ecosophia | Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 198

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Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 198

We are now in the fourth year of these open posts. When I first posted a tentative hypothesis on the course of the Covid phenomenon, I had no idea that discussion on the subject would still be necessary more than three years later, much less that it would turn into so lively, complex, and troubling a conversation. Still, here we are. Crude death rates and other measures of collapsing public health are anomalously high in many countries, but nobody in authority wants to talk about the inadequately tested experimental Covid injections that are the most likely cause; ~~public health authorities~~ government shills for the pharmaceutical industry are still trying to push through laws that will allow them to force vaccinations on anyone they want; public trust in science is collapsing; and the story continues to unfold.

So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before:

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry and its government enablers are causing injury and death on a massive scale. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its wholly owned politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here.

3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue.

4. If you plan on making off topic comments, please go away. This is an open post for discussion of the Covid epidemic, the vaccines, drugs, policies, and other measures that supposedly treat it, and other topics directly relevant to those things. It is not a place for general discussion of unrelated topics. Nor is it a place to ask for medical advice; giving such advice, unless you're a licensed health care provider, legally counts as practicing medicine without a license and is a crime in the US. Don't even go there.

5. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules.

6. Please don't just post bare links without explanation. A sentence or two telling readers what's on the other side of the link is a reasonable courtesy, and if you don't include it, your attempted post will be deleted.

Please also note that nothing posted here should be construed as medical advice, which neither I nor the commentariat (excepting those who are licensed medical providers) are qualified to give. Please take your medical questions to the licensed professional provider of your choice.

With that said, the floor is open for discussion.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to convey appreciation for this group and the support and ideas you all have provided. This space has helped me to uncover the root causes of my health issues which may or may not specifically be related to covid, but this time period seems to have brought various symptoms to the surface.

I struggled for years to try to understand what all my symptoms meant as they started to develop around 2021. Initially I had unexplained peripheral vision deficits, then bloodwork showed elevated thyroid antibodies, and thus a diagnosis of Hashimoto's, and then further bloodwork showed reactivated Epstein Barr virus. I was soon aware that I had inflammation everywhere in my body but struggled to find the source.

I had started cleaning up my diet in 2021 by decreasing sugar, decreasing processed foods, eliminating wheat; but this was not enough to improve things and I noticed food sensitivity only seemed to be increasing. With continued mild but unclear symptoms of throat soreness and vision weirdness, plus other symptoms I was ignoring (pain along sternum, pain after eating raw veggies, pain along lower ribs and sternum that suggested GERD, I finally realized the source of inflammation was my GI system. In may case, I believe I ignored this long enough that it developed into Barretts esophagus, although I diagnosed myself so I could be wrong. Finally, this past September I started a gut healing diet, GAPS, to try to completely heal the inflammation. And I am happy to report that it's working! My bloodwork now shows near normal thyroid antibodies, pain in my throat, chest and back is gone, and my vision is still not normal, but it is (very slowly) improving.

I mention this because I wonder if gut inflammation is perhaps more widespread among people than I had realized, and symptoms are so common they become normalized. And perhaps others can benefit from addressing it. Right now I'm still on a restricted diet as my body is still reactive to things which promote inflammation, so no raw veggies, citrus, no grains, and limited starchy foods. I am focusing on homemade meat/bone broth, meats with homemade kimchi, homemade kefir, fruit smoothies with kefir or coconut milk, maple syrup for sweetener, eggs and cooked veggies, and no processed foods. I'll slowly add things in but I notice this seems to take a while. The GAPS diet guideline suggests healing could take 2 years. I can feel that it takes that long.

Tamar

I was never sure how all this related to covid, but I had strange symptoms in 2020 when I first got covid: lightheaded, low bp, fainted, headache. All I can think now is that perhaps having such a poor nutritional state and unhealthy gut biome contributed to post viral worsening of health.
-t

Good Job!

I've heard from a lot of people who have gut inflammation issues, so you may well be right. Thank you for posting this, and let's hope it encourages others to look into the issue and get to work healing themselves.

I've come to think that most of the wave of chronic illnesses facing the western world comes from gut inflammation. A lot of the issues seem to trace back to dysfunctional blood sugar regulation leading to excess insulin, and while there are many issues that could cause that, liver problems are an easy way to get there. Given how closely the liver ties in with the digestive system, an unhappy digestive system almost certainly would adversely affect the liver.

