Today, I'm going to share tips to help you succeed with your dysbiosis protocols for
either parasites, bacteria, or yeast, even if you're having a hard time with them.
So stay tuned.
Hi there.
If you're new here.
My name is Amanda Malachesky.
I'm a Functional Nutrition Coach and a Digestive and Allergy Detective, which means that I
help you find solutions to your digestive and allergy challenges using natural solutions.
If you want to hear more about this on a regular basis, please consider subscribing and be
sure and click the bell to be notified when I post a new video, every week.
Today's topic came from a conversation I had last week with a viewer who was having trouble
with her dysbiosis protocol and she didn't know how to adapt it or what to do about it
to make it better.
So in this video today, I'm going to share what you most need to know to properly use
your dysbiosis protocol elements and especially how to use them properly if you're having
any side effects such as a Herxheimer reaction or nausea or other things like that.
I'm coming to you today on generator power.
I live in California, but it's not going to stop me from making videos.
So let's get started.
Some of you may have been recommended somewhat complex supplement protocols to deal with
bacteria, parasites or yeasts or other concerns, but sometimes you're not given instructions
about how to add those supplements in one by one or how to properly use them or what
to do if you have a problem.
And because often the natural paths and functional medicine doctors and so on that are helping
you with your care are really expensive by the hour, you can kind of hesitate maybe to
reach out to them to find out what to do.
So I wanted to make a video that talked about what to do in this case.
It's unfortunate that people don't get great instructions about this because it's really
important to know how to use these supplements properly, because if you don't, you can have
unpleasant side effects like nausea, headaches, feeling flu-like and so on.
So if you have questions about how to do this properly, you've come to the right place.
I'm going to make sure to answer these questions and more, but I do want to make sure to recommend
that if you're going to make changes to your supplement protocol or other recommendations
from your healthcare provider that you do check with your healthcare provider first.
The first thing I want to ask you about before we dive in to talking about supplements and
the protocol, is whether you've taken the preliminary, what I call, clearing the muddy
water steps in order to make sure that your body is fully ready and prepared to handle
the dysbiosis protocol.
So the herbs and things that are used in dysbiosis protocols are kind of hard on the body and
they are killing dysbiotic bacteria or yeast or parasites.
And just like when you take antibiotics, this can cause a die-off reaction, those organisms
are dying and then back up our cleaning systems and our detox systems.
So in order to make sure that your body is set up in a great way to get started and to
go on to succeed with your protocol, it's really important that you handle three separate
things.
So the first thing is to make sure that you are eating a diet that is free of foods that
are inflammatory for you.
I definitely talk about this extensively in some of my other videos.
You'll want to out the one called How to Do an Elimination Diet for IBS.
Basically you want to get clear on which food ingredients are triggering symptoms for you.
Certainly before you embark on a dysbiosis protocol, you want to make sure that you're
not feeding the flames of the fire that's going on already.
So go ahead and check out that video for more information about that.
The second thing that I want to make sure you're doing, no matter what other protocol
has been recommended, is that you are giving your body basic digestive support.
And what I mean by this is primarily to be using stomach acid supports, digestive enzymes
and that you're chewing thoroughly and so on.
I do have another video about this that you can check out to find out all the details
about what I recommend there and that one's called Digestive Tips for IBS and SIBO.
So do make sure to check that out and make sure that you are incorporating those tips
because using those helps make the environment in your gut inhospitable to the organisms
that you're trying to get rid of.
It's just going to set the environment up for success.
And the third thing that I want to make sure that you're attending to before you dive into
a dysbiosis protocol is to consider supporting your detox functions, especially your liver
health.
So all of the die-off and the detoxing that needs to happen as you're killing these organisms
needs to be processed through the liver.
And if your liver is already a little bit bogged down, which it often is if you have
dysbiosis, you want to make sure to support this function so that your body can successfully
clean out any waste products that happened as a result of the cleaning.
So I also have another video talking a little bit more thoroughly about this.
So if you need a little support with this, please do check out the video called Improve
Liver Function for Better Digestive Health.
And I'll leave links for all of these videos below this video.
Now that you've taken care of all those foundational steps, the next thing you want to do is get
started on your protocol as recommended by your practitioner.
And this may include things such as antimicrobials, it may include biofilm busters, it may include
binders, and it also may include some digestive support nutrients, things like glutamine,
which helps support the lining of the intestine.
But no matter what they are, you want to be sure to ask your practitioner about what order
you should start them in and you want to make sure to start them one supplement at a time.
This is really, really important and that's because...
