# IBS - Blastocystis Hominis parasite. Medical mismanagement, ignorance and dishonesty



## jabawok123 (Apr 29, 2015)

Ok I'm posting on here because I want to sincerely help people with IBS and their debilitating symptoms. I have nothing to sell, nothing to profit from. Please read what I have to say regarding the blastocystis hominis parasite and getting help for IBS in general.

1. The first thing you need to do is calm down. It doesn't matter how long you've had this problem for, stay calm you will get through this. God will help you out (I'm Christian). Triple check my facts, cross-reference, consult real doctors and specialists and naturopaths and see what they have to say, and then use your common sense. You need to re-evaluate your belief system regarding western medicine and how much trust you place in doctors versus your own common sense. See www.badbugs.org. That said, you might want to find a doctor/naturopath which considers a wholistic view of the body.

2. If you have been diagnosed with IBS, then get some STOOL TESTS done - in particular a culture test and a parasitology test to get more insight of what's going on. My GP and gastro specialist did not even mention to get stool tests done which I find utterly absurd. Their diagnosis initially came down to food intolerance. Regarding the parasitology test, I did my first one with Doctor's Data which have "fixed samples" which means the vials come with a preservative so any parasite's DNA is retained. This can make a critical difference regarding diagnosis.

3. I was diagnosed with the blastocystis hominis parasite. Everyone's body is different plus the fact that there are multiple Blastocystis subtypes - something like 35 different strains so treatment success and failures may vary: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0074-02762009000500011&script=sci_arttext If a doctor tells you that blastocystis is not harmful, then mention the subtypes. I confronted my gastro specialist about the subtypes which he admitted there were known subtypes and also admitted he didn't know much about them. This is completely contradictory to his initial diagnosis that blastocystis is not harmful.

4. The first line of treatment is actually diet - namely the Specific Carbohydrates Diet. It's going to have to be very low in sugar and in carbohydrates/starch. This is not a coincidence and there is ample literature that blasto feeds on sugar and carbs and then ferments, which creates gas and results in an alcohol in your gut. Read up on it and do the research. Limit fruit/honey and also nuts if you find you cannot tolerate it. http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/ http://scdlifestyle.com/ This is your fallback to having a day-to-day life, it excludes more food than Paleo or GAPS. It's the most restrictive diet I've ever heard of in fact. It's a hard diet, preparing meals takes time and effort but stick to it 100%. SCD has been used to treat IBS, IBD, Crohn's, UC, you name it when there is no other route to treatment. You may be low on energy but ample amounts of eating and fat intake should keep your energy levels up. It's a safe diet, even for the long term but it is NOT a normal life, this is a medical diet. My blasto/IBS symptoms improved by 80% within 36 hours of this diet. Exclusion diet will help and even reduce blasto numbers slightly but won't be able to kill blasto completely. This diet is only a symptom reliever and I recommend not going on this diet if you don't have to. So eat carbs/sugar once in a while to get your energy levels back up.

5. Alcohol does help to kill gut parasites but I would take it in MODERATION. A dry red wine or vodka, free of sugar, which are also SCD legal can be used as part of your diet. Red wine is also a pre-biotic. Do heavy drinking at your own risk which is proven to be harmful to your gut and health in general. Remember ethanol is actually poison which can kill you as well as your parasite. I seriously do not recommend high alcohol consumption to cure this parasite. Some resources: -Alcohol used to stop Cholera outbreak - remember antibiotics were not invented in the 1800s: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/02/17/strong-medicine-drinking-wine-and-beer-can-help-save-you-from-cholera-montezumas-revenge-e-coli-and-ulcers1/ -Resarch paper: alcohol kills Cholera: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3046197/ -Insect self-medicates with alcohol: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120216133428.htm

6. I can't say if natural herbs/therapy will work or not work. Although what I can say is there are so so many different types for "naturally" treating blasto it's not funny. My general opinion of herbal treatment is that it's still fringe science. It may work, and great but you just got lucky. Don't self medicate with herbs as they can also be damaging if taken in unsafe quantities, at least consult a naturopath. From all the research I've done and coming from my own naturopath, herbal medicines generally don't work for blastocystis.

7. You may be trawling through the internet and seeing so many reports of flagyl (metronidozle) not working for blasto. Yes, sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes it does work, that's why it's controversial but don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Read into the medical research papers about dosage and duration. Some are 200mg twice a day for 7 days. Some are more and longer like 600mg 3 times a day for 3 weeks. Hopefully your doctor will make a sound judgement on this. Obviously, don't take alcohol while taking flagyl but go on a normal diet while taking medication as your body will need the energy, but do not splurge on carbs and sugar. Diet makes some difference to help the medication but the medication is meant to work for any diet. In other words, if the meds didn't kill the blasto then the meds are not working. Be prepared that flagyl will not work.

