[stylist] Writers and depression

[Barbara Hammel]

The only thing that I could add here, as my piece for the writing prompt is 
to tell you how a change in one's diet and the killing of a pesky thing 
called Helicobacter Pylori can make a huge difference.

We presume that Jesse came to us with all of his hidden health issues.
Three years after he came into our family he had a surgery to fix double 
hernias and we thought that would be the end of our miserable existence of 
listening to him scream from sun up till sun down and most of the nights for 
SIX months.

Much to our chagrin, that was only a taste of what life would be like to a 
greater degree.  It wasn't continuous screaming and it wasn't up half the 
night every night but the next few years were pretty long.

Then we went to a gastroenterologist who had us collect a stool sample --  
such a fun task when your child is still in diapers -- so he could test it 
for whatever he was looking for.  Well, Helicobacter Pylori showed its ugly 
self and we began the couple of years of antibiotic treatments to kill the 
dumb thing.

In case you don't know, in the 1990s it was discovered that, most certainly, 
H. Pylori is the cause of stomach ulcers.  We learned that %40 of the people 
over age 60 have this monster in them but only %20 of that %40 present with 
the ulcers.  Due to healthier means of preparing food and treating the water 
supply, the percentage of folks who have H. Pylori has dropped in the under 
60 crowd.  Why his twin doesn't have it we'll never know since they came out 
of the same environment.

In 2013, after having done the treatment for H. Pylori, as I said, it still 
persisted in lingering in his system.  So, it was off to the infectious 
disease doctor.  His recommendation:  Instead of taking the two antibiotics 
one after another and the probiotic at the same time, we were to give him 
both antibiotics for 42 days and then a month or two of probiotics. 
Amazingly, we are almost certain that Helicobacter Pylori is a thing of our 
past.

Along with all that medicine, we finally got everyone in his world on board 
to remove all gluten from his diet.  Voila!  Except for the bouts of 
aphthous ulcers he gets in his mouth -- we don't know why yet -- he has 
become a happy boy.  He does not have the horrible gassy stomach.  He does 
not have that funny garlicky-smelling breath that was peculiar to a tummy 
that was full of stuff that needed to get out.

Killing H. Pylori did not solve constipation/diarrhea cycles, but it has 
helped it become more manageable.

It is so amazing to live in a time when so much is being learned about how 
the health of our gut affects the rest of our body and in a time when autism 
is being studied so thoroughly since it seems to be on the rise.  (Autism is 
a topic for another day.)

Is it any wonder to anyone now why I need not one, but two different 
antidepressants?  And, maybe you are right.  Maybe they are what is 
inhibiting my creativity which also figures into why I can feel so down. 
Too many thoughts run through my head and yet I cannot make them leave 
through my fingertips to my Braille Edge.

Barbara




Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.--Robert Frost
-----Original Message----- 
From: EJ Kobek via stylist
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 6:45 PM
To: NFB Stylist
Subject: Re: [stylist] Writers and depression

Hi, all, esp. Vejas,

Want to say much more, as we all do!  What's amazing is that medicine is
starting to look at lacking of imbalance of gut bacteria as a source of
despair (whatever one calls it), and they are even starting to care for
people with schizophrenia with probiotics....A fabulous book called
"Missing Microbes" even looks at the gut and other bacteria we need for
physical and mental health that are becoming extinct, along with other,
larger creatures....micobes we really need that are being disappeared by
misuse of antibiotics.....

Gut bacteria has an amazing impact on our mental health!!!

Might I propose a TOPIC for writing? Intestinally?

The topic:  Beneficial bacteria!

A haiku, a poem, a story, a prose piece?

Just an offering. I'll get to it during our blizzard today and
tomorrow....anyone else?

(Smile, grin.....)

Warmly,

Helen (and her beneficial bacteria)
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