Amazing as this sounds coming from me on this forum, I'm going to advise you to talk to your health care provider if you think you have GERD.

The symptoms you mentioned, especially "lower ribs" are not consistent with GERD. I know because I've had it my whole life. I didn't get properly diagnosed until I was 30, so I spent a lot of time experimenting with my diet to try to alleviate the symptoms. It was very restrictive, but I don't recall raw veggies being a trigger. I've been taking Omeprazole every day since then, and that has cured all symptoms.

I'm due for another "upper endoscopy" to look down and see how my previous diagnosis of Barret's Esophagus is doing. For the last 20 years it's been stable with my medication. The scarring on my esophagus probably happened all those years I wasn't treated. If the pharmaceutical industry disappeared tomorrow, losing that drug would have a profound effect on me.

But it does sound like you have some gut problems, no doubt. People underestimate how important our gut biome is to our physical, and even mental health. I'm not the one to give advice about that, but I'm sure you can find some smart people here who might have suggestions.

Sorry to hear you are going through this. I wish you well.

Thank you Slinky,
Yes following up with my doctor is on my radar, for now she’s aware of my current approach and when I see her again we’ll discuss options.

‘Lower ribs’ is probably not quite accurate, it’s more central at the bottom of my sternum. And the raw veggies feel like they are scraping something sore as they passes the esophagus. For me it’s definitely GI, but the medical diagnosis is indeed unknown. In the meantime I’m happy to see progress.

Thank you for sharing your experience!
-t

Hello Tamar and Slinky and Caldathras and others,

At mention of a naturopath I wonder whether it is not worth asking them (not necessarily the doctor) about pyroluria AKA pyrrol disorder - a hereditary condition that involves metabolic difficulties with availability of zinc and vitamin B6; and furthermore possible MTHF metabolism anomalies.

These conditions are viewed with skepticism by orthodox medicine; yet they were producing symptoms not unlike yours in me for some years. H+ ion inhibitors (or whatever - I've forgotten) were unhelpful; I had duodenal ulcers; I also had significant difficulty swallowing.

With the judicious supplementing of a few vitamins and minerals that suffering is now behind me. There do not seem to be any fundamental food sensitivities although initially my symptoms were linked to particular food intake.

Please contact me via PM if you would like a copy of a summary I have written on these topics.

Thank you for this,

As I write this I am at the doctors regarding my ongoing gut problems. It has gotten so well not bad, but persistent, that we are scheduling a colonoscopy after I return from the June trip to rule out a worrying option.
Thank you for this, I will take it into consultation.

Best regards,
V

Tamar,
Thanks for sharing your journey. I too have struggled with gut inflammation. I have found slippery elm capsules, marshmallow root tea, wild yam tincture, deglycyrrhized Licorice and Oregon Grape root tincture all very, very helpful in healing the inflammation.

This confirms my long suspicion that BOVID and my gut health problems are correlated...

tamar and

slinky_weasel

Surprisingly, I find that I can contribute to this conversation. I was doing research on the connection between food sensitivities and hypertension (as this has proven to be the root cause of my high blood pressure) and came across this article which talked about inflammation being caused by food sensitivities.

https://healthusias.com/food-sensitivities-blood-pressure-the-hidden-link-you-cant-ignore/

What struck me was the following quotes:

The truth is, mainstream medicine tends to focus on treating symptoms rather than identifying root causes. And since food sensitivities don’t show up on standard allergy tests, many people assume they’re not an issue. That’s why keeping a close eye on your own body is so important. In my practice, I’ve seen patients transform their health simply by paying attention to how their diet affects them.

and even more importantly,

The key takeaway here? There’s no one-size-fits-all diet for hypertension. What works for someone else may not work for you.

The article goes on to talk about the importance of gut health. I think the above quotes apply equally to dealing with gut inflammation as well. This conversation jogged my memory about the article. It sounds to me as if both of you are on the right path.

For me, muscle testing has helped greatly to identify my food sensitivities. I use it regularly as I attempt to isolate what food products to avoid. If inflammation continues, it is entirely possible that you have not identified all the sources of your food sensitivities yet.

Best of luck!

