If you’re new to taking Clover Ferments, have recently done a diet overhaul or are working to address a gut microbial imbalance it’s likely you may have experienced a ‘die-off’ reaction.
This describes a whole host of symptoms that could occur in response to a change in your microbiome → while it’s not pleasant in the short-term it’s a great sign of change and beneficial in the long run. Let’s talk through what’s going on here!
I liken our microbiome, the array of bacteria, viruses, and fungi in our large intestine, to a forest. We want it to represent a thriving, diverse and lush forest. It should be a flourishing ecosystem that hosts trillions of different microbes. On the other end of the spectrum we would see a barren desert or a measly forest with mostly weeds growing. In this situation the microbiome is largely sterile and more so a host to unfriendly visitors → pathogenic bacteria, yeast and parasites that can affect our health negatively.
If your microbiome represents the latter situation you are a lot more vulnerable to pick up infections, have poor mental health, experience skin irritations and have poor gut function (think constipation, loose bowels and bloating). These are just a few of the functions that a healthy microbiome has a role in influencing positively.
Dietary change and the use of antimicrobials, beneficial bacteria and digestive enzymes like those found in Clover Ferments, are essential in restoring the ‘barren desert’ picture to the ‘thriving forest’ picture. It’s during this process that you may experience a ‘die-off’ reaction or more technically known as a ‘herxheimer reaction’.
The Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction (JHR) was initially coined as a reaction to antibiotic treatment for specific bacterial infections. It resulted in a worsening of skin lesions, headaches, chills and fever. It’s now also used to describe the initial worsening of symptoms that can occur in a gut healing protocol or detoxification protocol.
There are a range of symptoms that could be experienced as a result:
- Fever
- Chills
- Muscle aches and pains
- Headaches
- Loose or constipated bowel motions
- Bloating
- Worsening of a current symptom
- Brain fog
- Fatigue
What’s going on here?
When unfriendly microbes (weeds) die in the gut they release a big load of endotoxins. A few things can then happen.
Your body’s response to this is to release cytokines (immune molecules) to neutralise the endotoxins. In the short-term you’ll feel the effects of this! Just like when you’re fighting a cold off → Inflammation, aches & pains.
The endotoxins aggravate the gut and cause loose bowels, bloating or pain.
If you have intestinal hyperpermeability aka ‘leaky gut’ the toxins can leach through the gut lining and get into your blood system stimulating an immune reaction here and more inflammation. These toxins will eventually make their way to the liver and be filtered out of the blood.
Just one or all three of the previous situations can occur - making you feel pretty icky in the short-term!
It’s important that we can clear these toxins - that your detoxification pathways are working well.
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Prioritising a daily bowel motion is crucial here to move the toxins through and prevent them from being re-circulated.
- 2L of water daily
- Half a plate of fibre (from leafy greens, veggies and fruit at every meal)
- At least 30 mins of movement per day
- Additional psyllium husks for a fibre boost. Take 1Tb of psyllium husks in a glass of water
- Magnesium citrate (300mg) if you really need to encourage things along.
2. Supporting phase 1 and 2 detoxification in your liver. These phases require a lot of nutrients to function properly and certain herbs work to support these phases too:
- B vitamins - 2, 3, 6, 9, 12
- Vitamin A, C, E
- Glutathione
- Magnesium
- Iron
- Milk thistle
- Sulphur
- CoQ10
- Quercetin
- Selenium
- Amino acids
When you add in Clover Ferments the big influx of beneficial bacteria essentially crowds out the unfriendly microbes and kills many of them off in the process. Similar to you fertilising your garden and seeing a big growth in plants, not weeds. Particularly if you’ve just started on them you may experience this ‘die-off’ reaction. While it’s not fun initially you will come out the other side feeling a whole lot better! Think of the beneficial shift that’s going on internally.
A die-off reaction should only last for 1-3 days - a longer period indicates a higher load of unfriendly microbes in the gut and/or poor liver function struggling to clear the toxins. Here are 5 things you can do to ease the symptoms if you do experience this:
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Make sure you are well hydrated with at least 2L of filtered water daily.
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Reduce your dose of Clover Ferments to 30ml until the symptoms ease.
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Take an epsom salt bath
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Take a nap
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Ensure you have a daily bowel motion by using some of the tools above.
You can also experience this by just changing your diet. Eliminating or minimising sugar removes the main fuel source of many unfriendly microbes, including yeast/candida, and they eventually die. In the process you will feel the effects of this! It could be a surge of oral thrush, diarrhoea, vaginal thrush or immense fatigue and brain fog.
It’s all part of the process! Stick with it and know that you’ll come out the other side feeling a whole lot better!
Grace xx
About the author:
Grace Mortimer - Head Clinical Nutritionist
Pheno Nutrition
https://www.phenonutrition.com/
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BSc Neuroscience
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dipGrad Human Nutrition
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HPN2 Clinical Nutrition
