Nikitimbo

HHi guys, nope Liverplex wasn't advised to me by a doctor, I just happened across it. Actually nothing that’s ever worked for me (re nausea/digestive problems) came from doctor’s advice*.

*I'm sure others get a lot of help/benefit from doctors. I have nothing against them personally (they can only apply what they learn from uni/the field). But, from my experience, unless you have a cancerous tumour or something specifically testable/treatable (which is usually always something science came across by accident and doesn't fully understand) doctors are just as much in the dark as patients (actually, usually more so, b/c patients have a much greater incentive to research their particular symptoms). Unfortunately, most doctors have egos and they're loath to admit this. It's much nicer for them if patients think they're all-knowing gurus who have all the answers (although I did find a GI who was comfortable enough in his skin to admit that they haven't even scratched the surface when it comes to understanding our digestive tracts).

One thing I did learn from one GI was that "chronic" nausea is most likely sourced from your lower intestine. Not your stomach. This is why you can go without eating for a while and have no let-up in the nausea. This seems to hold true/make sense to me.

Re other meds/remedies that have worked for me: I've tried pretty much everything available to kick the nausea, prescribed and herbal. The side effects from prescription meds (e.g. Maxolon -*shiver*) were worse than the nausea (if that's possible). I think when you lose heaps of weight/get physically weak, you become more susceptible to side effects. On the herbal front - almost everything I've tried has been a waste of money. The stalwart herb for nausea, “ginger", has never had a discernible effect on me. A doctor suggested once that I try marijuana. I managed to get a hold of some through a friend of a friend (you can’t have it prescribed unless you have cancer), but, again, it didn't help at all.

However, occasionally, I'll hit on something that works like a charm (nb I’m a total sceptic when it comes to these things, so it always comes as a huge surprise). Liverplex was one of them (10mls, 2-3 times a day). If I run out of it/don't take it for a few days, I find it really hard to eat and the nausea starts to creep back.

I also found another amazing substance that changed my life (for the period it was available). A white mineral powder from “Musashi” called "Fu" (for digestive problems). It gave me an appetite. I figured it just happened to hit on exactly the thing that was lacking in my gut. Unfortunately they stopped making it (and my appetite went away again). I tried making it up myself from individual ingredients, but oddly it didn’t work. I now take Musashi's "Huan", which doesn't work anywhere near as well as the Fu (also, unlike for Liverplex, when I run out of the Huan, I barely feel anything).

Other things that have worked for me:
* Sandra Cabot's “magnesium complete” - doesn't do much directly for nausea but it's amazing for stress. Nb - I've tried countless other magnesium brands, and none of them had any discernible effect on me. This is the only magnesium pill where you can actually feel it working. After about 20 mins of taking it, you feel like you're on a double dose of Valium, but in a good way (if you don't get that effect, you probably don't need it). Proper magnesium is so good for you, on so many levels, and you also can’t overdose on it.
* Pretorius peppermint pills (no longer available) - these were absolutely amazing, incredibly relieving and great for the nausea. Something I came to depend upon. Unfortunately, they stopped making them . I've tried pretty much every other peppermint pill on the market (overseas/domestic) and nothing else works. From my research, the consensus seems to be that the Pretorius peppermint pills were the only ones with enteric coatings strong enough to withstand the stomach acids, to make it through to the small intestine (nb peppermint will just make you sicker if it bursts in your stomach)
* Ensure - again, I owe my life/career to this stuff. I had chronic insomnia as well as nausea. I relied on medication to put me to sleep. I had to get tailors to take in my size 6 clothes (it was a constant struggle to keep the weight on). This went on for about 10 years, before I discovered Ensure. I feel a strong surge of wellbeing-energy whenever I have it and I started sleeping perfectly within days of starting to have it. They give it to patients with bowel cancer, who can no longer digest normal food. My eating also gotten (and continues to get) easier and easier since I started this. If they stop making it, I really don't know what i'll do.
* Zyprexa (anti-psychotic that has the side effect of increased appetite) – if you want to go down the medication route, I was given this stuff to give me an appetite. It works like a charm, and puts a cap on the nausea. Problem is, it has other nasty side-effects. You feel sleepy all the time and you get very angry for no reason (I have a bad temper so it wasn’t terrific for me ☺). It was great for putting me to sleep but I had to drag myself through every day just to stay awake (I’m off it now and just take Liverplex, Huan, Ensure & magnesium). This one’s a last resort in my opinion.

Apart from the above, I also take fish oil tablets. But (unlike the above) I've never actually ‘felt’ these working, I just hear they’re meant to be good for you.

One more thing (I should be studying/working ), which is completely off-topic and probably of no use to you. But...if “depression” ever becomes a problem for you guys (and for me, for what I’ve been thru, I think it was inevitable), if the doctors put you on SSRI's and they don't work for you, have a search online for "Stablon". Everyone who writes about it, raves about it. I’ve never read anything negative, and for me it’s pretty much made me feel human again.

It's not available in Australia. The sole reason for this - the manufacturer (Servier) discovered its efficacy for depression (they were testing it for schizophrenia without luck) at the end of its patent. This meant they had no incentive to go through the very expensive process (of duplicated medical trials etc) to get it registered in more than a few select countries - France, Germany and a couple of others. My doctor writes me a script for it and I order it through a pharmacy registered with “Pharmacy checker” (a charity organisation that works with the USA drugs administration, to verify the legitimacy of licensed on-line pharmacies).

Stablon (an SSRE) works in the opposite way to SSRIs. It reduces (rather than increases) the amount of serotonin in your brain. But (by doing so) it boosts the levels of dopamine - which turns out to be the thing that I'm deficient in.

If (like me) you get depression from this, and anti-depressants don't work for you, it could be that dopamine is your problem, and not serotonin. Please forgive my scepticism here but - there really is no independence b/w the medical profession and the pharmaceutical companies. There's absolutely no money in marketing and distributing a medication that’s out of patent (I'm a lawyer, so I have a good understanding of what an arse the law is). The reason not more doctors prescribe this stuff is that, if a med is not registered here, the doctor can’t pass on any insurance-indemnity claim to the manufacturer if you have a bad reaction to it.

Fingers crossed your doctors will find the cause of your problems, but if they don't - please remember - there is no such thing as an untreatable patient. There are just patients who haven’t been given the right treatment. If you don't feel well and they can't find what's wrong with you (and unless you have Munchausen syndrome or hypochondria - which makes up about 0.00001% of undiagnosed patients - making the chances of you having it almost nil) it isn't "in your head". You just happen to be a patient who has something that is one of the 99% of things to do with the human body that science still hasn't got its head around yet.

Hope this helps and sorry for the long thesis.