is on another level and nothing fits
48f. the bloating that started around 46 is different from anything pre-peri. belly stays distended even on 'clean' days. magnesium citrate at night helps. fennel tea helps. limiting carbs at dinner helps. HRT helped overall inflammation tbh. just commenting because i spent a year thinking i was broken and it was hormones the whole time
postpartum digestion is another person entirely
i had a cast iron stomach pre-baby. post baby? milk makes me cramp, coffee makes me jittery in a new way, spicy stuff gives me heartburn i never had. body is different. still figuring it out at 9 months pp. if anyone else recalibrated their diet postpartum i want to hear what you landed on
morning routine that actually helps my digestion
warm water + lemon + pinch of salt on waking. wait 20 min. then coffee. then breakfast 30-60 min later. this sequence changed my mornings. i used to have coffee on empty stomach and be bloated by 10am every day. now it's chill. also walking 10 min after dinner, even just around the block. stacks up.
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FODMAP reintroduction phase is the actual hard part
elimination is easy, just eat rice and chicken like a robot. the reintro phase is where you learn stuff. spent 6 weeks adding one category back at a time. my personal verdicts after reintro: - fructose: fine - lactose: fine up to ~1 cup milk equivalent - fructans (onions, wheat): absolutely not - polyols: not great - galactans: neutral knowing exactly what hits me is freeing honestly
tried 3 different probiotic formulations - thoughts
researching probiotics is a rabbit hole. i rotated through 3 different multi-strain ones for 6 weeks each. A (15 strain, refrigerated): felt slight improvement in stool consistency by wk 4 B (single strain, shelf stable): nothing noticeable C (spore based): weirdly better energy, gut unchanged conclusion: i have no idea, possibly placebo. looking at Seed vs Ritual vs some generic from my pharmacy for my next round. anyone done a real side by side?
L-glutamine experiment - 30 days
tried 5g of L-glutamine in my morning water for 30 days. subjectively: looser stools normalized, less random cramping after coffee. can't tell if it did anything to my skin which was the original hope. ordering another bottle. cheap and low risk imo.