8. Check out Prof. Barody's triple antibiotic treatment at www.cdd.com.au as a last resort but it seems the only way out despite it sounding like chemotherapy. Know that it is a legitimate option but not a widely accepted treatment. I don't recommend this option unless you have tried at least the diet/flagyl treatment and also ruling out other causes of your symptoms. CDD in Sydney is at the forefront in this research. See www.badbugs.org . Take probiotics post treatment and gut healing protocols as the drugs wipe out your good bacteria as well. Try not to get reinfected. If you develop a rash or any side effects, consider stopping the treatment or consult your doctor immediately. My gastro specialist did not mention Tom Barody until I brought it up and even said Prof. Barody is the most cited gastro researcher in the world and is in the same league as the two other Australian scientists who won the Nobel prize for investigating helybactor pylori. Long story short, my gastro specialist did not prescribe me Prof. Barody's treatment since it jeopardized his gastrospecialist career and related medical community. He already knew everything I did about blastocystis hominis if not more but withheld information from me in order to minimise his own risks of dealing with alternative treatments. This of course was very infuriating but it was always within God's plan I guess.


----------



## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

Well, I've been following the SCD diet for six years. Today is my 6th anniversary.

Some three years ago I tested positive for blastocystis hominis. I don't know if it is the culprit of my symptoms. All I know is that as of today I am in chronic pain and I haven't found a solution. My latest test shows candida overgrowth.


----------



## jabawok123 (Apr 29, 2015)

jaumeb said:


> Well, I've been following the SCD diet for six years. Today is my 6th anniversary.
> 
> Some three years ago I tested positive for blastocystis hominis. I don't know if it is the culprit of my symptoms. All I know is that as of today I am in chronic pain and I haven't found a solution. My latest test shows candida overgrowth.


by the sounds of it, blastocystis hominis and candida are a very likely cause of your symptoms. When I was diagnosed with blastocystis in light of my ongoing gastro symptoms, the parasite basically offered the only explanation of the cause. In any case, it would be completely logical to get rid of blastocystis and candida first and then re-evaluate the situation. Both my GP and gastrospecialist at least recommended that I eradicate the parasite to see if it made things better. It was only when conventional flagyl didn't kill the blasto that he started saying that blasto is harmless. Ask yourself this: you've been on the SCD diet for 6 years, and you are still in chronic pain, is it worth considering that this parasite/overgrowth is the cause?


----------



## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

Thanks for your comment jabawok123. There is a lot of mystery around both candida and blastocystis hominis. When I read the literature I get the impression that no one know what's really going on.

Last year I read that S. Boulardii is effective with bout blasto and candida. I was taking Boulardii and yesterday decided to change to another brand. Hopefully the new brand is better and helps to erradicate the bad bugs.


----------



## jabawok123 (Apr 29, 2015)

jaumeb said:


> Thanks for your comment jabawok123. There is a lot of mystery around both candida and blastocystis hominis. When I read the literature I get the impression that no one know what's really going on.
> 
> Last year I read that S. Boulardii is effective with bout blasto and candida. I was taking Boulardii and yesterday decided to change to another brand. Hopefully the new brand is better and helps to erradicate the bad bugs.


hey jaumeb, Yes, you are right, there is a lot of mystery surrounding candida and blastocystis hominis - but for blastocystis hominis particularly, as far as I know, the mystery is disappearing. The question is: does blastocystis hominis cause IBS symptoms? The answer is both yes and no. Some people with blasto have no symptoms and some do, and are quite serious. Like I said in my original post, there are many blasto subtypes and unfortunately, current (commercial) stool tests cannot identify them. Firstly, the diagnosis is controversial as to whether its harmful - but there is ample literature that it CAN be harmful. The next controversy is treatment and how to eradicate it - which I mentioned flagyl or the triple anti-biotic therapy, with the latter reporting much much higher success. Unfortunately, both controversies regarding diagnosis and treatment are not well understood in mainstream medicine and thus results, in people like myself who had this enormously frustrating IBS for 2.5 years without knowing why until I was finally cured. That said, IBS is a condition, a term used in the medical world to provide a label for a patient. IBS is not a disease, it is solely a label to describe symptoms, which doctors cannot find a causality to - I learned this lesson the hard way.

I'm not going to say S. Boulardii won't work - I've never tried, but given my experience with blasto, I wouldn't get my hopes up.

