Over the last few days I have developed weird symptoms like I have been poisoned by a neuro toxin. Spinning head, nausea diarrhoea, breathlessness and tight chest, metal taste in my mouth, acid feeling coming from my lungs when I cough, buzzing and tingling feeling, swollen Adam’s apple, and feeling like my right side doesn’t work properly. I don’t have Pd, my husband does! I started getting paranoid . Is something in our house poisoning us all?
I went to the dr yesterday and had a full range of blood tests, waiting for the results. Then last night I started researching my symptoms and came up with salicylate sensitivity. This is found in a whole range of foods, and guess what, on our healthy diet changes I have switched out a lot of non salicylic foods eg dairy, meat and brought in a lot of foods packed with them. Eg nuts, green leafy organic Veges, more coffee, changed to brown rice, blueberries, strawberries, turmeric, cumin, rosemary they all are on the very high list! And organic greens have high levels in them and I have been growing them in my garden.
Over the past few months I have been waking in the night with a heavy chest feeling like someone is sitting on me, and have developed pains in my joints down my right leg to the point I have gone to the podiatrist, and have been getting progressively more forgetful and having fuzzy brain. I have had all my amalgam fillings removed as I was worried they were making the taste. I thought I was suffering from mercury poisoning as the symptoms seemed the same! I have had several vomiting sessions over the past few months and thought it may be one of the salad greens, possibly the rocket.
3 days ago it came to a head with the above symptoms and when it dawned on me I may have salicylate or oxalate sensitivity I came across the link to birch allergy. I know the only time I have had an asthmatic experience is when I stayed a night in a tent in a birch forest. And both my sons have tested positive to birch. Also the link to tea tree or Manuka oil. I went through my products and sure enough I have been using a tea tree organic shampoo for a while, then a few days ago I bought an organic tea tree oil deodorant and was given a free sample of ecostore toothpaste which has Kanuka extract which is related to tea tree. I was using the toothpaste through the day to try and get rid of the metal taste in my mouth so it was probably being absorbed directly into my bloodstream and into my brain. I think it was probably the last straw for my poor body on top of all that healthy food.
I rang the after hours nurse last night to see if I can do anything about getting it out of my system and she said stop eating the foods, drink lots of water, and take a hay fever tablet which I did and my chest immediately felt lighter so I could breathe again. But this morning I had a coffee stupidly without checking the list and my head started spinning again and I got breathless again. So it might take a while to purge my system of it and I might be on the water for a while.
So to all of you who are changing diet to one full of salicylate and aren’t feeling better or are using tea tree or Manuka products this may be worth investigating if you are allergic to birch or salicilates. Here is the list of high foods. Maybe consider removing some from your diet for a while and see if it makes any difference to your aches. It maybe tightening your chest too so less oxygen is getting to the brain which surely is not helping.
Here are some links. Oxalates can also be a problem.
Sorry to learn of your troubles. These sensitivities are fairly rare and the science underlying them has been evolving rapidly. I'm not an expert and I haven't experienced them myself. However, I do know that it all has to do with the gut biome's "good bacteria". As we go through life, sometimes we take antibiotics or consume things that kill off or replace the good bacteria in the gut that should break down oxalates, salicylates, and histamines. Without that good bacteria, these things end up further down in our lower intestines than they normally would, where they can make trouble for us. By avoiding these foods, you can avoid the problem, but without fixing the underlying issues, you might still have problems later. This is because autoimmune diseases can start this way.
Our gut biome can't be healthy without fiber, and the foods that are lowest in oxalates etc. happen to also have no fiber. If our guts aren't healthy, the barrier between our digestive tract and our blood can start to leak and allow things into our bloodstream that don't belong there. Enzymes, hormones, dead bacteria, damaged collagen, etc. from dairy or meat can make it through, causing our own defenses to attack these foreign invaders. These new defensive cells can become confused and begin attacking our own similar cells. Pretty soon you can have system-wide inflammation, arthritis, and any number of other autoimmune diseases.
The bad news is that most doctors and nutritionists aren't up-to-speed on this yet. The fact that you found someone who identified the symptoms and gave you a temporary solution might be a good sign, but more likely they were simply giving you advice based on what worked in the past, not on these newer theories.
