In September 2008 I started a journey that serves as a good example of the limits of the American health care system, where you can go through three months, 15 doctor visits, $7,000 in medical tests, three prescriptions and five over-the-counter medications trying to treat your abdominal pain, and after you lose ten pounds due to said pain, you are asked by the “specialists” if you have an eating disorder.
To make a long and unladylike story short, starting in the fall of 2008 I would inflate like a beach ball whenever I ate a full-sized meal, and my innards would feel like they’d been aged in a smokehouse and then stretched, creaking, over an anvil. I haven’t felt my psoas muscles since, although in general everything else has improved.
Eventually I could manage symptoms by eating only small meals and never after 6 p.m., although all bets were off when it came to carbonated beverages, which had taken on napalm-like qualities regarding my digestion.
I briefly worried that my year-long ascorbic acid (vitamin C) habit (to reduce histamine) had burned holes in my gut, but 18 months after stopping it there was no improvement, so that wasn’t it. I tried digestive enzymes and betaine hydrochloride, but they didn’t help. Going on the simple evidence that it felt as if something that should be gooey and stretchy had turned dry and crackly, I started researching mucous membranes and tissues and moisture and deficiency, etc. I came up with vitamin A deficiency as a possible factor, and taking that supplement did indeed help to some degree.
When I was beginning my iodine megadose experiment, I found other Yahoo Iodine group members who had suffered from similar abdominal issues. In addition to a gazillion other things, iodine is needed for mucous membrane health. After a month or so I did start to see improvement. I can binge on supermarket sushi without too much grief and I can even abuse Pepsi with a much reduced discomfort level, and if that’s not the true measure of health, what is?
I’m curious of how you reacted to the HCL (betaine hydrochloride), did you do a HCL trial and increase 1 per meal till warmth was felt? Some people don’t see improvements until they reach higher doses per meal of HCL, especially in cases of hypochlorhydria (no stomach acid). About 90% of Americans have less than adequate stomach acid, and therefore, they have a hard time absorbing nutrients from their food. Loved reading about your journey!
Thank you! That is what I started to do, but just one tablet felt like it was burning, so I figured acid was not the problem. About six years before, long before this episode and for other reasons, I had found I needed something like four a meal for a month or so, which helped a lot. Anyway, now I’m trying an alkaline diet, which seems to be helping.
Interesting! What brand/dosage (mg) were you taking? Do you crave acid/vinegary foods?
How about your liver function? Every any nausea/pain (below right rib cage) or problems digesting fats? Indicating sluggish bile flow?
I used Country Life BHCl with pepsin in 600 mg tablets. I can’t say I ever crave acid/vinegary foods. I had mild pain but not nausea in that area, and was sure it was gallbladder related. Tests showed nothing, although the doctor offered to take the gallbladder out anyway. (I declined.) It did definitely get worse with a lot of food or anything rich, so I avoid those foods and eat less at a time.