Good question. I started having digestive issues a year and a half ago. Went to various doctors and according to their lab tests was told everything was fine, that maybe this was my "new normal." Recently had an infection that necessitated broad spectrum antibiotics and magically my digestion issues have cleared up...
If not for getting sick recently I'd probably still be dealing with whatever gut infection I had that the doctors essentially ignored.
5-6 years ago my buddy and I got violently ill on a trip to Japan. Both agreed it's the sickest either of us have ever been, and we both lost 15-20lbs each. Shortly after our illnesses went away we both developed digestion issues. Went through stool samples and colonoscopies. He got diagnosed with uc and I got diagnosed with post-infectious ibs-d. Was told all tests were fine, but life since was hell. That is up until 2 months ago when I went to the ER with an infection.
Was given 2 weeks of doxycycline and voila, I'm no longer scared to fart, not running to the bathroom after eating anything, not going 7 times a day, and having solid stools. Might be tmi but whatever this is something that I'm happy and feel incredibly relieved (no pun intended) about.
Only problem is I still have what I went to the ER for, no one knows what it is, and I have to get another colonoscopy :/
Sorry for your situation, or I suppose, glad to hear it's better. My understanding as a layperson is that antibiotics can be a nightmare for the gut: I don't think it's particularly likely, but you are a lot more likely to get C. diff while taking antibiotics, and I'm sure that's not the only way it can make things worse, alongside the other caveats of antibiotics (e.g. people misusing them in ways that threatens their effectiveness.) So, I can understand why doctors are not always eager to deploy antibiotics when they're not convinced they will help.
I've personally had quite some experiences navigating health issues, health anxiety, the medical system, etc. Nothing terribly interesting, but, still. I'm actually in middle of scheduling tests to see if I might, in fact, have an autoimmune condition. If they do find evidence of that, then it will have taken me around 6 years to figure it out from my very first symptoms. Thanks to modern medical science, I have little reason to sweat over it, though. (Of course, I'm still hoping for a negative, but at least in the case of a positive I can have the relief of knowing what the hell was wrong with me all this time.)
Finding out I had gout was a 10 year process. Apparently "full test panels" don't include uric acid tests. And whenever symptoms are aggravated, it's much harder to test for it anyway as the crystals are lodged in your bones and not in your blood stream and urine.
Now I have to go through the entire process again to rule out everything else before getting a fibromyalgia diagnosis.
Anyway antibiotics have unrelatedly literally saved my life on several occasions now and I am glad that in a few emergencies I was able to access them on the street without needing to navigate the healthcare system. Antibiotics are too tightly controlled for humans and not enough for animals.
That said, I have had to take them enough that I've definitely experienced negative gut effects a couple of times. Now I reach for probiotics after a regimen.
I'm allergic to all cillins and had a spate of issues that required antibiotics 15 years ago, 3 treatments in 17 months.
I'll have to take probiotics the rest of my life. Because I'm not doing a fecal transplant, thanks. Those three times of antibiotics completely wrecked my intestines.
My guess is they decided it was "gross" and so they'd rather suffer.
This way they get the benefit of complaining about their suffering without criticism because it's a social faux pas to tell a person to undergo a medical procedure just as much as it's frowned upon to mock someone for suffering from a medical illness, even though the fix for their medical condition is getting an enema and sticking a couple of pills up their hee-hoo.
it's put in a tube down your throat, at least it was back when i was looking at options. Also, generally, you need a fecal transplant from someone in your household, but none of us have the same diets so i don't see how that would work.
> Recently had an infection that necessitated broad spectrum antibiotics and magically my digestion issues have cleared up...
There are non-absorbable antibiotics designed to target intestinal bacterial overgrowth. It’s hit or miss, though.
Unfortunately for many people, taking antibiotics can have the opposite effect where it creates or worsens gut problems. It’s not an easy or reliable solution.
Could you clarify what you mean by "dressed chicken"?
And I'm curious, did all of your family find yourselves allergic or sensitive to all of those things, or is that list a combination that covers everyone while each individual was allergic to one or a few of them?
One member did an allergy test and that found us major allergens. Rest of family just stopped eating those same things and things got better for everyone.
Dressed chicken, I meant to say broiler chicken. They are raised for the sole purpose of meat and the turnaround time is in 45 days or less now. They pump these birds full of lots of medication, vaccines and stuff. Everyone in the family gets sick eating them. OTOH, farm chicken that are naturally grown and have no medication is fine so its not chicken per se but maybe some medication or food given to these broiler chicken
If not for getting sick recently I'd probably still be dealing with whatever gut infection I had that the doctors essentially ignored.