Caldathras

Thanks for sharing your experience Caldathras. It does support my feeling that gut health underlies a lot of problems that seem unrelated but they’re not. In my case I was diagnosed with ‘autoimmune thyroid disease.’ Both my regular doc and naturopath believe this is just a randomly occurring autoimmune disease. But I don't think I have autoimmune disease at all. There is inflammation in my body and there is a cause and this affected my thyroid. I’m certain my body is not randomly attacking itself.

I agree there is no one size fits all solution or diet. I notice that the key is listening to your body and not ignoring the subtle signs. The more you do it the easier it gets and the puzzle starts to come together.

Now that I am much more aware of what foods I can eat and what causes problems I notice that waking at night is also related. If I eat something that’s hard for me to digest I will wake up at 2 or 3 in morning and be unable to fall back asleep. Several years ago I had no idea why this was happening and I was looking for solutions. Now I can look back at what I ate and I can see why it happened.

Best wishes!
-t

Just to add: For the folks who've never done muscle testing before, the Modern Order of Essenes material covers the basics:

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/215509.html

This should get you started (although I very much recommend checking out the Modern Order of Essenes as a whole - it's well worth taking up! ;-) ).

Milkyway

I appreciate that. I'm actually not sure what the "root cause" might be. All I know is if I take a "proton pump inhibitor" every morning, I don't get heartburn when I eat lunch.

Before that, I really couldn't consume: alcohol, coffee, soda, fruit juice, even water could be troublesome, no chocolate, ice cream, TOMATO (pizza, pasta), onion, salsa... It sucked.

Maybe I've been captured by The Man, but with taking this one pill a day, I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want, and not wake up gasping for air because I just aspirated stomach acid. That's an easy deal to make, and I gather I am not alone, since you can buy this drug over the counter without a prescription.

Maybe the side-effects will get me, but I just turned 57, so that's 27 years of living a normal life. Still seems like a decent deal.

You have to do what you feel works best for you. No judgement here.

I have to wonder, though, what Omeprazole is suppressing to reduce the production of stomach acid and to enable you to overcome your food sensitivities. More of an academic curiousity than anything.

Stress can also play a huge factor in increasing acid reflux. For me, eating a large meal too close to bedtime and laying in certain positions seemed to contribute as well.

For reducing stress, I've gotten out of debt and reduced and removed almost all forms of propaganda (media, advertising, etc.) from my life. I still eat too late but I've developed a tendency to fall asleep in a sitting position in the living room, which seems to help with the heartburn. I've found the nocturnal heartburn episodes always seemed to happen within the first few hours of sleep when laying in the bed. Perhaps falling asleep in the upright position is making the necessary difference for me.

I tried elevating my head and shoulders in bed (an angled position) but I'm just not comfortable sleeping on my back.

Best of luck in your continued efforts to handle your condition.

Caldathras

Fwiw, my boss stopped prescribing omep to her patients (she's a veterinarian) when she learned that it harms the biome and is suspected of promoting stomach cancer if taken long-term. Now she prescribes ranitidin, to tide them over while trying to restore their gut biome.

This is not medical advice.

For those interested, here is the GAPS diet website.

https://www.gapsdiet.com

GAPS stands for Gut and Psychology Syndrome. The creator of this program Dr. Natasha Cambell-McBride cured her son of autism using this protocol. The GAPS diet is very popular with parents of children with health and behavior issues, IIRC. I know someone on the spectrum who was on the GAPS diet. This person is not a huggie type of person and after a month on GAPS randomly threw his arms around me from behind and hugged me. I was pleasantly shocked. I've read that the gut is our second brain. Your local library may have a copy of her book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome: natural treatment for autism, dyspraxia, A.D.D., dyslexia, A.D.H.D. depression, schizophrenia. Not that is any kind of medical advice.

Thanks for sharing Michele! Indeed I learned about GAPS from a mom whose son developed severe allergies after his baby/toddler vaccines. She used GAPS for her entire family to heal. It seems helpful for a lot of different problems. What I like is that it provides a basic idea that you can build on, adding things in to see how it works for you.
-t

Your experience is similar to mine - WA Price style diet. I have also found Earthing/Grounding when sleeping very good and Inclined Bed Therapy.
Pax et bonum.

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Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 198

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