The good news is that it can be cured by restoring the good bacteria. As I say, I'm not an expert, but here's a link to someone who is (or at least appears to be). He had to learn about this because he was suffering from a very severe case and none of the mainstream doctors could help him. Now he is studying for his master's degree in nutrition and will go for his PHD next year. (BTW according to him, you should not take probiotics until you've resolved this; evidently, that's like "throwing gas onto the fire".)
He's dedicating his time and expertise to help as many people as possible with these issues, and because he uses donations from others to pay for the tests you would need, the cost to you should be zero. Anyway, I encourage you to watch this video and decide for yourself. youtu.be/w36pvgst1-8
Hi, thanks for that. My doctor actually just told me it must just be a virus as all my tests came back normal so I googled it and found that this theory fitted my symptoms and made sense of medical issues I have had over the last few year which have always be put down to a virus.
Last night I was still unwell, I had acid like burning in my lungs but when I tested if it was actually acidic or just felt like it by spitting on ph paper from our spa pool it turned out is was extremely high ph. I checked dr google again and sure enough high salicylic acid can lead eventually to acidification of the metabolic and high ph in the lungs, which can then turn into an edema on the lungs. I was a bit concerned at this stage so went down to the emergency department at the hospital as I thought if it was going to do that it was the safest place to be. I explained to the doctors my symptoms and what I thought caused it and they asked if I was under stress and could maybe be imagining it as I would have to ingest a lot more than that to have a reaction and that I should stop googling my symptoms as I was getting hysterical! I said I have had all of the symptoms for 3 days before googling it. They are such a weird bunch of symptoms that if I was making it up I would never think to add all of them. I said I feel like I have been poisoned. They then rang my husband to see if I was sane, and asked if I had mental health issues. They made me talk to a psych nurse who told me she thinks I am completely rational, very intelligent and just think more than other people. So there it is folks, you must trust everything your doctors says, if the test they do comes back negative you must be imaging it! I am totally over the medical system and can feel an article to the newspaper coming on... but maybe that will prove I am mad(?)
In a way, I guess that it's not too surprising that the doctors don't know about it. For this to happen to someone, all of the following would have to occur:
1. The good bacteria would have to be killed off by antibiotics (or ?)
2. Bad bacteria would have to take over the gut, not allowing the good bacteria to re-assert themselves.
3. Possibly years later, the person would have to begin switching over to a more plant-based diet.
4. That person would also have to be smart enough and be able to reach out and find the new information.
None of that has ever happened before in the history of the world, until very recently. Congratulations, you are on the cutting edge! Even fairly recently people who have gone through steps 1-3 were told that it was all in their heads and they've had to accept that. These new theories are pretty recent. "Gojiman" only learned about them because he had to search for his own cure. Only in the last few months or so have people like Gojiman been able to put it up on youtube and the internet in order to get the word out. Just think how fast things are moving now!
Doctors don't like to think that they could possibly have done anything to make you sick, so they'll resist the idea that antibiotics could cause anything like this. To them, the idea is "crazy". But Gojiman should take you very seriously because he's actually been through it himself.
And, of course, some gut biome theories are now suggesting that even PD might be triggered by something similar. It's a brave new world.
Great, I will contact him. I have a science background so to investigate, make hypotheses, test theories and choose a solution that fits the facts is what I did for a job so to me it’s normal. But apparently I am not allowed to google symptoms and I must wait for the dr who has talked to me for 15 minutes to come up with the answer which I must accept. Ie stress. If I conduct my own research I am mad. Personally I think I am the sane one here!
And to think if it was 1950 I might have been sent to a mental asylum to have a lobotomy.
Hold off on that lobotomy, or at least keep the receipt in case you need to return it. This video gives some more info about the gut biome and problems you might have encountered. youtu.be/LsVD7NBrkLg
Amazing. Thanks so much. It is very interesting. Does he say in one of his videos what you should do if you shouldn’t remove carbs or take antibiotics? We have been down this track . My husband lost 10kg fast and went from bloated to slim over a few months removing sugar and gluten based food and meat and fish only once per week. He has had gut bacteria analysed and has no bifido bacteria and too many aerobes including an overgrowth of corynebacterium amylatum with tests done about 2 months ago. He has come of antidepressants slowly over this time and is not depressed but still extremely anxious. He still feels ill all the time although all his usual dr blood tests are normal. He is restricting carbs even more now. The naturopath put him on a berberine allicin / probiotic regime week about and he has had one week each of this. Still feeling rotten.
