Candida, H Pylori and GERD. Are they definitively TMS equivalents?

I ask because I when I last went to my GI and had an endoscopy done, I tested positive for H Pylori and he mentioned that the GERD I have was causing significant damage to my esophagus.

I have no qualms with approaching this from a psychosomatic perspective (would actually rather that) but, what about H Pylori potentially causing ulcers and maybe even stomach cancer? And the damage the GERD is doing?

The real question I have here is: my friend who is a Functions Wellness Practitioner wants me to have a comprehensive stool test done which will let me know if I have Candida or even SIBO which could be contributing to all of this or at a minimum, exacerbating it.

Im a little worried that if he tells me I have a number of problems, that I am going to get caught up in the whole fight....which if it is all TMS, is exactly not what I need to be doing-engaging it.

Would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

 

Hi Avik
Your posts about pain acceptance really helped me a week or so ago....I am by no means there but your articulate explanation of what outcome independence might feel like was invaluable. I'm really sorry to hear that you are having all these additional problems/possible diagnoses. There seems to be a debate here (on the forum) about whether H Pylori is TMS or not but it does seem to me increasingly likely that GERD/coeliac/fibro/allergies/bacteria/candida etc could be that and another way that our modern separation of the mind and body screws us!!! If you follow the money in modern medical practice.... Yes i am cynical about how much it really helps us. I had a year long battle with ringworm (candida/oral thrush etc all the same thing I
later realised. It stopped when I quit the anti fungal pills and creams and basically told myself I no longer have this). So thanks for nothing Descartes.... TEDx talks are really good for shedding more light on all this. There are loads of scientists and psychologists onto this not just the TMS/Sarno community. Keep the faith and don't get bogged down!!! The "think psychological" method will work for this too xxxx

 

Thanks Lex.

I do worry though about the long term implications of untreated H Pylori and GERD. There are real repercussions there.
My Dr. told me flat out that untreated H Pylori can be tied to stomach cancer.

I have doubts right now and therefore cannot treat this the way I have treated all of my others issues...yet.

Are there any Ted talks in particular that you suggest I watch?

 

My third favorite book (after The Divided Mind and Hope and Help for Your Nerves) is When The Body Says No by Dr. Gabor Mate. Dr. Mate explains in scientific terms (with enormous compassion, and in terms that non-medical readers can understand) the damage that emotional repression inflicts on our immune systems. And if your immune systems is not as healthy as it could be, your whole system will be more susceptible to viruses and bacteria, as well as to the proliferation of cancer cells. Did you know that our immune systems are fighting off cancerous cells all the time? So you want to do whatever it takes to keep it as strong as possible, right? Which means engaging in healthy habits, which includes healthy thinking.

Intellectually, this is not at all difficult to understand - in fact, it totally makes sense. The problem is to apply it to ourselves, because it's too easy to allow our brains to drag us down with fear and negativity. Those of us here are here precisely because our brains are so good at doing that.

A few people find Dr. Mate's message scary - I find it inspiring, because now I understand that our bodies are designed to heal - and that we have the power to help them heal and to stay healthy.

The medical profession already knows that if you take two people with the same recoverable condition but opposite outlooks, that the person with the positive outlook will heal better and faster. I have personally seen this in action. This is not rocket science!

In doing this work, I and many others have taken the concept of mind-over-body health WAY beyond Dr. Sarno's TMS concept. I don't just believe - I KNOW that I have the power to keep my body healthy by keeping my thoughts healthy. It's still not easy and I certainly don't accomplish it anywhere near 100% of the time, but at 64 I'm much healthier than I was at 60!

 

I suffer from coeliac disease and it took a long time for me to get the diagnosis. In the meantime I developed anemia that almost killed me. When it comes to these types of diseases and cancer and such I think we need to be careful and do the medical treatments as well, otherwise we might have to pay a very large price.

 

In terms of the GERD maybe his description of damage can be seen in the way as drs/surgeons describe damage caused to discs etc that leads to surgery and spinal fusion? It be a described as damaged but people become pain free and mobile and Sarno etc tell us we must not fear it. When your mind turns off the acid the body returns to a state of normal? Again it's the medical and structural situation they are trained to see. What are recommended treatments? As Jan put it so well, it's the healthy thinking that can aid recovery.

H Pylori is more tricky as I have seen that link described on a cancer research site although the risk of developing it is 1-2% and lots of people have it and never know. Thinking that you might develop cancer is a heavy worry to carry around. But those odds are pretty good even without treatment and I could have that as a genetic or lifestyle risk and I'm just not engaging with it. And this has been on my mind as 2 relatives have died of cancer this year and a 3rd has secondary just discovered.

