What happened in Week3 (PPI or not to PPI)

I can't believe I'm already starting week4 (Tue 4th Feb)

This is a look back at week 3

Last week, I had to take a PPI on Tuesday.  Now that I know they interfere with absorption, I really wanted to find an alternative.  I read that slippery elm bark is good at actually repairing gut lining, so I ordered some of that which arrived on Friday.

I was away at my parents house for a couple of days. I'd taken some of my own Water Kefir, but I hadn't taken the cider vinegar (Mother Root), nor the Tibico Kefir, nor any fermented veg.    I was home on Friday, and I could feel stomach acid rising.  I was disappointed because it was only a couple of days since I'd taken a PPI.

The slippery elm bark had arrived while I was away, so I decided to take one.  I was surprised that it seemed to help with the acid, so I chugged some Mother Root and some Tibico Water Kefir as well, and decided to see if I could last another day before taking the PPI.

I was still aware of acid in my stomach the next day, so I took the slippery elm again, and the Mother Root, and it stayed manageable.     It's now Tuesday, so it's been a week since my last PPI.   My stomach acid isn't completely settled, but I'm still holding out on taking a PPI.   If I have to take one, I'd prefer to take it in the middle of the day, or sometime during the night, so I can avoid it interfering with everything else.

As the week closed, I considered what to do about starting the completely separate Amino Acid supplements.   Part of me wants to wait until I've been doing the Vitamin D protocol for longer.  However,   I'm going to need to get my annual thyroid blood tests done through my GP in a couple of months, so it would be great to have started on the amino acids to see if there is any thyroid improvement early on. 

I also want to ask the GP to do a folate test,  as it would be interesting to see if the Vitamin D protocol - or the amino acids - have had any effect on that before I make a decision on how to deal with that.   ( I've already paid  privately for tests my full thyroid, amino acids,  and vitamins before I started the protocol, so trying to time the NHS one seems reasonable).

I decided, on balance, that I'd start the amino acid supplements at the beginning of Week 4.

Kitchen sink drama

21st Jan, I started the second week of the Vitamin D Protocol, which requires doubling the Vitamin D to 10,000 IU.  It's up to me whether I double the K2 or whether I keep the K2 the same, and I chose to keep the K2 the same.  This means I'm taking one brand of softgel with the D3+K2, and another which just has the D3.   

Because I'm doubling up on D3, I need to ramp up the Magnesium.  K2 takes calcium to the bones and teeth and magnesium keeps it there. D also depletes magnesium,  so it needs to be replaced.   The Protocol says to increase to 500mg elemental Magnesium, so increase from 2 tablets to 5.  This was a huge jump and I didn't do it in one go,  I did 2 nights at3 tablets, followed by 2 nights at 4, and then upped to 5. 

On Thursday night I had really bad reflux.  The last time I'd taken a PPI tablet was Saturday, so I'd missed 2.   Quite a while ago I moved myself to having a tablet every other day instead of every day. Before starting on the cider vinegar and the water kefir, I had actually tried moving to every 3 days, but this was a failure.     Since being on the cider vinegar and water kefir, I'd skipped several days tablets with no ill effects.

Now that I was taking Magnesium, I wanted to stop the PPIs if possible.   I'd read that  PPIs stop minerals being absorbed, so I was hoping that the gut stuff I was doing would mean I didn't need to take them anymore.

The reflux/gerd continued on Friday, and I realised that I stupidly hadn't drunk any cider vinegar for.....I'm not sure how long.      I'd completely forgotten about it while I was busy making my own Water Kefir.    I drank some on Friday afternoon, but it didn't have the immediately calming effect  I was irrationally hoping for.

In the end, I took my evening Magnesium in the early evening, so that I could take a PPI that  night.

I need to get back into the routine of having some of the cider vinegar stuff every day.   I'll also drink some of the Tribeco water Kefir as well as my own Water Kefir.