He went away 3 weeks ago and ate takeaways and meat and eggs each day although he tried to stick to carb rules. He has been very ill ever since so it follows the same pattern as your video. What to do now????
What follows is based on my memory so don't hold me to it. You should contact him with your history to date, but I don't know how long it will take him to respond, so in the meantime:
You (meaning you & and your husband) need to stabilize your food intake, and that DOES mean taking out of your diet any food you're having trouble with. Keep a journal as you go, because it's info he'll need later. Eating this way doesn't cure anything, but this entire process will take a while and you need to survive. You might have to live on a greatly limited diet in the meantime. But after you've identified and removed the problematic foods, your symptoms should ease a lot. I just went back and read your last post. I'd say that he should eat whatever is healthy that he can tolerate, and eat a lot of it to keep his calories sufficient. Sorry I can't be more precise.
Next, you need to get the tests done. I don't know what tests exactly, but that should be on his website. I don't know enough about it to know what the tests your husband took mean. Gojiman is very clear that you shouldn't guess because anything you do might make things worse if you're not using actual data from the tests he recommends. There are many types of good and bad bacteria, and they can be anywhere in your gut, including some places that they don't belong. In other words, it's complicated and there are many possible variations of the problem.
Once you have the test results, that's when he can really begin to help you. In general, his help will come in several steps. First, you need to remove any bad bacteria that's taken over. Depending on the tests, he'll be able to tell what bacteria is where within your gut and what you need to do to get the bad out. There are evidently some medicines/herbs/whatever, readily purchased from your health food store, that target specific types of bacteria. I remember in one video he mentions an antibiotic that targets one very specific type of problem bacteria. He doesn't like using antibiotics, but in this one case, he makes an exception. He'll tell you exactly what to do.
Once the bad bacteria's out, you'll need to rebuild your gut's good bacteria. He mentions several ways to do that in his videos, but again it's all based on the tests and his training and experience. I do remember him stressing that the bad absolutely must be dealt with before introducing the good bacteria. As you restore a healthy gut, you'll begin to slowly re-introduce foods into your diet.
I hope this helps you. It's actually kind of refreshing to be talking to someone about something that can actually be fixed, unlike PD (so far). I will try to find some of these videos and refer you to them, but I wouldn't do anything other than stabilize your diet before you get directions from him.
Thanks so much for taking the time to write all of that valuable information down for me. I think the naturopaths tests were the same as he does. Sibo, faeces, organic acid so she told us what bacteria are and where. The berberine and allicin are the herbs he mentioned. But she has him alternating week about with the probiotic.
Yes, I am working on the diet and it has been slowly over 5 months being modified but unfortunately some of the healthy vegan things have been too much of something, probably salicilates, or oxalates to the point I made myself ill so surely not making him feel better either. So back to the drawing board! I will email him but tweak the diet again. I will be interested to know why the probiotics are a no no as the naturapath prescribed them.
You're very welcome. Here's a very information-filled video about which probiotics he recommends. First, though, he explains a bit about why taking them at the wrong time might be bad.
If you can verify that the tests you've had run are the same, that should speed things up since he won't have to wait. Hopefully, his advice and your Naturopath's won't conflict very much. Otherwise, you might have to choose which to follow.
I do know that gojiman wants to be certain that the bad bacteria is out first. It's a bit like planting a garden that's full of weeds. You need to weed it first. But maybe your Naturopath has done that already. I'm sure if you provide this info to gojiman he'll know what to do now.
It's too bad about the diet, but for now, he probably needs to eat whatever doesn't trigger a reaction. He'll be eating healthy things again soon (hopefully).
Sorry, you have been going through such a difficult reaction. I must say though it turns out you are an excellent Nutrition detective. By sharing you have set an example of how to look at symptoms that suddenly appear by looking at what's new in your world and also back to past reactions. Kudos to you LAJ12345!
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