Help...Starving Mother - Digestive Disorders Message Board

Jennifer85 · 02-06-2008, 06:54 PM

I have been watching my mom try and treat herself for almost 6 years now and have reached the point where i no longer believe she can do this on her own. She is starving herself, and i am afraid for her life. I have no idea what to label what she is going through all i can say is that she has several food intolerances. When she eats she gets extreme gas, bloating, burning, absolutely no energy, nausea, she's passing out all over the house. She is at a point now where she is solely juicing organic vegetables and is on an all liquid diet and weighs less then 90 pounds. She has lost all hope that doctors can help her, so refuses to go see anyone. She spends hours and hours online trying to find things to help her. She believes she may have candida (supposedly seen through a colonic), or even Crohns.

Does anyone have a suggestion? Is there a program or place that we can take her to get help? How do you even find out what is exactly wrong? She's been through the MRI's and no doctor can see anything specific. Any post will help tremendously!

HasLPRD · 02-07-2008, 12:55 PM

Jennifer,

Has she seen a gastroenterologist and had a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy performed? Crohns can usually be verified by colonoscopy. Candida can be confirmed with a stool culture. A typical family doctor is out of his element with things like this. She needs to see an appropriate specialist (a gastroenterologist in this case).

Is she taking any probiotics (like acidophilus). Those can help tremendously if the cause is bacterial or fungal (candida) overgrowth.

Mark.

Red60 · 02-08-2008, 06:58 PM

Jennifer you are in a really tough spot. I can kinda understand your moms additiude conserning the doctors. They do not have a very good track record for these types of problems and it can be very frustrating to make trip after trip to the dr with no results. After a while you give up hope and look somewhere else for answers vowing never to go back to the dr office again.

There is a diet method I know of for people who suffer from food intolerances including crohns. It was developed by a biochemist who had a daughter with severe food intolerances. It's called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. There are a number of active SCD support forums out there. The diet is very nutritious and eliminates all of the most common foods that cause problems. It is very strict but would open up more options than your mothers current diet. Considering you mothers current diet you might see if see would get her Vit b levels checked. Thats a deficiency that can be common with a meatless diet.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Wish you the best of luck with mom.