C-Diff Remedies

OK, I was a skeptic... A desperate skeptic but a skeptic just the same. When I came to earth clinic looking for a cure, I probably would have tried anything I read at that point as I have been battling C Diff for over 6 weeks, lost almost 25lbs, lost all my strength and was very close to losing my sanity. I had literally tried every drug cure they. Prescribe, every over the counter and was still racked by round the clock diarhhea along with pain, spasms, dehydration and weakness. I AM NOT EXAGERATING... I took 2 tbs of Apple Cider Vinegar in 6oz of water & in 20 minutes felt relief.

When you have chronic diarhea, there is always a "tense" or "sick" feeling in the pit of your stomach; like you are just waiting to get sick again. ACV took that away on my first dose. By my second dose I was able to go 2 hours without visiting the bathroom- it was a real miracle. I actually slept for the first time in weeks by my 3rd dose (2 Tbs, every 2 hours- organic, with the mother- in 6-8oz of electrolyte water. )

ACV is a miracle! I would have never believed it, but I am a believer now. I will never be without a bottle. I know this sounds dramatic but I honestly believe ACV might have saved me a major health battle. I was going downhill fast. My Dr. had given up and I was supposed to check in the hospital the day I tried ACV. I never had to go to the hospital, I am still in shock that such a simple cure worked but I am a true believer now!

I laughed about that, being corrected by a 4 year old. You know all the great ideas and helps on this terrific site are really not ours at all.

A side note that peeps should be aware of. Drink plenty of water. I think the barley kind of dries u up...

Word to the wise, do NOT eat any chocolate, caramel, or any thick syrupy sweet for at least 6 months! Keep sweets to a minimum (make your own from gluten free mixes or recipes online).

Eat rice approx. 3x a week in a hot dish or with steamed veggies and chicken etc. Try to eat all of your meals from your home.

Once your gut is healed you should be able to eat out occasionally but beware of the restaurant you are eating at because some of them are just filthy.

Bleach your bathroom head to toe 2x a week for the first 6 weeks, then once a week. Do not reuse any towels for anything. Use paper towels to dry your hands and a clean washcloth for your face each and every time. Do not have a towel hanging and reuse it!

I have had this 2x since 2012. I hadn't been on antibiotics once. I did not have a relapse for almost four years after the first.

Fill up your kitchen sink in the morning and add dish soap and a cup of bleach, have a pair of gloves sitting right next to your sink and wipe down all high traffic areas such as garbage disposal switch, light switches, handles on the appliances, handles on your doors into your home and the counter tops. Your cellphone, mouse, keyboard, tablet. Anything you use for electronics but be careful the washcloth is not dripping but wrung out pretty good. I do this all the time and have had no problems with my electronics.

Put your underwear in a small garbage bag you keep inside a basket with a lid and only your underwear in there. After putting them in your washing machine (with bleach) wash your hands thoroughly and get a new bag (throw the used one away). You can use the plastic bags you get at places like Target, the grocery store etc. or buy a roll of small plastic garbage bags.

Use bleach to wash the washing machine and dryer really well, the floor in your laundry room with bleach as well.

If you have a steam cleaner such as the Tancs you can use that, it is certified to kill this spore. I use this steamer and it hurt to pay for it but in the long haul it has been a life saver! I personally use bleach and the steamer both, I want all spores DEAD!

Wash your jackets and coats frequently. It's easier to pay a little more for a better brand you can wash and dry frequently than a cheap one you can't. Columbia or North Face wash and dry like new. Don't wear your clothes more than once a day until you have this program under control for a good couple of months.

Do not keep your toothbrush on your bathroom counter but inside a drawer on top of a washcloth and change that out once or twice a week. No make up or blow dryer either. Do those in your bedroom.

I know this sounds like a lot but it's really not once you get a system it goes really fast and remember, you are in charge! This infection is a dangerous infection and one I don't wish on anyone for sure. The first time I had this I felt great after 3 days on flagyl, I kept the system I described for about six months and then relaxed some with such stringency other than the bleaching of the bathrooms and the towel situation. The second infection was brutal. I'm still on my regimen I described above and doing well. My intentional tract does get sore on occasion depending on if I had something to eat I should not have.

I wish you all well.

Oh one more thing, your keys and your cars! Wash those weekly as well with clorox wipes (the steering wheel, blinker handles and door handles etc.).