I'm sure a lot of you watching are already in the boat where you have a lot of reactions
and sensitivities to things, so you're maybe already on this page, but it's really important
that you very carefully add the supplements in one at a time and that you start with a
small dose and see how you do.
A lot of people react to some of these things.
That's something that's often not talked about in the doctor's office and it's really important
to be mindful and to be aware that this can happen.
So the strategy to make sure that you succeed here is to start one supplement at a time
and to slowly increase the amount of that supplement up to the maximum recommended dose.
You don't want to start with three capsules three times a day or 10 drops if that's the
maximum dose three times a day you want to start with a third of that dose or a half
of that dose and see how you do and then increase slowly as you're clear that you tolerate the
supplement just fine.
This looks really different for each individual person.
Like for some people you might be able to get right up to that maximum dose within a
few days time or a week.
And for other people, like me as I've been working some of these protocols right now
with my naturopath, it's taken me weeks to get to the full dose.
My body just doesn't tolerate these supplements very well.
They are helping, they're helping my digestive symptoms.
But if I take too much, I start to feel bad.
So in general, what you want to do here is really listen carefully to what your body's
telling you and blend that with the advice that you're getting from your practitioner
about how to proceed.
So what if you do find that you're having a negative reaction to a supplement or to
the die-off reaction, which is called a Herxheimer reaction.
What then?
So first I want you to confirm for yourself that you are including the digestive support
steps and the liver detox support steps that I mentioned in the other videos.
And if you're confident that that's happening to the best of your abilities, you can also
reduce the amount of the supplement temporarily while you're going through the protocol, or
maybe even drop it back to a better level that you can sustain for a longer period of
time.
So for example, this person who called me was using seven drops three times per day
of the biociden protocol, which even though those are small amounts, that's a really powerful
dose and they were having side effects.
And so I said to them, "You can absolutely take less drops or you can take a day off,
like your protocol might end up looking like five days on, two days off, or every other
day you take a dosage.
So you really have to play with this, be empowered and play with it to find the amount that works
for you that you feel is having an effect but isn't overwhelming your body's detox functions."
So in addition to playing with the dose of your antimicrobials and your antibiofilm supplements,
which are going to be the supplements that are most likely to cause some negative symptoms
and side effects, I do want you to be sure to be including binders which ideally probably
have been recommended for you as well.
These are supplements that bind up the toxic byproducts of the die-off and help you excrete
them.
But sometimes people have trouble with binders, most notably constipation is really common
because there's clay in them or charcoal and it can kind of slow things down as they pass
through the intestines.
But this is really not what we want to be happening, we're wanting those toxins to be
eliminated.
So if you're having negative side effects from your binders, especially constipation,
you can take less or you can maybe add them every other day, like I was suggesting in
the other step.
Definitely adjust the amounts to what's proper for your body.
Ultimately, it's important to be responsive to what your body's telling you, above all
else.
This isn't a race and even if the protocol is supposed to take 60 or 90 days, if you
need to reduce the dosages and make it take longer, maybe 120 days or even longer, up
to six months or even a year, that's okay.
If that's the speed that your body needs to go, then that's the speed that your body needs
to go.
There is no right or wrong about this.
So I'm curious to hear about your experience.
Have you used a dysbiosis protocol and had negative side effects and have you had to
adjust your dosages and your approach?
Tell me about your experience below in the comments.
So I do hope that these tips have helped you get a little more clarity on what you can
do to manage your dysbiosis protocols so that you can feel great and make sure that you
get through them successfully.
And if you feel like you need a little bit more help or support getting started right
now on some of the other steps you can take to make sure that your digestive system is
getting all the support and love that it needs to heal, I want to invite you to download
my Roadmap to Gut Recovery.
It's a free action guide that's got a bunch of steps you can take almost right away to
get started on the other important pieces of your healing journey.
So you can find that by heading over to confluencenutrition.com/roadmap or I will leave a link below this video so
you can head down there and click on it to grab it for yourself.
And finally, if you've done a little bit or even a lot of this work already and you're
ready to have someone, like myself, who can help you navigate some of the specifics and
give you some support around that, I encourage you to schedule a free 30 minute assessment
session with me.
During the session, I'll get a chance to hear a little bit about what's happening with your
health situation, what I might suggest to be your next steps, and we can talk about
what it might look like to work together a little more formally.
So go ahead and head over to confluencenutrition.com/contact to schedule that for yourself.
I do have some openings in the next couple of weeks for those sessions and I will look
forward to seeing you there.
I hope these tips help you get through your dysbiosis protocol with flying colors and
I will look forward to seeing you guys next time.
Take care.