Here's my experience with the Oregano Oil protocol.....I don't know what to do next, whether to go backwards or forwards or what!!! I took the Oregano oil each morning for about 10 days, stopped for 4 and started again for about another week. I use Natren probiotics to make my own yogurt, so that's the probiotic part of it, and I was taking that, about 2-3 ounces once or twice a day. I started the Oregano Oil slowly, with 1 drop the first day, two drops the second, etc. until I got to five and I held steady at that. I would say on day five I saw a difference, and a very good one, in that my once a day stool became dark and compact, and I had less pain in the gut. Then I started to get what I call the "system slowdown" where I go minimally for days on end and then have a clean out. After that I started getting these very large bulky, soft, light colored stools, consistently day after day. Based on what I've read, my idea is that it's dead bacteria that make up this large mass. So I stopped the Oregano oil (not the yougurt) for a few days, like four. And my pain returned. I started back with three drops in the am on an empty stomach, kept it up for about a week, and got the bulky stools again, this time with GAS. Gave up taking it, kept up with the yogurt and STILL had gas and bulky stools five days later. I have more gas if I eat any carbohydrates. And this gas is of the most smelly putrid kind. Now I've stopped eating the yogurt too, as it gave me gas. I'm really puzzled by all this, and I wonder WHAT I've killed off, the good guys or the bad guys??? I spent all of this past year carefully eating my homemade yogurt (I know those are live cultures!!) and had really made a lot of progress with gas and bloating, but could not resolve the pain and the brain fog and fatigue I get every afternoon, so I wanted to try the Oregano oil. I am at a loss as to what to do next. Anyway, that's my experience. My thought is that the gas comes from the carbohydrate feeding the bad bacteria....

What sometimes makes things awfully confusing (based only on my own experience, so other people may have completely different and equally valid opinions), is that often you have to get SEVERAL things "right" in a multi-pronged approach before you really start to see major progress. And figuring out each of those several things is like putting a puzzle together...it gets clearer as you go along, but it's just a mass of seemingly unrelated pieces to begin with. Sometimes it can be extremely frustrating, but each little change you try making does bring you closer to the answers.

Do you have Jini's book, Listen to Your Gut? If not, it is well worth the investment!

There is a chapter in there which includes instructions for getting into a "dialog" with your gut. I've found that to be a very helpful skill to develop. I think it makes the whole process I spoke about above go a lot faster.

It sounds like you suspect carbohydrates. How would you feel about going without them for about two weeks, other than, say, the carbs you get in non-starchy veggies? See how that makes you feel. Then try introducing various carbohydrates back into your diet on a one-by-one basis. See how that makes you feel. Experiment a little.

Or maybe getting tested for candida overgrowth or even following a diet to reduce candida for a month (which would also greatly reduce carbohydrates, along with some other foods that feed candida)?

I've tried the IBD Remission Diet (which is a great therapy and one I'd highly recommend, based on my experience with it - really gave my healing a big jumpstart) and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which also helped. Recently, I felt my gut urging me to spend the lousy $59.95 (I'd been resisting) on Dr. Mercola's Metabolic Typing. So I did and I've been incorporating his suggestions - and eating more vegetables than ever! - into my diet to test it out. And feeling pretty good, I might add. But the very important thing to remember is that ultimately, all any of these things give you is a starting point. A place to begin. After that, your "best" diet/therapy will be the result of fine-tuning based on a bit of old-fashioned experimenting and detective work. Someone else can start you off, but the final answers can only come from inside you.

For myself, I use the Wild Oregano Oil when my symptoms/gut ask me to, but I've found that it works BEST in conjunction with other things. For instance, I've learned through testing that I have a hard time....at least for the time being....with grain. Taking Wild Oregano Oil AND removing grain from my diet, while increasing my veggie consumption AND using EFT daily for dealing with stress worked a whole lot better than taking Wild Oregano Oil alone. But it takes time and experimenting to put that picture together.

Remember also that the Natren yogurt starter only contains the L. bulgaricus. So to get the biggest benefit, you would also benefit from supplementing with the L. acidophilus and the bifidobacterium.

I'm sure Jini will have some words of wisdom, also.

Best wishes!
Nicole

Nicole, thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed post. I agree with you that this is like a puzzle for each of us, it's like going down a road that turns out to be a dead end and having to come back up and choose another road all the time....overall, after doing this for about four years now, I do feel better-- hey, I function, I can go to work and I get many good hours in each day. Also, I can't deny the incredible other health benefits I've enjoyed-- better sleep, control of blood sugar, excellent gums and skin (my dentist and his assistant look perplexed when they can't ever find anything wrong with me) and I reversed my asthma (the doctor told me not to come back as my numbers on the spirometry looked better than three years ago!) Of course I have Jini's book, and it's all underlined, highlighted and bookmarked! I have explored the possibility of systemic yeast and tried the SCD diet (that gave me the info on making safe yogurt-- incubate 24 hours.) I have now been juggling supplements and yogurt (and of course I never drink tap water-- only triple filtered H2O for me, and boy is that ever a lesson in discipline) and I use the Natren powders --- all four of them --- in rotation to make the yogurts, making a pot every week choosing a different type. I wrote my post honestly because I was kind of scared at what I was seeing even with such a small amt of Oregano Oil. Years ago I took a ten day course of Erythromycin after a surgery and supplemented it with a good probiotic.....I had really bulky formed stools once in the morning (erythromycin has prokenitic properties...really makes you go) but I was SYMPTOM FREE for 14 days! It was amazing and really caught my attention, I'll tell you! Trying it again, it did not work as well a month later, and of course, I was not will to take an antibiotic non-stop. I am wondering if we have to use Oregano Oil with the same care as you do with antibiotics.... You HAVE to finish the course of the medication. If you just take it a few days, you kill the weaker bacteria, and the strong ones are left to multiply. Scary! I stopped the Oregano Oil because of the GAS, which I didn't think was normal. I stopped everything for three days, and yesterday I had just a tablespoon of my yogurt first thing on an empty stomach... and that seems to be okay today...we'll see. Did the same this morning. It is possible that the yogurt has so many live cultures it could be too much....anyway, I hope Jini will read this and comment.

Yes, excellent reply Nicole and thanks again for adding your wisdom and experience.

Firstly, the Natren Yoghurt Starter (while excellent) does not provide the same cfu count nor therapeutic value of the concentrated probiotics. So if you're going to try the Wild Oregano Protocol, you definitely have to do the proper probiotics along with it - you can take your yoghurt in addition to probiotics, but they are not a replacement.

Actually, it sounds as though you're using the actual probiotics to make your yoghurt. Don't know if this is okay actually, since the bacteria have already been cultured...hmmm....suggest you phone Natren and find out if this is okay or beneficial and what cfu per teaspoon you're likely to end up with so you can adjust ingestion to make sure you're getting 7-10 billion per day.

Secondly, gas and bloating, etc. are classic symptoms of a pathogen die-off effect, so if this is what you were experiencing, then that is a good thing and needs to be continued. However, you can reduce the oregano dosage to have the die-off go more slowly.

Don't forget that wild oregano doesn't just kill bacteria, but also yeast (Candida), viruses, fungus, and parasites.

take care,
Jini