As of February 15,2017 ER hospital Visit, 600MG IV Clindamycin, + 300 mg every 8 hours, the very next morning I had morning Diarrhea typical of a C-diff infection. Everyone who takes Clindamycin, will get C-diff within ten days, with very insignificant 1 out of 250 prescribed. did not. [webMed 2016 clindamycin reviews by patients.]

On the third day I researched SACCHAROMYCES BOULARDII which prevents second infection stages of treatment.

Next I got Florastor Max with Saccharomyces boulardii lyo CNCM I-745. BioCodex France. I took too boxes in 10 hr period, woke up the next morning with a normal bowel movement. Today is March 23,2017 and I have not had another case of Diarrhea.

March 9th,

I have a very fresh stool sample I took right at the ER. Tested by the PCR method. PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Your stool sample degrades to Untestable in 4 hrs or less. Then the way you handle it will adversely affect the results. So get it done right at the hospital so they can run it upstairs to the lab. Timing for all your C-diff feces testing is crucial to your life, which you will get back. That very day my fece sample came back with C-diff B-Toxin. That means it's Virulent, and a killer. 30 days to sudden toxic death syndrome. Only with B-toxin.

Next step treatment, Vancomycin. A nuke for the second stage of C-diff Treatment. I have it right here on my desk and decided not to take it.

I found another study that said 5 % to 25% of every one who did not enter their second stage treatment, but instead worked night and day at replenishing their friendly intestinal flora, the only way to keep C-diff Bacterium safely at bay, they were later tested, and found to have neutralized the C-diff toxin producing mode.

[Never take Flagil. It's not an antibiotic. It's a deadly poison only used to kill deadly amobias that you ate out in the jungle or drank the water from the river, or you got Giradia from a Spiffy up scale restaurant that got into your water via an Ice machine which hadn't been cleaned. Yes, amoebas can grow in a commercial restaurant setting Ice Machine. I never since then Giardia and Flagyl ever allow a server to give me water or anything else with ice in it or as a base for like your shrimp. Period.]

About research. If you didn't it's not to late, but Ya gotta note, if you had. what would you have missed out on with your C-diff. Huh So if you research Vancomycin, you will find it is like Aspirin. It is an Ototoxic drug. This means that you must get a Base line hearing test before you take it, and then the hospital can monitor your hearing to see if Vancomycin is adversely affecting it.

You get tinnitus with vancomycin, then you go completely irreversibly deaf. Period. It's always something. If I have to, I will take it, however not until mid April after my hospital gives me my base line hearing test we just scheduled. With monitoring, you can prevent total deafness. without, you lost your hearing forever. Take flagyl then. You research that and you will find it never works, not even the third time around. It gives you skin cancer, and destroys the visual purple of the eye. I know, I had to take 10 days of it.

So now I have nothing else to tell you, except go purchase Perisept 62. 4 fluid OZ to one gallon of water.

Read the instructions first. then make it stronger so you can wash all your clothes in the machine.

The guys and girls who sell it to you are well informed about it. I just finished washing all my black clothes in it, my black interior in my car, my lap top, my Led screen 39 inch Viso, no worries mate. the stuff just goes on, it must be moist for 2 minutes, and then so, it kills all the C-diff highly contagious bacterium.

You in third stage you will have to spray everything down with that, or continue to be RE-INFECTED.

Right now clostridium difficile is living for up to 90 days on everything you touched, Everything, plus it loves the washer and dryer. You are prime time to purchase and use Perisept 62.

Only that name is EPA rated to kill C-diff in two minutes. 2, not one, not 1 and 1 half minutes but 2.

If you wipe it off, or it dries before that time. You wasted your time, your money and your peace of mind.

Charles.

As I had no idea what was happening I put up with the diarrhea and cramps, weakness for weeks before I finally could not get out of bed and ended up in the emergency room. The first round of antibiotics helped, but I still felt lousy. Lost 20 pounds that month. Not a diet I recommend. Three days after the antibiotics ran out, it came back WHAM. Called doctor, on a friday of course, suffered all weekend, got another scrip for antibiotic. Felt better right away, although far from great. 2 weeks later, 3 days after the antibiotic ran out WHAM it's back. I wish the doctors would take this more seriously.

When the doctor prescribed the same Flagyl treatment for the THIRD time I thought this is ridiculous. So I searched for advice elsewhere.