There is definitely more to discover in this area and it will develop over time. The TEDs I've been watching are mostly about pain, people like Lorimer Moseley and Silje Reme. I also saw somewhere on here an extract from a dr's book describing how a man seemingly died of cancer after a faulty prognosis and his postmortem didn't reveal enough cancerous material to have killed him. The mind plays a big role. My sister in law bucked all the statistics on survival of her aggressive breast cancer and she did it through her amazing outlook. Her ability to be positive was inspiring and I have much to learn from her in my own battles.
Good luck with yours, the mind body link is stronger than we know I think. See also Jan's brilliant quote at the bottom of her posts! Nice one Jan

 

I really liked this thread by Mike:

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/spontaneous-remissions-project.9452/#post-50260

When it comes to life-threatening diseases (and diseases in general as well) I think it's important to look at healing from a many different perspectives.

 

Oh wow what a great thread! Thank you.

 

Hi Avik,

I've no doubt that these issues are a mind body disorders. I like to consider it two waves of illnesses, TMS which although can be serious and debilitating cannot kill someone. Then, if someone ignores all of the "messages" given from TMS throught their life, it's highly likely these will develop into a more fatal and life threatening illness. People with serious illnesses, usually have a history of illnesses.

Like Jan states, continual gravitation towards negative thoughts can dampen ones immune system and make one more susceptible to illness. By simply knowing this, you have the upper hand in prevention and recovery.

With regards to medicine and the immune system, sometimes it's required and I guess it's at the discretion of the individual. If ones immune system is already well below a healthy state which can aid recovery, medicine or, chemo could prove fatal. That's why it's impariitive to perhaps take a combination approach, I.E medicine, TMS work and dieteray changes.

I no longer see TMS work as so much of a chore, I think at first I did. TMS work can be beneficial to all, regardless of being ill. Emotions play a huge part in recovery whether one moves ahead with TMS or Western Medicine.

Healing is all about changing your relationship with your emotions, changing your outlook and empowering yourself. Just as we've made ourself ill we have the ability to heal.

I'd like to recommend the following book which you may find interesting:

http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Remis.../ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 

Check out TED talk by Lissa Rankin MD Is there scientific proof we can heal ourselves?
Apologies for lack of link I can't make it work on this tablet

 

Exactly.

 

Hey there!

This really piqued my interest...

I have this spot on my face that I thought was ringworm, but after trying an over the counter medication, and a prescription anti-fungal cream it has still refused to leave. I bought some Aveeno eczema lotion on a whim just to see if that would help, and in all honesty, it did way more than the two anti-fungal creams combined. It has stopped getting better though. It's not as bad as it was but it's still inflamed/flaky.

How exactly did you go about "telling yourself you no longer have this"?

 

I was so bored and exasperated I really did just stop all "treatments" (the research on azole type creams and pills show they are pretty useless), stopped cleaning the sites and simply decided not to think about it. I stopped looking at it every hour, and constant cleansing household surfaces with bleach and boiling linens etc.... This was after nearly a year and 2/3 recurrences. I'm pretty sure i still have it on my arm (itchy/flaky circle comes and goes) but now i really could not give a f***. Granted it was easier to ignore than TMS pain and it really was that simple. Hoping I can have something similar with my sciatica, that it's there in the background but not ruling my life and not the issue I focus on. Just need to get my breathing right first...

 

Mike-how do you have "no doubt" these issues are TMS?

I had an extensive call with my GI yesterday.
He told me H Pylori is definitively a real problem and that if left untreated, will continue to cause me problems.
Apparently the bacteria devour acid in the stomach. This is scientifically proven.
Lower stomach acid then leads to indigestion (malabsorption) and GERD, since the non-digested food backs up into the esophagus.

Im the first guy that wants to approach all things from a TMS perspective.
That said its important to really vet things medically first before taking a psychosomatic approach to healing.

When I asked my doc about GERD (w/o evidence of low stomach acid production) and about Candida, he told me he thought those were both induced by stress! (this floored me)

 

I had all those symptoms you had Avik, the reason I also have "no doubt" those are tms/anxiety is because conventional treatment help control the symptoms but they always come back. The only way to get rid of them for good is using Mind body med, which I did.
Also, if you observe: more than half of the world's population have H Pylori virus in their guts, less than 0.17% of them go on to have ulcer. Common sense tell me this virus only go "bad" when we are under stress. They never ever bother people who are happy, content, and at peace for some reason.

 

Hi Avik,

Firstly, I use the term mind body rather than TMS because when Dr Sarno coined the phrase it was limited in its definition and related only to mild oxygen deprivation, which is harmless. However, if we look at the wider spectrum of mind body illnesses (ie the work of Gabor Mate, Andrew Weil, SteveO etc), we will begin to understand the mind can trigger the most serious of illnesses, incl. Cancer, auto immune (I understand GERD is an A.I). We all have dormant cancer, h Pylori cells which can be triggered by stress and a weakened immune system.

That said, I understand that mind body illnesses can be very real and fatal if not treated correctly.

I'm not saying approach it all as TMS, but to be sensible and use a COMBINATION approach whilst you restore your immune system. It's also known that our gut contains our second brain, so eating the correct foods, is as important as what you think.

