Posted 8/10/2016 10:08 AM (GMT -5)
On the thought of a possible Candida issue, have you read the most excellent post by P at the bottom of page 2 of the "New to Lyme?" thread. An amazing amount of information contained there, including a list of symptoms.
With that being said though, I have had significant GI issues without having yeast issues at all. The Bell's palsy of the gut article is a really good one to read. Do you have IBS symptoms?
I can look rather pregnant also, if my bowels slow down, as they have since starting my biofilm buster. For me, my bowels must live daily, as I've been warned by a very good Gastro that due to my advanced case of diverticulosis, if I don't "go" within 3 days, I need to be in the emergency room due to having a high risk of my intestines rupture.
I have pseudo-blockages due to intestinal cramping. Not all my cramping is even all that noticeable, but after a couple days of it I do notice my lower abdomen is sore - although I still do get some humdingers that can rock my world and double me over at times too.
Some if the symptoms that can occur when Lyme affects the digestive system:
" PHA
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
"Palsy Of The Gut" And Other GI Manifestations Of Lyme And Associated Diseases
March 1, 2008 in Science/Research by Dr. Virginia T. Sherr, MD
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Bell's palsy signifies paralysis of facial muscles related to inflammation of the associated seventh Cranial Nerve. Physicians may not realize that this syndrome is caused by the spirochetal agent of Lyme disease until proven otherwise. Whether it is a full or hemifacial paralysis, Bell's palsy is cosmetically disfiguring when fully expressed. Sudden loss of normal facial expression terrifies patients who naturally fear they are having a stroke. When a smile is asked for, normal countenances warp into bizarre grimaces. The amount of tooth area exposed in this attempt to smile helps doctors evaluate the degree of paralysis and its change over time (Figure 1). In every case of Bell's, doctors need to carefully investigate by history, physical, and laboratory work every shred of evidence that might suggest the presence of cryptic tertiary Lyme, a serious multisystem, gut and neuro-brain infection even though about half of fully diagnosed patients have no evidence whatsoever of having had a tick-bite.
Gastrointestinal Lyme disease may cause gut paralysis and a wide range of diverse GI symptoms with the underlying etiology likewise missed by physicians. Borrelia burgdorferi, the microbial agent often behind unexplained GI symptoms—along with numerous other pathogens also contained in tick saliva—influences health and vitality of the gastrointestinal tract from oral cavity to anus. Disruptions caused by GI borreliosis (Lyme) may include, amongst many others, distortions of taste, failure of other neural functions that supply the entire GI tract—paralysis or partial paralysis of the tongue, gag reflex, esophagus, stomach and nearby organs, small and/or large intestines ("ileus"), bowel pseudo-obstruction, intestinal spasms, excitability of gut muscles, inflammation of lumen lining tissues, spirochetal hepatitis, possibly cholecystitis, dysbiosis, jejunal or ileal incompetence with resultant small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), megacolon, encopresis and rectal muscle cramping (proctalgia fugax).
In cerebral hypothalamic and pituitary centers, usual sites of borrelial disruptions of the brain's normal hormonal cascades, there are strong influences on human attitudes, ideation, and behavior relating to gastronomic issues. Newly discovered Lymeendangered cerebral hormones and renegade cytokines regulate brain-gut interactions thus initiating behavioral tendencies such as anorexia or a failure of satiety with resultant obesity.
Ticks and other vectors of Lyme disease attract their own infections from many microbes, some known and some unknown (viruses, amoebas, bacteria, and possibly parasitic filaria), which they then also can pass on to humans. The GI tract is especially vulnerable to machinations of such co-infections as bartonellosis, mycoplasmosis, human anaplasmosis (HA), and human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME). Syndromes exactly similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Crohn's Disease, and cholecystitis, for example, may not have readily suggested a borrelial etiology to the diagnostician but Lyme increasingly is known to be a potential contributor to each.