Here is what worked for me:

Get the Flagyl. Then get the probiotics with Lactobicilli and friends, and Sacromyces boulardii. Get good quality oil of oregano.

First week, take the Flagyl as directed(2 times daily). Take the probiotics three times a day. Take the oil of oregano twice a day, before you eat. I used two drops on Kimchi, as it helps it go down. This stuff is STRONG

Second week take the Flagyl once a day, all else the same. Third week, flagyl every other day, all else same.

by the Fourth week, 3 times a week Flagyl, keep up the rest.

Fifth week one Flagyl per week. Here I had a couple of flareups, took one extra Flagyl. Keep taking that oil of oregano, it is key!

By the sixth week I stopped flagyl totally. keep up probiotics 3x day for this week, oregano still twice.

Seventh week probiotics twice a day, oregano in evening. ( my flareups occured at night for some reason, this helped).

By the eighth week I stopped the oregano, but will continue to take the probiotics twice a day forever I think. It has now been 2 and a half months episode free, and I am feeling great. Please anyone suffering from this and not getting a good answer from your doctor, do this!!!

My dad had been on PPI's and ended up with diarrhea for a number of years. He tried probiotics. He took whole bottles a day of acidophilus and other specialised probiotics. He took antibiotics - different courses of different kinds including a regime of 3 at the same time. (he is a doctor and tried the latest antibiotic treatments).

One day he asked me if I knew of anything that might help his bacterial infection. He believed Proton Pump Inhibitor use was the cause of years of this.

I told him to try raspberries. I remembered listening to an interview of a pig farmer who reduced the mortality of their piglets to almost zero with apple and raspberry cordial. It was 1% real raspberry. I told him it could be cooked or frozen raspberry, it just needed to have real raspberries in it. He changed their strawberry jam to raspberry jam with breakfast and his problem went away. It can be raspberries in any form as long as they are real raspberries.

After 6 days, I still had fevers, no appetite, some nausea, and extreme tiredness. I went back to in and saw the on-call doctor, she ordered urine and blood cultures, and gave me a shot of ceftriaxone, and changed the antibiotic to 5 days of ciprofloxacin. The cultures came back clean. I requested they continue to grow out the cultures to see if it was a fungal infection, since they hadn't found any bacteria yet. But that message must have not gone through, because they disposed of my samples. 5 days after finishing the Ciprofloxacin, I went back in for having diarrhea and generally not feeling like I was "better". The on-call doctor (doctor #3) ordered another urinalysis and a stool sample. The next day, the clinic notified me that I had C. diff and that they had called in a prescription for 10 days of oral vancomycin. I thought about it and decided I would get the script as a backup and go all out on trying to heal myself. I have insurance so the script was only $15.

I bought kefir, barley (for barley water), kombucha, sauerkraut, 3 types of chewable probiotics, another big bottle of Asprega probiotics, garlic pills, oil of oregano, beet juice, carrot juice, and organic Miso. The previous day I had also ordered probiotics online, nascent iodine, magnesium chloride cream, iron, calcium, vitamin C and D, and a book by John Brisson titled "Fix Your Gut", which I highly recommend. What a wealth of information. The last day I saw the doctor, let's call it

Day 1, I had 12 bowel movements.

The next day I started my treatment,

Day 2: 8 bowel movements,

Day 3: 7,

Day 4: 4,

Day 5: 3.

Day 6 is today and I'm on 0 at 8am, have been up since 5:30. I have no more cramping unless I eat something I shouldn't. I have now figured out, I take 1 bite and wait. I will get cramps within 15 minutes. I have only tried this on a couple foods, but it works. Eat slow. The first day I drank barley water (quite soothing and not bad at all although it sounds gross), I ate the barley with flavored kefir on it for breakfast and miso for lunch. Lots of water. I continued this diet and am still on it while introducing new foods and liquids like kombucha, carrot juice, beet juice. I am also consuming all of the things I mentioned earlier. I am overdosing on probiotics.

Every 3 hours I take double a full day's dose of each kind that I have. Every morning on an empty stomach, a shot of water with 2 drops of oregano and iodine in it. Plenty of rest and naps. I still have the antibiotics just in case. But I now realize that they should be a backup plan and not the first line of defense. Our medical system is ridiculous. Why was I not warned of this when I started 3 different types of antibiotics in a week? Why was I not given advice from my doctor on dietary changes that could have helped prevent this from happening? It really is a shame. Why was I not warned that this could come back even after taking dangerous antibiotics? Everything I have found out about C diff, I researched and found out myself.

