Recently, the
SCD has come across my eyes and brain multiple times. I learned a long time ago that when a particular subject continues to come across my path, especially when I'm not looking for it, I need to look at it more closely. Let me tell you why...
Two years ago, I contracted a deadly bacteria, antibiotic resistant of course. It was after a time of extreme, prolonged stress & grief; during which I ate poorly and did not sleep for weeks. After running literally hundreds of tests with multiple doctors, all of who could find nothing wrong in spite of how obvious it was that something was wrong, I finally got a stool test showing that I had this horrible thing. The test was cultured so we could see what would kill it, so as soon as I got my test back, I set about killing it. I went from bed-ridden to functional in a few months. The road to recovery is often quite slow and I have struggled with how long it has taken. But this particular bacteria is known to kill people so I consider myself fortunate that we found it before it finalized it's work.
One of the lingering issues I have is digestive, of course. A common problem with dysbiosis is that the gut bacteria will continue to swing out of balance, even when you are doing all the right things. The microbiome is a complex system, so when one guy gets out of whack, they all do. That makes it so that often, getting rid of one bacteria simply causes other opportunistic bad guys (who cannot be killed by the thing you are taking to get rid of bad guy #1) to take over. This has happened multiple times in my recovery. I get rid of one bacteria only to find another make me sick in a different way. I have an advantage because I can see that happening without having to test every few months. My tongue tells the story of what's happening in my gut and 4 times so far it has cleared, only to show signs of imbalance within 2 days. It's quite a frustrating cycle but I am not a quitter (plus I have a ROCKIN' nutritionist/cheerleader!) so I continued to search for permanent solutions.
In my search I spent a week listening to the Gut Health Symposium. Many excellent, intelligent speakers on the cutting edge of how to heal the gut. Gut disease if an incredibly common problem! Almost everyone has indigestion, intolerances, allergies, gas, bloating, gut pain, constipation, diarrhea, heartburn...you name it, you probably know someone with it! In fact, children with autism are known to have gut disorders; so much so that ignorant doctors will ignore them because they are so common that they say such silly things as "Oh kids with autism just have that" - while not even considering that sometimes autism behaviors are a direct result of the pain the child suffers with in their guts. But I digress...
I first heard of SCD at the beginning of my autism recovery journey over a decade ago. At that time there were not good support groups available online. When I first started looking for online support after reading the book, I was told immediately not to bother doing it because of my children's allergies. One mother even told me "If you can't do it perfectly, just go away". So I did. And I don't regret it as I was lead to the Body Ecology diet, which is a wonderful healing diet and ended up being just what we needed. But I always did wonder about the SCD. As I listened to the Gut Health Symposium this month, I continued to hear that
SIBO did best with the SCD. As that is one of the lingering things I struggle with, I had to investigate further. While I have a positive SIBO test, the traditional way to treat it is with antibiotics. Since I have finally gotten back on my feet after a fight with an antibiotic resistant bacteria, taking antibiotics seemed like asking for trouble. In addition, there is a 50-100% re-infection rate within 3 months after the antibiotic. Seems to me that it just wastes time! You get a little relief, but in the end, you still have it and it's worse since you made it mad with a dose of antibiotics that didn't work. I did not find that a worthy solution. I spent a great deal of time with my nutritionist, naturopath and homeopath, as well as plenty of personal research, looking at solutions. In the end, you can do everything right, but if you are eating the wrong things, it just won't bring complete healing. So I, with great sadness, said goodbye to my beans (a staple for me) and hello to meat. And my symptoms are starting to clear. I did not think beans could hurt me, but they were on the list of no-no's of the SCD, so I got off them and am seeing great progress! This is enough for me to embrace the SCD a bit more closely. But it is a complicated system of eating until you really get your brain wrapped around it. So I sought out an online support that I had heard about a few years ago. And that's
right here. These boys aren't just doing a job, they're living the life. They had struggles of their own that brought them to this lifestyle of eating. Their advice is very practical. If you're a Facebooker, you can find their support group
here.
So there you have it. If you struggle with ongoing heartburn, abdominal pain, that dreaded "can't stay awake after I eat syndrome"; if probiotics make you feel worse or you notice that starchy foods make you feel bad, look at this diet. You don't need to have a positive SIBO test to benefit from it. But it just might be the answer you're looking for.