I don't have a medical background but I'm a postgrad student studying computational neuroscience and I've been trained to analyse information and read research papers with objectivity. I used my university resources to read up on all the relevant medical research papers and all this analysis is important when dealing with a gray area of medicine, especially when mainstream medicine can be counter-productive. So when I heard about grastrologist Tom Barody, who has been featured in a documentary program:

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2862777.htm

and more recently in news:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-18/sydney-doctor-claims-poo-transplants-curing-diseases/5329836

who developed a treatment for blastocystis, I jumped on the band wagon. This isn't some Hulda Clarke or quack job alternative herbal medicine treatment invented through spiritual meditation. This is real science. Are there risks? Sure but when you run out of options, it's worth considering. You should read up the story on how for decades how stomach ulcers are deemed to be caused by stress, and then the guys who discovered the helibactor pylori connection actually infected themselves and proved it was the cause of the ulcers, and went on to win a nobel prize. I would not be surprised if Tom Barody wins a nobel prize in the future.

I'm not trying to convince you of a particular treatment or belief but I'm trying to convince you to analyse information objectively which hopefully will lead you to the right treatment and eventual cure. I hope everyone who reads this thread understands what I'm trying to say.


----------



## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

I agree with you, jabawok123.

For me the blasto is mysterious in the sense that:

1st You never know if it is actually there. I tested positive in the past. It was not there in my latest test last month.

2nd When, it is found, there are no clinically available means to know which subtype.

3rd Even if the subtype was known, there is no agreement regarding its role in the disease. Some are asymptomatic carriers, some present symptoms.

4th There is no agreement regarding the treatment.

5th The treatment is a lottery. Some patients improve and some get worse.

I remember reading testimonies that underwent Borody's triple therapy and didn't improve.

I also read a testimony of guy that was repeatedly treated with antibiotic with no success. And later he spontaneously recovered.

I think I read in a paper that long-term prognosis was worse for those that underwent treatment.

I tried to read the papers about blastocystis and I couldn't reach any conclusion other that no one understands it. I also read the forums and I couldn't find anything useful.

I think it is really good that you share your experience. If we can gather testimonies in the forums about what works and what doesn't, we will be able to make more informed decisions in the future.


----------



## jabawok123 (Apr 29, 2015)

jaumeb said:


> I agree with you, jabawok123.
> 
> For me the blasto is mysterious in the sense that:
> 
> ...


Yes, ok I totally understand what you are saying. Trust me, I had roughly the same thinking you had once upon a time.

More sites to find information or testimonials on blastocystis: http://www.curezone.org and http://forums.phoenixrising.me if you don't them already.

I would like to add some key points to further your list:

1. I would encourage you to do a parasitology test that has the preserved fixed samples. Unfixed samples have been known to test false negatives for blasto.

2. Most of the current research if not all research outside of Tom Barody's lab are simply testing or analysing existing paradigms eg. testing if flagyl or metronidozle works or not. Yes, you are right, there is no agreement on treatment, let alone the subtypes, let alone the diagnosis of the subtypes. Tom Barody's lab is the literally the only clinic in the world, yes that's right - in the world, that are coming up with new treatments (regardless of subtype) and doing clinical trials. To me as an academic, that is very very significant. This means, by definition and extrapolation, no one else knows as much on actual blasto treatment as Barody does. There is a massive difference between a doctor/researcher who knows about it or read up on it versus a doctor/researcher who conducts clinical trials to come up with new treatment. I'm not saying Barody is perfect but In other words, *Barody's research is starting to invalidate existing beliefs and paradigms on blasto and related parasites. *Likewise, no one is going to say stomach ulcers are caused purely be stress or spicy foods anymore because Barry Marshall and Robin Warren actually found the causation of helibactor pylori.

3. If Barody publishes his results in a paper that would be great but he already claims an 80% cure rate with his oral anti biotics treatment on his website at cdd.com.au.

Likewise, read as much testimonials as you can about the barody's blasto treatment and add up your own statistics on success and failure.

All the essential logic applies for your current diagnosis of candida as well.

I am more than happy to provide my testimonial. Thanks for reading.


----------



## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

I also have great respect for Borody's work. After all, he was the one that came up with the treatment for H. Pylori. I also tested positive for H. Pylori at some point and later tests showed no infection so I was never treated. Quoting wikipedia ...



> As a gastroenterologist, Borody is most famous for his work on the development of the _triple therapy_ for infection with _Helicobacter pylori_ bacteria. The _triple therapy_, which was invented around 1987, is a combination of bismuth, metronidazole and tetracycline. At the time, Borody was working with Dr. Barry Marshal and Dr. Robin Warren (who later received a Nobel prize for their research into Helicobacter pylori), and is considered to be the first physician to successfully formulate the triple therapy that would later become the gold standard for treating peptic ulcer disease caused by Helicobacter pylori infection.


He seems to like antibiotic coctels. He was also a pioneer in fecal bacteriotherapy. Now everyone is talking about it and this guy was writing his papers many many years ago. No doubt he is a genious.


----------