You will beat this! You are your best advocate. You don't have to do everything a doctor tells you. Listen to your body. Take it slow. Do what is making you feel better. Try the barley water. You have to take care of this all day and be on top of it, but you will win.

I encourage you to do your own search for information about healing c.diff or healing your gut and nutrition. I know that individuals with other intestinal problems try the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), which I don't know too much about.

I hope this information is helpful and hope that you all find/regain good health!

I was put on a course of Flagyl for five days; it worked but then five days later C Diff came back. Another longer, stronger course of Flagyl was prescribed; 500 mg for 10 days 2X a day; it worked but five days later C Diff it came back. I've since found that Flagyl isn't very effective in general. C Diff has become a superbug - and Flagyl has been used so much it is losing effectiveness.

The third time it came back, I was put on TAPERED or PULSED Vancomycin, which doctor said was normal protocol when Flaygl fails twice. This is not a normal ten day or even twenty day course of Vancomycin, which is better than Flagyl but not as effective as tapering or pulsing it. With Vancomycin "tapered" or "pulsed, " you take it 4X a day for ten days, then 2X a day for 7 days, then 1X a day for a week, then every other day for four weeks. Total of seven weeks. There are variations - sometimes 8 weeks, sometimes weeks of every 3 days included.

The strategy is this: C Diff has found a way of surviving, protecting itself, by planting little spores (its babies) in protective colonies covered in biofilm. The antibiotic can kill the adult C Diffs floating around freely - so you get better. But it can't penetrate and kill the biofilm colonies of babies. So when you go off the antibiotic, you're OK until the biofilm colonies break open, grow up and became adults and guess what? You get full-on C Diff again. The babies are all grown up now, and planting their own babies even.

What tapered Vancomycin does is kill off the adults - then when you slow down your dosages, and the babies start to hatch and grow - but you hit them with dose of antibiotic. So the idea is to get rid of the baby colonies this way (I assume before they plant their own babies?).

I'm only at the end of the once a day week - no diahrrea but I can feel the C Diff pains in my tummy, feel it starting to come back, before I take my morning pill. Soon I will go to every other day - a bit worried.

But the other strategy of tapered/pulsed Vanco is that you have time to replenish your gut with the good bacteria. That is ESSENTIAL - some docs don't recommend that enough. You need a two pronged approach - kill the bad, replenish the good - to really fix the imbalance in your gut allowing C Diff to flourish.

This means dosing yourself with huge amounts of probiotics. I mean a lot. I was taking some - but just a regular amount. I've realized with this tapering that to stop the tummy pains (indicating C Diff returning) I needed to take way more than was recommended, and have found certain dietary changes (through this website and other research and just my own experimenting) that help.

Probiotics - (forgive spelling) S Boolardi is most important, but also Rhamnosus, L. casei, and L. Acidilophous. I have the Jarrow brand Boolardi 5 billion, and the Flora Udo's Choice Hi Potency 8 - 43 billion. These are the refrigerated kinds you get at the health food stores. My mistake was only taking it once or twice a day. NO. You have to super dose it. I am now taking two tablets of the Jarrow Boolardi and two of the Flora Udo's three to four times a day. That's huge but I am trying to replenish my good bacteria.

Kefir - I take Lifeway shots with 20 billion probiotics. Also have the big bottles with 12 billion.

Yogurt - the kind that has probiotics in it. Organic is good. When C Diff is full-on, Kefir and yogurt are the only thing I can drink.

Kumbacha Gingerade - another drink you can get at the health food store - it's great!

Barley water - never heard of that before I read this website. It works. Recipe I found was 1 cup barley (groats or pearled barley) to 6 cups water. Bring to boil, then let simmer for half hour or so. Drain the water off.

Activated Charcoal capsules - also highly recommended here at this website.

Tumeric and Ginger Root capsules - I was putting tumeric in tea but not enough.

Slippery Elm - someone recommended this and I am trying it.

Saurkraut, Kimchi, Miso - these are fermented foods with probiotics. I got these but haven't been very diligent about eating them. Honestly I think the above protocol is sufficient.

