u/spicyorange514

I first stumbled upon TMI several years ago when I was dealing with quite serious health issues and a burnout. At that time meditation helped me to focus my attention on something other than my immediate issues and taught me a lot about the mind and life in general.

Fast forward to today, thankfully many things have improved in my life. But the regularity of practicing TMI has dropped from several longish sessions per day to a few short and not so productive sessions per week (having more frequent and long sessions is also logistically more challenging now).

What I keep noticing and what often creates inner resistance is that meditating tends to bring me back mentally to that period of life when I was experiencing a lot of mental and physical suffering. Even the sounds of my refrigerator when I'm sitting with my eyes closed can be enough to bring that mental state back (this doesn't happen when I'm simply doing something in my apartment). There were numerous times when it felt so overpowering that I had to stop meditating right away despite trying not to.

From what I know we can learn to strengthen our attitude of equanimity and acceptance but doing this in practice can feel so difficult when these emotions are so visceral and strong.

Changing the environment or turning on some background sounds does seem to help but only to a degree. Also, meditating with my eyes open is helpful, but this makes it more difficult to reach a more focused meditation state.

I'm curious if someone has gone through something similar or has any advice what could be done in similar circumstances?

Thank you

Intro/context: I wrote this in the histamine intolerance subreddit, but I'll share this here too, because the changes to SIBO, digestion and overall wellbeing have been absolutely profound thanks to below findings. Below is the original text, but after following this philosophy for a few weeks my body is now able to function much better between meals and I often don't even need MCT oil at all. I've also had days with 3 big meals and one super small meal/snack, which is truly revolutionary to me. What also helped is adding homemade mayonnaise made from filtered/refined olive oil (filtered avocado oil works well too, I just religiously avoid seed oils) to my meals. Such emulsified fats are significantly easier for the body digest while adding lots of calories per volume. There are many recipes for homemade mayonnaise on the internet if someone is curious. I've noticed that for me homemade mayonnaise doesn't have such a negative impact on motility as other fats (YMMV).

⬇️ Original text below ⬇️

I recently made a huge (for me) discovery after connecting multiple past events and doing additional research.

Background: I've had digestion/health issues for the past 10+ years which include: gastritis, SIBO (self-diagnosed), HI, fatigue, brain fog, dry eyes, etc. I've experimented with numerous supplements and remedies (luckily some of them were helpful), and visited countless doctors, but a recently discovered eating philosophy so far has given the most tangible results.

What I started doing is eating meals only when my stomach is as empty as possible. It might sound simple, but for me it was initially very hard to do this because I'd often feel hungry/fatigued way before my stomach has finished working on the food in it. What helped me is taking MCT oil between meals, which provides me with enough energy until my next proper meal. Whenever I'm in the city or have to move a lot, I drink maple syrup mixed with water for easily accessible energy (this is massively better for digestion than snacking or eating something solid before the next meal). I recently discovered that sugar is not only not harmful but actually very helpful when you're physically active in the moment when you're consuming it. Maple syrup is also easily utilized because of the types of carbs it's composed of.

Another crucial part is going to sleep with a completely empty stomach so that your digestive system could switch to healing/cleaning mode and MMC (migrating motor complex) could work properly.

Previously I used to eat ~5 meals during the day, but I managed to decrease the number of meals to 4 (3 big ones, 1 smaller). I'd love to eat only 3 meals someday, but for now it's out of reach for me because I can't fit such big three meals into my stomach to provide enough nutrients/calories for the day.

I have many food sensitivities but AI has been very helpful in providing guidance. Interestingly, the new Google Gemini models have been the most useful and understanding (free version was sufficient). Other models just were parroting that it's okay to snack which is totally untrue if you want to heal your digestive system and be healthier. You can say to Gemini that you want your MMC to work properly and you want to eat only on empty stomach.

Good luck

I recently made a huge (for me) discovery after connecting multiple past events and doing additional research.

Background: I've had digestion/health issues for the past 10+ years which include: gastritis, SIBO (self-diagnosed), HI, fatigue, brain fog, dry eyes, etc. I've experimented with numerous supplements and remedies (luckily some of them were helpful), and visited countless doctors, but a recently discovered eating philosophy so far has given the most tangible results.

What I started doing is eating meals only when my stomach is as empty as possible. It might sound simple, but for me it was initially very hard to do this because I'd often feel hungry/fatigued way before my stomach has finished working on the food in it. What helped me is taking MCT oil between meals, which provides me with enough energy until my next proper meal. Whenever I'm in the city or have to move a lot, I drink maple syrup mixed with water for easily accessible energy (this is massively better for digestion than snacking or eating something solid before the next meal). I recently discovered that sugar is not only not harmful but actually very helpful when you're physically active in the moment when you're consuming it. Maple syrup is also easily utilized because of the types of carbs it's composed of.

Another crucial part is going to sleep with a completely empty stomach so that your digestive system could switch to healing/cleaning mode and MMC (migrating motor complex) could work properly.

Previously I used to eat ~5 meals during the day, but I managed to decrease the number of meals to 4 (3 big ones, 1 smaller). I'd love to eat only 3 meals someday, but for now it's out of reach for me because I can't fit such big three meals into my stomach to provide enough nutrients/calories for the day.

I have many food sensitivities but AI has been very helpful in providing guidance. Interestingly, the new Google Gemini models have been the most useful and understanding (free version was sufficient). Other models just were parroting that it's okay to snack which is totally untrue if you want to heal your digestive system and be healthier. You can say to Gemini that you want your MMC to work properly and you want to eat only on empty stomach.

Good luck

Nettle has been very helpful for me for reducing post-meal acid reflux and stomach irritation, especially after breakfast when it's the most intense. I usually either make nettle tea or mix nettle powder with boiling water (and then use this "liquid" for my protein mixes or just drink it while eating).

I wanted to ask those who found nettle to be effective for their digestion/histamine issues - how much nettle do you usually consume per day?

Overall I've been spreading out several grams of nettle throughout the day, but I'm curious what protocols do others use?

About a week ago there was a post about the potential benefits of olive leaf tea for SIBO in this subreddit and I decided to give it a try.

I've been taking it for a few days already and I'm definitely feeling its effects. In fact, I felt the effects immediately after sipping the tea (bought from Amazon) for the first time. Burping and bloating decreased noticeably and I felt lightness in my gut.

I also bought an extract (500mg per capsule, 18% oleuropein) but this one is really potent. I'm glad I opened the capsule and took half of it mixed with a bite of what I was eating, because even that was enough to irritate my sensitive stomach. Despite the irritation, the effect on SIBO was even more significant than from tea. Today I took 1/4 of capsule and felt only positive effects without noticeable side effects.

I plan to take it longer and to experiment more.

I also wanted to mention that if anyone plans to start taking olive leaf in any form, it's important to weigh potential pros and cons, because it's not as well studied and there might be things we didn't know about yet. There are also reports from people about it affecting blood sugar in concerning ways, causing insomnia, etc so it's very important to be aware of these things. These risks are way higher when taking olive leaf as an extract.

Best of luck

(This subreddit doesn't allow posting photos, but I've added instructions below)

To me they work significantly better than just mixing slippery elm powder with water and drinking that. I take one of these after almost each meal and just suck it slowly for 30-60min until it dissolves fully. It soothes the throat, esophagus, and stomach very well.

Instructions:

• Mix slippery elm and water as if you're making dough

• Knead well with hands

• Pull small dough pieces and turn them into thick coin-shaped and -sized discs with fingers (this shape works best for me after experimenting with other shapes)

• Air dry on a plate for a few days until they are hard and feel like pieces of bark

• Put into a jar for storage