If you have the opportunity look into the work of Annie Hopper, whose program has healed people of these illnesses. The wonderful @Grateful17 may know of some success stories, she managed to overcome some disorders using this program.

Finally, like I said earlier, regardles of whether you believe this is a mind body illness or not, mind body work can only help improve the outcome of one's health, and not make it worse.

Best

 

I am in doubt, w.r.t. gerd, as to how much is attributed to re-flux action and how much is a straight out immune system response, i.e., inflammation. Inflammation can feel like acid pain, even on the skin, and the tissues lining the oesophagus are far more delicate. If this is inflammation then your body is causing the problem of damage to cells, which creates a nutrient rich environment for the bacteria to grow. But of course stomach acid can also cause damage giving the bacteria food. Either way you may have issues that can be resolved, which if resolved can return your stomach to normal function.

I doubt that SIBO or candida can contribute to this, rather it is the other way around. You have some sort of stress that leads to bodily conditions that allow these microorganisms (which the majority of the populations has in their digestive tract) to flourish.

The H. Pylori, inflammation and cancer are seen but correlation is not causation!
There is indisputable evidence that cancer is not due to damage or mis-copied genes. So the official cancer story is wrong. The immune system is 100% involved in cancer. In fact without the involvement of the immune system there is no metastasis and thus no cancer. The reason is that for cancer cells to migrate out of the primary site and get into the blood stream the epithelium tissues of the blood vessels have to become permeable. Well.. you might say, if there is inflammation then the capillaries may be permeable and somehow the cancer cells get in BUT they also have to get out the other side to the site for the secondary metastasis. This requires for the cells to adhere to the capillary walls at the site of exit in preparation for exit AND the area has to be made permeable to allow for exit of the cancer cells. This cannot be done without immune system involvement.

I have found that cancer is deliberately created in the body and when you understand how and why, you can deliberately effect spontaneous cancer remission. I know this is going to sound absolutely unbelievable to you now, but all you need to do is change your perception. The reason is because the body is purpose-driven and not a machine. That is why "stress" is blamed. Stress is a nebulous term but it means the person has some issues and those issues have ideas and beliefs, which make the body take some sort of action. When those ideas are seen to be false then the body returns to resting metabolism and health.

We can discuss this further if you like.

 

Sarno says it's TMS, I thought you see Dr. Rashbaum, his successor at NYU, what does he say???

 

Your doc has answered your question, Avik. Where do you think H pylori comes from? It didn't just come out of nowhere and decide to attack you for no reason. We ALL have the potential to succumb to the gazillions of bacteria and viruses and allergens and cancer cells that are in and around our bodies all the time. Your immune system is DESIGNED to fight these things off, which it does, constantly, without us even having to think about it. Yes, that includes cancer cells. Ask any oncologist, they will tell you that our immune systems do indeed fight off cancer cells - and this is why immune-system therapies are being developed.

But when your immune system is compromised, you can fall prey to any of these things that are out there trying to get past your defenses. That includes colds, flu, and various forms of food-borne illnesses. And what is the first and most common compromiser of the immune system? Stress! How many people do you know who are constantly coming down with something? It might not look like TMS - but let me tell you, someone who gets every cold and flu and stomach bug that goes around, has got a problematic immune system for one reason or another.

My third favorite book (after The Divided Mind and Hope and Help For Your Nerves) is When The Body Says No - The Stress-Disease Connection, by Dr. Gabor Mate. He explains this in physiological scientific terms that can be (mostly) understood by the non-medical reader, and with great compassion and understanding of the role that emotional repression plays in creating the stress that breaks down our immune systems.

The good news is that we have the ability to reverse the process. BUT it takes a complete change in your perception to not just learn, but to KNOW that YOU are in control of your health.

Bottom line, Avik - do whatever it takes to boost your immune system - take care of your body in all the ways we are supposed to (food, drink, sleep, exercise and stress reduction) AND take care of your thoughts as well. You may need to give in this time and accept the treatment to get rid of this particular invasion, but from now on, don't assume that you are going to get sick. Instead, visualize staying healthy, with a healthy gut and an immune system which can stand up to anything. The power of mind over body is highly underestimated, but the value of the placebo effect is that we can show that it happens all the time.

 

Mike-thanks for the clarification.

My issue though here is that for me to get past a TMS equivalent, I have to be ALL IN.
Meaning, combinations dont work.
Reason being, if I am still approaching something from a regular medicine-perspective (even if its combined with a mind-body approach), my brain will "rely" on the medicine side and the TMS thinking wont hold.

Doing mindbody I'm sure can be helpful but if these issues are indeed psychosomatic, only a psychosomatic approach will work.

Thoughts on how I could get around this?

Also, would be helpful if you or anyoen else could list books (or maybe even success stories0 that discuss digestive problems and how one might approach them from a mind-body perspective.