The Dietary History
Elaine Gottschall's daughter, Judy, had been successfully treated in the 1950's for Ulcerative Colitis by Dr Sidney Haas (full story). Dr Haas was a highly successful pediatrician who cured Celiac Disease and other gastrointestinal disorders with the diet he developed- the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). It was in 1951, after 25 years of clinical success, that he published The Management of Celiac Disease, describing his use of the SCD.
After Judy's miraculous improvement, Elaine found herself motivated to return to school to study the science of how and why the diet worked. Her book Breaking the Vicious Cycle (BTVC) is the result of her research. If it wasn't for her, the SCD might have been forgotten. Although during the late 1940s, Dr Haas and his dietary treatment were famous, just one year after his book was published, the assertion that gluten was the dietary culprit in Celiac Disease took hold and the SCD fell out of favor (full story) as it eliminates all grains, not just gluten-containing grains.
Gottschall passed away in 2004. But her work is continued with re-publishing of BTVC and by Dr Campbell-McBride (C-M), author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Dr C-M's son suffered from Autism and was greatly helped by the SCD. Since then Dr C-M devoted her practice to Autism and similar disorders. Elaine discussed the gut-brain connection in BTVC but Dr C-M made it the focus of an entire book. She alters the diet slightly, tailoring it to the sensitive Autistic patient and incorporates the dietary suggestions from the Weston Price Foundation, making it even more healthy and healing. Her version of the SCD is called the Gaps diet. Both SCD and Gaps have numerous websites, including their own yahoo support and recipe groups.
After Judy's miraculous improvement, Elaine found herself motivated to return to school to study the science of how and why the diet worked. Her book Breaking the Vicious Cycle (BTVC) is the result of her research. If it wasn't for her, the SCD might have been forgotten. Although during the late 1940s, Dr Haas and his dietary treatment were famous, just one year after his book was published, the assertion that gluten was the dietary culprit in Celiac Disease took hold and the SCD fell out of favor (full story) as it eliminates all grains, not just gluten-containing grains.
Gottschall passed away in 2004. But her work is continued with re-publishing of BTVC and by Dr Campbell-McBride (C-M), author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Dr C-M's son suffered from Autism and was greatly helped by the SCD. Since then Dr C-M devoted her practice to Autism and similar disorders. Elaine discussed the gut-brain connection in BTVC but Dr C-M made it the focus of an entire book. She alters the diet slightly, tailoring it to the sensitive Autistic patient and incorporates the dietary suggestions from the Weston Price Foundation, making it even more healthy and healing. Her version of the SCD is called the Gaps diet. Both SCD and Gaps have numerous websites, including their own yahoo support and recipe groups.
Integrating the Old and New Research
Although Dr Haas was a Medical Doctor and thus his Specific Carbohydrate Diet is a Medical treatment, it is not commonly known of or prescribed by Gastroenterologist's today. Somehow his dietary approach to SIBO has been separate from the world of information being discovered by the current medical researchers. When I first focused my attention on SIBO several years ago, I was surprised to find that the SCD community (online support groups, websites and cookbooks) was unaware of the research on SIBO and visa versa. My objective over the last few years has to integrate these two worlds of information.
One missing piece in Breaking the Vicious Cycle and Dr Haas's work was an explanation for constipation. It wasn't until 2004 that constipation's relationship to SIBO was discovered. Dr Pimentel and his team at Cedars-Sinai found that one of the gases produced by bacteria- methane, alters the motility of the small intestine and is highly linked with constipation. This is an astounding finding. Chronic unremitting constipation can be due to bacterial infection.
In Gottschall's time, available antibiotics caused side effects such as diarrhea that made their use for SIBO unwise. Recently a new antibiotic (Rifaximin) was developed that has a low incidence of this problem. With an effective antibiotic available for SIBO, interest and research from the medical community increased. This has allowed us to include diet, antibiotics and a spectrum in between, as ways to deal with this problem.
These are just two examples that will be discussed in detail in my upcoming book on SIBO - stay tuned.
One missing piece in Breaking the Vicious Cycle and Dr Haas's work was an explanation for constipation. It wasn't until 2004 that constipation's relationship to SIBO was discovered. Dr Pimentel and his team at Cedars-Sinai found that one of the gases produced by bacteria- methane, alters the motility of the small intestine and is highly linked with constipation. This is an astounding finding. Chronic unremitting constipation can be due to bacterial infection.
In Gottschall's time, available antibiotics caused side effects such as diarrhea that made their use for SIBO unwise. Recently a new antibiotic (Rifaximin) was developed that has a low incidence of this problem. With an effective antibiotic available for SIBO, interest and research from the medical community increased. This has allowed us to include diet, antibiotics and a spectrum in between, as ways to deal with this problem.
These are just two examples that will be discussed in detail in my upcoming book on SIBO - stay tuned.
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