My Toxic Bile and Fibromyalgia Experience
I ran into Dr. Garret Smith’s video on fibromyalgia and experimented with it, first with TUDCA and pysllium husk, and later with lactoferrin, nicotinic acid, and recommended mineral supplements. Enough time has gone by that I can safely give my n=1 results.
First, this is a fairly good treatment of fibromyalgia, roughly 85% effective. Before I had 2-4 fibro episodes a week, even with avoiding triggers such as exercise and only trying to do 1-2 things a day. When following the treatment I am down to 1-3 pre-fibro episodes. There was a little trial and error, where I discovered some of these things do trigger fibro episodes, but it’s all explained in the theory, which I will get to later.
I am now exercising more, and getting more stuff done. It was a bit of a shock at first to just feel fatigue, or sleepiness, or day after workout soreness by themselves without any of the achy pains, brain fog, or unwell feeling of fibro. It had been so long that I’d forgotten what that was like. I also realized that even though I didn’t have the fibro resistance to getting things done, I’ve also lost the habit of doing things. I am watching a lot less shows on the tablet. It seems clear that a lot of that was a way of distracting myself from the misery of fibro. Again this is not all perfect, because I have to follow the protocol exactly and I’m not conscientious, and I would put it at 85% effective even then.
The theory, which matches my experiences, is that you are toxic. Your liver collects these toxins, processes what it can, dumps what it can into your gallbladder, and stores the rest. The bile is injected into your digestive system when you eat and most of it is re-absorbed. If it’s full of toxins, they are also re-absorbed and you suddenly have a bunch of toxins and bile in your bloodstream causing havoc throughout your body. For me, this was a fibro episode. The solution is to catch these bile dumps with insoluble fiber, or activated charcoal, which binds the bile and then is pooped out. The fiber must be insoluble because fermentable fibers will be broken down, release bound bile and toxins.
My treatment is to catch the bile dump with fiber or activated charcoal and reduce the amount of bile/toxins that are re-absorbed. Other people may have problems with not producing enough bile (which some toxins cause to happen), but for me, it seems the main thing is knowing the triggers, and taking my absorbers. (So far - I wonder if not recycling bile will cause my body to struggle to produce enough.)
Bile dump triggers
Eating, especially fat in the half Tablespoon and up range.
Exercise
Stress (even minor amounts IME)
The afternoon (Specifically 1 pm til bedtime.
Supplements - TUDCA, lactoferrin (Careful with these, I triggered some really bad fibro episodes by taking the ‘normal’ doses)
Bile absorbers
Psyllium Husk powder (I’ve been doing between 2-3 teaspoons.
Activated Charcoal (My dosage is a little more than a gram. I reserve this for the worst times, such as exercise + refeed because this impairs some micronutrient absorption.)
IME The peaty carrot also works if eaten at the right time
Timing: Carrot to be eaten 10 minutes before meal or exercise. With the other two I’ve come around to taking them after a meal, but before exercise.
Compare/Contrast to Raypeat
Both are focused on toxins both external and produced in your gut, so they are similar guidelines such as not eating peels or skins, vegetables are suspect, and so forth. One big difference is that Dr. Smith’s Love Your Liver (LYL) program emphasizes that Vitamin A and copper are toxins, whereas Raypeat thinks Vitamin A levels are low in people. The peaty carrot would be a big no-no, as you don’t want to mess around with beta carotene if you need to reduce Vitamin A. (I suppose white carrots would satisfy both masters.)
The other major difference is LYL focuses a lot on getting toxins out, whereas Raypeat took a ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ approach. He was suspicious of losing weight because his experience was that he would be flooded with glyphosate when he started losing weight.
LYL detox protocol
Limit toxins. Like I said above many toxins turn off or impede detox pathways.
Major ones - liver, kidneys, fortified milk, eggs. Fortified milk has tons of Vitamin A in it. Eggs were a bit of a shocker, but I did some research, and several studies suggest egg intake in the 2-3 times a week range is associated with NAFLD - so it’s toxic. To be clear, this only pushes some over the threshold, not everybody, and the exact pathway is not known. It could be A, it could be the choline leading to TMAO in the gut.
Milk has a lot of A in it, but I don’t think its toxic. Some people struggle with milk but it also seems a not uncommon theme for someone to eat nothing but raw milk and fermented milk products and be very healthy into late age.
In any case, my experience does not rest on knowing the particular toxin, or accepting any one of these are toxic. I expect because I ate a lot of dark chocolate in periods past that I probably have a copper problem, but that can be tested with hair mineral analysis.
Support detox pathways by getting the raw materials your body needs - protein, especially nicotinic acid, minerals (Magnesium, potassium, zinc, selenium, molybdenum)
Give your body sufficient rest and time to carry out these processes.
Restore Bile flow (if needed). Gallstones and other issues may be at fault here. The liver cleanse protocol (another program/book) is another way of doing this, though it was pretty rough, when I tried it a few years ago.
Fiber and activated charcoal bind bile in the intestines so that it is excreted.
Restore proper intestinal motility (if needed). I like a tablespoon of baking soda (mixed with the potassium version), and occasionally cascara sagrada. As a note, following a meal with fiber and then carbonate makes you feel full.)
Sweating is also a good way to eliminate toxins. Sweaty exercise and
Blood donation seems like it would be of some help.
Regarding those supplements, the Love Your Liver program sells those that aren’t readily available elsewhere. They are pricey, but Dr. Smith’s work is invaluable, so I see that as going to a good cause. The magnesium lotion, graduated dosage, and specific mineral mix are uniquely suitable to the LYL program. I didn’t join his program, because in the 'lead, follow, or get out of the way’ scheme of things, I’m much more of a get out of the way and do my own thing kind of guy.
Your body’s ability to detox seems limited. Symptoms of detoxing too much have been light headaches, malaise, and difficulty concentrating like fibro, but milder overall and without the aches and pain. He cautions that to thoroughly detox might take years, and the liver can easily store a ten-year supply of vitamin A.