All known Lyme-gut syndromes are treated by combining several effective antimicrobials (including use of azole medications with specific antibiotics) with agents that boost gut lining repairs and overall immunity enhancement. Azole medications are borreliacidal (against the anti-Bb spirochetal cyst form) medications such as metronidazole (Flagyl). Needed GI healing agents may include gut stimulants or relaxants, Ph agents, bile salts, nutriceuticals, immunity-enhancers, neurotoxin absorbents, and sterilizers of gut-specific microbes.
Parallelism between Lyme borreliosis-caused paresis of facial muscles supplied by Cranial Nerve VII and Lyme-caused gastrointestinal paralyses suggested a pseudonym to the author--Bell's palsy of the Gut—despite the fact that these syndromes are related to different types of neural fibers and only occasionally occur together. Since similar injury to all sites may be etiologically related, however, otherwise unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms should be considered as possibly related to Lyme borreliosis and/or its co-infections until proven otherwise.
Until proven otherwise, a patient's unexplained facial paralysis is caused by the tick-borne spirochetes of Lyme disease (LYD) (1). The widely endemic bacteria are easily capable of inducing distal inflammation of the Seventh Cranial (Facial) Nerve (2). "Considering the incidence of Bell's palsy in Lyme, it is improper to treat it as viral in origin without a work-up for Lyme disease" (3). In an early study with nearly 1000 LYD cases studied, Bell's palsy occurred in at least 10% of validated cases (4). The frequency of Lyme's Bell's palsy etiology is unfamiliar to many physicians. Likewise many physicians are unfamiliar with the spirochetal cause of paralyses of muscles that facilitate normal gastrointestinal transit. Yet, these vital muscles also may be greatly compromised by the same offending neurotropic spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) in patients who are totally unaware of having Lyme disease. Their physicians are often surprised to learn that persistent Lyme disease is outstandingly a disease of the brain as well as involving one or all components and sub-systems of the entire nervous system (5). It is not yet widely understood by clinicians that at least 40% or more of Lyme-infected patients have major, handicapping, neurological manifestations (6,7) with the likelihood that 100% have some brain involvement. It remains to be clarified which Bb neuritides are involved in specific GI sequelae of the infection or if inflamed nerves are, indeed uniformly at fault.
"The vagi (10th Cranial Nerves) are major suppliers of the gut's external nervous system and being very long and complex, are vulnerable to neuropathies such as Lyme disease or diabetes which can cause them serious damage." (Personal communication from Neurologist, Richard Rhee, M.D., F.A.A.N., Neptune, NJ)
"Vagus nerve paralyses are more commonly diagnosed when caused by Herpes (varicilla) zoster or Herpes simplex viruses wherein most patients I have seen are nauseated and have no appetite. I have not observed paralytic ileus in these cases. Should vagal paralysis occur in a Lyme patient, I think the patient would complain of hoarseness and dysphagia." (Personal communication from Dr. Hidecki Nakagawa, Japan) Indeed, both of these problems are common symptoms of neuro-Lyme.
"The autonomic nervous system supplies the gut . . . sympathetic fibers inhibiting peristalsis and secretion and parasympathetic fibers increasing them . . . Functions of the sympathetic nerves include vasomotor, motor to the sphincters, inhibition of peristalsis, and transport of sensory fibers from all of the abdominal viscera. . . . Functions of the parasympathetic nerves comprise motor and secretomotor to the gut and glands" (8).
Borreliosis-caused, gastrointestinal tract paralysis and related abnormalities can occur anywhere along the entire length of the tract (9,10)—involving, for example, functionality of taste buds (11,12), muscular strength of the tongue, gag reflex, ability to swallow, gastroparesis, peristaltic retardation (or excitation) related to small bowel competency, dysbiosis, total arrest of peristalsis ("ileus"), pseudo-obstruction (sometimes associated with Bell's palsy) (13), colon dysfunctions, encopresis, proctalgia fugax and the final act of defecation. "In 5%–23% of patients with early Lyme borreliosis, there can be gastrointestinal symptoms such as anorexia, nausea, vomiting, severe abdominal pain, hepatitis, hepatomegaly and splenomegaly. Diarrhea occurs but is seen in only 2% of cases" (14)."