Jun 16, 2007

Stomach Pain for 6 years | Gone in 2 weeks

A 14 yr old honor student came to our clinic with him mom and dad. He has been ill for over 6 years and recently has been missing school for over a month due to pain and too-frequent bowel movements.

He reports worsening intense stomach pain waking him up at night. His rightfully-concerned mom, who is a registered nurse (RN), tried everything under the sun to no avail. It seemed as we were his mom's last hope.

His current treatment was Prilosec as he had really intense acid burning in his stomach area. It was not working and in fact was making it worse.

I began taking his history from as far back as he could remember.

8 years ago, he went to Mexico with his parents. There he got bad diarrhea which resolved with antiobiotics and flagyl.

2 years after that incident, he began having severe food allergies and couldn't eat much of anything without reacting.

The food allergies only became worse allowing him only to eat rice, water and sometimes some raw vegetables.

Then the intense stomach pain came which began slowly and got to the point where he was waking up at night from it.

Basically, he had severe depletion of beneficial bacteria in his gut. This leads to long term inflammation, recurring illnesses, and food sensitivities. If kept untreated, he likely would have developed colon cancer secondary to all the intestinal inflammation he had.

His case is a classic presentation of what is known as gastroenteritis post-antiobiotics. This is a known medical condition which gets missed time after time after time. Standard medicine has nothing to treat this.

There are no drugs which can repair the gut after being destroyed by medications. His gut needed repair - not meds.

His recommended treatment:

  • Continue avoiding known food intolerances
  • Eat steamed vegetables for 1 week - do not eat raw vegetables as they are very hard to digest.
  • Cook brown rice or oatmeal in 3 times the normal amount of water. Let it cook. Then sip only the water slowly. Do this for a week along with the steamed vegetables.
  • Take 1 HLC Synbiotic Intensive Sachet in a glass of water before dinner. Do this for 14 nights and then stop. This is designed to completely overwhelm the harmful gut bacteria with beneficial gut bacteria.
  • Twice a day, in a nutrient-rich smoothie, blend:
    • 2-3 cups of filtered water
    • small handful of overnight-soaked raw almonds (well rinsed)
    • 1 tablespoon of cod liver oil (lemon flavored by Nordic Naturals or Carlson's)
  • Drink 8-10 glasses of filtered water a day
  • Talk with your doctor about stopping Prilosec. It is likely worsening his symptoms as it is taking his acid production down to nill. He need the stomach acid in order to digest his food, kill harmful bacteria and stimulate the other digestive enzymes
After the initial week of treatment, I phoned him and he reported no more night pain and he has stopped the Prilosec. He is no longer going to the bathroom 6 or more times a day. He did report that he was a bit constipated. I told him that this is normal as his gut is adjusting and the nutrients we are giving him are highly concentrated so he needs to make sure he is drinking enough water.

After 2 weeks of this protocol, he and his mom came in to see us. His mom said, "It is magic." He is going back to school and he feels like a normal kid again.

Something to consider:
His mom took him around to MD after MD, year after year without result. We naturopathic physicians are the last ones she takes him to.

It is typical that people try surgery, intense medications and expensive testing first before considering a naturopathic doc.

Don't wait that long people. It may be too late at that point.

Luckily, for this boy, it wasn't.

Research about Healthy Gut Bacteria and Probiotics:

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3 Comments:

At June 18, 2007 6:07 PM, Anonymous said...

Very interesting. I had a similar situation after I got back from India where I got sick. I got back to the States and they gave me Cipro to kill off bad bacteria. But after 10 days 500mg X 2 of Cipro, I dropped 25 lbs on my already thin frame, and have been struggling since then really.

I know my bowel ecology is way off. And I have a chronic bowel infection and really bad IBS.

I'm getting a sigmoid soon.

Do you all do any phone consults? and any recommendations in the mean time?

Best,

Ouch

 
At June 18, 2007 6:09 PM, Benjamin said...

Hey Ouch -

Yes - it is a very very common issue.

We do not do phone consults at this time as I am not yet a licensed physician - I will be by November but now not.

I think you may find a good naturopathic physician in your area - search the database at http://www.naturopathic.org

You may want to consider a couple options - especially if you are losing weight -
healthy gut flora is key so the sachets may benefit you - docs usually suggest taking 1 before dinner for 14 days
http://www.healthegoods.com/acidophilissachet.htm

healing the gut with intestinal nutrients such as intestinal repair complex
http://www.healthegoods.com/content/intestinalcomplex.htm

applying castor oil packs over your abdomen nightly for 30 minutes - keep the area hot with a hot water filled water bottle or hot towel or hot pack

intestinal rejuvenx powder is high in pre-digested protein that is non-allergic for most people and easier to absorb allowing you to gain weight. i do this smoothie a couple times a day if i need something quick and nutritious.
http://www.healthegoods.com/intestinalrejuvenx.htm

i put that in a smoothie every morning with frozen blueberries, handful of soaked almonds (well-rinsesd) and some cod liver oil - tastes great and very supportive for gut health.

consider eating only cooked foods - such as steamed veggies, broths, soups, limit wheat and dairy, good meats like lamb, grass-fed beef, eggs, naturally fed chicken, wild fish, melons, berries, quinoa, millet

If you have any other questions, Im best reached via email. This is only information and not treatment advice - you do need to continue seeing a doctor and a naturopathic doctor on your team may prove useful.

In health,
Ben

 
At October 1, 2007 10:09 AM, Anonymous said...

My 6 year old son has complained about stomach aches on a daily basis for the past year specially when he eats and right after waking up, he has lost weight and his grow has gone down hill. we have take him to see different doctors but nothing has change, an endoscopy showed inflamation in his stomach but besides the prescription of prevacid no other treatment has been done. I personally don't think prevacis is the answer since he points at his belly button with pain not his chest and doen't seem to have heart burn. the doctors seem to think that his stomach ache is cause by stress but he had a very stress free summer and the pain did not stop. i am running out of ideas and unfortunately have lost faith in doctor, i know their diagnosis is not quiet correct. Do you have any helpful recommendation? my son continues to loose wait since he barely eats because of this pain.
Thank you,
worried mom

 

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