As you know, I have also been on a quest for 2 years to figure out where my SFN chronic symptoms came from. All tests (diabetes, specific autoimmune diseases and general tests such as ANA , heavy metals, etc. have been negative. Prior to my back surgery, stress and diet were definite triggers. Sugar effected me and taking supplements such as Benfotamine helped so I went chasing the possibility of diabetes. It is now 6 weeks post surgery and my symptoms are waning. Now, diet does not seem to effect me like before. For example, I can drink coffee with brown rice syrup (which basically is sugar.) My take on this is that the vertebrae compressing my nerve root caused inflammation which irritated my nerves. It didn't matter to my irritated nerves what the cause was. They acted like most irritated nerves would and reacted to stimuli that irritated nerves can react unfavorable to, such as diet and stress.
I do not have a scientific mind like others on NT so I hope this makes some sense.
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Originally Posted by DavidHC
So I have question. The cause of my SFN is still unknown but autoimmunity is the leading suspect. Diet and stress are the biggest factors/triggers when it comes to my symptoms. I'm wondering if these two factors necessarily implicate autoimmunity or whether others with known non-immune mediated SFN (ideally full body like mine) also have diet and stress as immediate and obvious triggers. So does everyone with SFN (or at least some who have non-immune mediated etiologies) have worsening symptoms when there are stressors and when they eat, say, gluten, nightshades, or whatever is a trigger on the diet front? I'm inclined to think yes, and that it's niot necessarily the case that autoimmunity is at work here, but I'd appreciate hearing from actual people who have had experience with this. Perhaps I'm wrong here, and full body SFN the symptoms of which are worsened by these two triggers necessarily has an autoimmune etiology.
Basically I want to get some idea regarding whether it could just be that my SFN is caused by my leaky gut and SIBO (bacterial overgrowth) and whether healing my gut and dealing with the bacteria will address the problem, or whether I've already triggered an autoimmune response in my body, which would be a whole other beast. It's partly for motivation, partly for hope, since the former problem would be much easier to deal with. I should say that we've found no hard evidence of autoimmunity as of yet, not just a particular disease, but not even a single marker, say ANA.
Thanks!
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