Beer - I'm a drinker and like my wine. Before I knew I had C Diff, I noticed that I was way worse after having some wine. C Diff loves sugar, and wine has lots of sugars. But beer is fermented (and if you make it yourself, it probably has probiotics in it) and what does it have in it? Barley! Barley has Chitin in it which breaks open the biofilm colonies. So don't have a wheat beer or rice beer (some of the cheaper beers are made from other grains). Make sure you have a beer made from barley. Malted beers are barley. Craft beers tend to have more barley in them. Check it out.

Avoid sugar, meat (has C Diff - I can eat seafood and sometimes chicken but that's it), raw veggies, nuts, wine, liquor.

But what few people are mentioning on this thread is DIFICID. I am surprised that more doctors aren't aware of or prescribing this. That is supposed to be the next step after failed Flagyl and failed Vanco. Dificid is almost always effective and stops C Diff for good. It is the only thing that cured my dad's C Diff. (He also had Flagyl (failed) and regular (not tapered) Vancomycin.) If, for me, the tapered Vancomycin and diet above does not work, I will go on Dificid. However it's expensive - $4000 for ten day course of it. I don't have insurance but plan on getting some soon. Even with RX coupons, it's still around $3500. But there's a manufacturer's coupon if you have insurance (not Medicare) that will make it affordable. Besides, with C Diff - as we all know - it's worth it. Anything is worth it to recover.

The final almost always effective treatment, besides Dificid, is a fecal matter transplant. This has 93-97% effectiveness rate.

So if you've not gotten rid of your C Diff on Flagyl or Vanco, try tapered Vano with the diet above, and the Dificid, and finally, a fecal matter transplant. The FMT is kinda gross, but again, worth it if you get rid of C Diff.

Good luck my friends!

What's important in the beginning is to stop eating or drinking whatever is irritating stomach and intestines.

The molecule acting in Barley is Chitin. Here is a very good article explaining it's benefits etc. http://www.stimulife-ind-dist.com/ARTICLE-chitin.htm

Other foods contain it and maybe one can buy capsules of it... Krill must contain a lot of it I would think and krill capsules are available.

I went through 2 weeks of sheer hell--which included lots of blood and pus in my stool.

I went on a full attack on April 4th--using a standard probiotic (10 Billion cultures) and rapidly increased it to 50 billion and subsequent other products that I learned of from people on this forum (and my dogged research) I am happpy to report that on Saturday, April 20th, the bleeding, loose stools, painful gut and incessant bathroom visits STOPPED.

I feel absolutely great and I want to share some of my protocol so that someone else might not have to suffer months, even years on ened.

I started with Digestive enzymes before every meal and heavy doses of probiotics and then added [probiotics] before breakfast. I also took on e saccromycess bilourdii capsule midday--sometimes on an empty stomach and sometimes with food. I wanted to try different approches in order to monitor my body's reaction.

I think what brought about the quickest relief is that I ingested Oil of Oregano and drank Kefir several times a day. More importantly, I refused to go along with my Doctor's suggestion to start a Rx of Flagl to purge the infection--this makes no sense, and unfortunately Western medicine is pretty much lost inmy opinion. It was completely counter-intuitive to put more antibiotics in my body... They do more harm than good!

I am continuing with taking 4 drops of oil of oregano on an empty stomach--once in the morning and an hour before dinner. I drink 2-3 glasses of Kefir; yogurt (try to avoid the sugary kind); before dinner.

About three or four days after the procedure, I began to have stomach pains in my upper abdomen that progressed to really being painful. I called the doctor and told him and he ordered me to come in for a CAT scan. I did the prep the next day and went in. After the scan he called and said that I had diverticulitis, which I had never had before. I really think there was something done to my colon that should not have been done. He gave me levaquin and flagyl to take for 14 days. After this I continued to have diarrhea and cramping. I called him again and he ordered a stool culture, which I did the next two days.

After this, he called and said that I had C. Diff. I was devastated, all this for having a colonoscopy that I did not want. I am now on Flagyl. I refused to take the vancomycin, because it was so expensive. Even with my insurance it was going to cost me $500. He agreed to me taking the Flagyl if I took two probiotics with it. He told me to get Florastor and take four times a day and Flora Q to take two times a day. The pharmacist had to order it for me. I have been on this for two days now and have not seen any relief yet. The antibiotic is causing more diarrhea than the C. Diff. I would advise anyone that is not having any trouble to never have a screening colonoscopy. At my age, I should have known better. My family and the doctor was greatly encouraging me. My gut was telling me I did not need it. I will listen to my gut next time.