Day 76 Labor Day

Ugly shore pound but lots of Vitamin D.

Quick update. 172.2 pounds and some loose bowel movements between solid normal dailies. Been a while since I have felt a compulsion to run but getting the miles in. Sugar craving back full steam. Got word from the lab that my sample and the donor both tested negative for Shigella. Formal report should be ready this week. Getting really tired of waiting for labs. Would just like to be back where I was a couple weeks ago. As this self-experiment continues I am going to prioritize how I feel as the sole determinate in how I dose. As far as anyone knows some of these findings may be part of normal changes in the gastrointestinal epithelium when one does this type of restoration. Happy Labor Day.

Day 72

Last two days I have had diarrhea mixed with normal bowel movements. No idea why but if I had to guess my body is flushing out/coming into a balance with whatever is causing the small amount of inflammation in my colon. Less motivation to run and food signals are returning to baseline with major sugar cravings. Happy with experiment but missing the compulsion to run and the healthier food signals. 10 days without the capsules and I am ready to get going again. My plan is to wait for the results from my last coprological examination and resume at 0.05ml every day and adjust according to what my body is telling me.

Glad I am documenting this even if it feels extremely narcissistic. Can see significant positive changes from day 11 photo. Day 11 photo is better than day 0 (sorry no picture for baseline - thought this was going to be an immune function experiment). Getting harder to stay away from simple sugars. Ready to start my "probiotics" again.

Day 68 Sh*t is Getting Paleo

Lots to catch up on. Before I left for the mountains to train at elevation I got the results of the parasitology and fecal analysis back. There were some interesting findings that will have to be verified. The foremost being some inflammation in my colon as evidenced by the leukocyctes and mucus in my fecal sample. Will be running tests on my donors sample and I am taking 8 days off from the capsules. If this is what I think it is then it should take that long to clear.

My hookworm population.

Hard to read but mucus, leukocytes and pasty consistency found in fecal sample.

I will submit another fecal sample this Monday for analysis but the most likely culprit is Shigella. It can survive freezing, takes only a small dose to be infective (which might be why it was missed in the screening) and would explain the diarrhea I experienced with the two capsules a day. Now to put this possible finding in context. Here are the results from my serology.
 

Low RBC and hemoglobin from giving a pint of blood on 8/8/15

The low RBC and Hemoglobin were from a blood donation a week prior. Despite being low in my oxygen carrying capacity here are the runs I did at an elevation of 6,000 ft. to 9,000 ft. over the last four days. These were tough runs and I was feeling really good until I got to 9,000 ft and then I got dizzy.

 

Hot day.

Elevation got me above 9,000 ft.  Got dizzy and did not think taking a hemocrit of 37 above that was a good idea. Too easy to get hurt and help is a long way away.

Confirmation testing is pending but whatever is going on I am feeling great. The recovery from the 16 mile run was phenomenal. I could have run again that night. The next day I did a leisurely 6 mile acclimation hike up to 9,000 ft. The 14 miler on Friday I could feel some inflammation starting in my knees. I am writing this on Sunday and I feel all kinds of different aches and pains (not just in my legs but my neck and forearms) which I have not been feeling the last couple months. The further I get from my last fecal microbial capsule the more I am recognizing my old inflammation. I am ready to start taking my probiotics again. Even if there is supposedly a "bad" bacteria I am having a hard time seeing how it as an all "bad" thing that has to be eradicated.  The goal should be trying to coexist and if it is possible to get the good without the bad. Shigella is an organism that you do develop immunity to and would have been part of a true paleo microbiome.

After discussing with Dr. Llamas, the idea is to resume the capsules after sending some more fecal samples to lab, but doing 0.5ml of material every two days. The goal being to get the benefits without any inflammation in the colon. Like all things dose makes the poison. I have noticed a change toward more "normal" feces but with a proportional increase in my generalized inflammation. I do not want hidden inflammation in my colon but to be perfectly honest I would prefer that to what I am feeling today. Of course, this could just be my screwed up immune system and some new problem like ulcerative colitis so I will wait for confirmation testing before speculating further.

I need to do some additional analysis but something interesting is going on with my CD4:CD8 ratio and the population of suppressor cells. That will be another blog post. Now I am off for a 6 mile sea level run which will be a welcome relief from the oxygen starvation I have been feeling the last four days.

Lone Pine Lake.

So my 6 mile recovery run turned into a PR on Mt. Woodson when my running buddy wanted to break in his new trail shoes. Felt really strong and surprised, again, at how well I am recovering.

Day 62

All is well. Going to get blood tests for blood born pathogens should have results by end of week. Including a CD4:CD8 ratio to see if there are any changes. Then off to the mountains for a couple days to train at elevation.

New hydration vest for long trail runs.

Day 57

Hi Garin,

Thank you so much for reaching out!

I sincerely apologize for any confusion. Looking into your account, it appears that while your gut sample completed processing, your results were flagged by our system for a separate quality check. This typically happens when a sample has a lower than normal concentration of bacterial DNA.

From here, we're going to try to run this sample again with this lower concentration in mind. Unfortunately, this could add a couple weeks to processing time. We'll be in touch soon with an update.

Please let me know if I can help in any other way!

Best,

Jennifer Gerstenberger
Customer Support Lead
uBiome

Might be time to use a different lab. Other than the delays I am feeling well and enjoying my lower inflammation.

Day 51

Feeling good. Still waiting on test results. Verbal report is parasitology is good but need to see the official results. Weight 171 lbs. Inflammation looks excellent.

Day 47

Woke up weighing 168. Inflammation looks really good and recovered well from yesterday's long run. Hip and Achilles tendons were a little sore but ready to go mid-afternoon.

Day 46 - A Good Day

A good day. Hip was a little cranky at mile 17 but I slowed down and hasn't bothered me since. Recovered well and even got a sunset surf session in.

Day 44 - Inflammatory Thermostat Turned Down?

Eastern Sierra Mountains.

Bowel activity back to normal and feeling really good. One thing I have noticed is that I am not hurt. Normally if I had been running 50+ miles a week for a month I would be dealing with some running related injury. I have come to believe those injuries were actually the residual inflammation, the 10% not controlled by my worms, that would target normal wear and tear from that mileage. Instead of normal repair in the my hip I would have an exaggerated inflammatory response that would become bursitis (which is common in psoriasis patients).

If is was not bursitis then it would be fasciitis or tendonitis. Inflammation that was just looking for an excuse to overreact. I hope this is the correct interpretation as the coming weeks I am going to push my long day miles over 20. This would normally be a recipe for all kinds of injuries and bad things (gastrointestinal leakiness) so I am trying to be optimistic.

In the meantime found this article:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25144131

One sentence summary:

"Gut microbial status could be crucial for exercise performance and its potential action linked with the antioxidant enzyme system in athletes."

Day 42

A capsule every three days is going to be my schedule. There is no need to tinker anymore. I feel unbelievably good just getting back to that frequency. I weighed 169.8lbs this morning and have had two really good, fast days of running. One of the confounding variable is that when you lose weight you typically run faster but the whole point of this experiment was to observe changes is inflammation and energy flow. My inflammation is as low as it has ever been. I am running well and at a weight where I am getting an unusual, for me, amount of compliments of appearing "fit".

Parasitology testing is at lab and results pending. uBiome results are still pending (irritating how long the turnaround has become).

Day 42