Struggling to Find Ballance

[Guest guest]

I have been on the diet since Jan. 1 2008, and I am struggling to find

ballance with the diet.

I started having major digestive problems about 2.5 years ago. My

initial symptoms were reflux and acute pharyngitis (swollen esophagus),

dry mouth, bleeding mouth ulcers and cankers, cracked and coated

tongue, heavy oral mucus, insomnia, swollen glands in the neck area,

abdominal pain, skin rash, rapid weight loss and constipation. The skin

rash is a lot like acne early in the morning and becomes dry and scaly

in the afternoon.

I saw doctors, had an upper endoscopy, echography, x-rays and complete

blood work and was told that except for some minor iritations found in

the upper endoscopy that everything was normal. I was treated with

antacids and antifungals and went on a strict candida diet for a month

to no avail.

All these symptoms seemed to suddenly appear out of nowhere but with

hindsight I now know that the skin rash had been an ongoing problem for

about 8 years but was usually taken care with a little skin lotion.

Also I had a history of minor abd. fermentations, gas and pain over the

years that lasted a few weeks and went away without any intervention.

Again looking back I can see the IBS episodes were becoming more

frequent and more serious all along.

After a couple of years some of the more severe symptoms such as the

phatyngitis and severe reflux have abated but were replaced by joint

pain and migraines. By keeping a food journal I have noticed that

anything with sugar, honey and overly sweet fruits cause gas, thick

saliva and dry mouth problems. Also too much cheese seems to exacerbate

the skin rash. Interestingly these sypmtoms usually begin after a few

hours of normal sleep and get a lot worst at wake-up time.

The diet seems to help but I am still on a roller coaster with 1 or 2

good days a week and the rest of the time not sleeeping well because of

the dry mouth, abdominal pain, gas and reflux episodes. The skin rash

is also worst on the bad days with a lot of itching. I also have been

unable to gain weight.

Yesterday I had bananas, papaya and homemade yogurt for breakfast,

leftover homemade winter squash soup and salmon for lunch and peanut

butter and pistachios as a snack and more leftover squash soup and a

couple of oranges for dinner. I spent the night up with gas, dry mouth

and mouth cankers. I think the episode was caused by the peanut butter

and maybe by the soup. I wonder if the sweetness of the squash is

problematic in my case.

I know this a very long message but after an awful episode las night I

thought I would seek advice and hope that somebody else has had similar

symptoms and can advise. After seeing so many doctors I think it’s

probably is pointless to seek a definitve diagnostic but I wonder what

any of you think this is.

Serge Duguay

Ottawa, Ontario

SCD 22 days