Tried DIM and it Messed me up

[bmg9fuva]

Hello - I tried a supplement called DIM to help with hormonal acne. This was back in Dec 2019 and Jan 2020. Ever since then it's been a train wreck of symptoms which now are food sensitivities to many foods (oxalate, salicylate, or histamines not sure exactly which) and my period went from 5 days to 2.5-3 days since taking the DIM, so it has done something to my hormones. Apparently after reading more about the supplement its for people with estrogen excess which i don't think I had. How can I reverse the effects of the DIM? I am 41 yrs old. I feel that the hormone change from this supplement changed my period and also triggerred the food sensitivities and they are some how connected. I'm desperately looking for a way to reverse this.
Below is the full story.

It all started in December 2019. That month I tried an herbal supplement called Royal Maca + DIM. I tried it because I've had issues with cystic acne my entire life which never really resolved. I have tried antibiotics, topicals, as well as Accutane three times. The Accutane would make it stop for a few years but then it would return. It only eliminated my standard acne (T zone, chest, back). But the jawline/cheek acne always flared back up after a few years off Accutane. So I wanted to try another approach to resolving the acne. I had seen some articles about it online, and there were numerous positive reviews online (I didn’t read any of the negatives, which there were enough of).
Prior to this I lived a pain free life with zero sensitivities to food and could eat whatever I wanted to and feel fine. No digestive issues; I rarely had headaches, never had any stomach flues or viruses, heart burn, anxiety, etc. Well that all changed after this supplement. I feel it set off a chain reaction of issues. I started off slowly with the supplement and took only 1 pill every 4-5 days starting mid Dec 2019. I started getting insane amounts of flatulence. Prior to that I wasn't a gassy person at all. I didn't connect the supplement with the gas issue at first. Late January 2020 I decided to step up the dose to 1 pill a day (the recommended is 2x daily). I took it on a Monday Tuesday Wednesday and on Thursday I started getting these insane spiking/prickling sensations in my arm pits, groin, and other weird places, head aches, breast tenderness, vulvodynia like throbbing (not burning sensations), body/back aches. The supplement supposedly balances hormones/reduces estrogen. I stopped the supplement immediately after that. When I got my period at the end of January it was 1 day shorter than usual; it has always been 5 days long my entire life. My period never went back to the usual 5 days, it's now 2 or 3 days ever since. The pains kept going for at least a month and a half, even though I wasn't taking the pills. I read that chamomile tea helps with inflammation and pain so i started drinking that 3x daily and the pains decreased in 2 weeks. Went to the doctor and had bloodwork done which showed low estrogen (even during times when it should have been much higher), and elevated DHEA-S.  Noticed I got heart burn, heart palpitations, and anxious feelings when before this I'd never had it in my life. Mid Feb 2020 (corresponding to the middle of my cycle) I developed this odd dizziness and tinnitus. Similar to the feeling of walking on a boat. That went on until August 2020 and stopped. In Feb and March 2020 I did try eating more soy products like edamame and soy milk in hopes that it would alleviate some of my symptoms, as these a purported to help with such issues. Following this, the covid quarantine started and my work place made us work from home starting mid March ( I ended up working from home until July 2021). Due to being at home, I do recall I was eating a LOT more cereal, oats, nuts, and dairy products than I would if I traveled to work during the week. Since soy, dairy, and wheat/gluten are the top allergens for food, maybe this contributed to developing food sensitivity issues?
April 2020 is when the neuropathy started. It was only slight sporadic pricks in my toes and fingers at the time and it started a few days before my period. I thought it was some residual side effect from the supplement. The prickling would come and go, and seem to show up during certain points in my cycle.
Then June 2020 I woke up in this weird twisted folded position which is when the rib/side pains seem to start out. Thought it was just a strain but 3 months later it was still there. It seemed to have an aching and nerve pain type component. It was even uncomfortable to sleep on my side. Doctor did more blood work and I had low vit D of 21. Took high dose vit D &b12 and in 2 weeks I was feeling 20x better. All the symptoms were gone by end of Nov 2020. Occasionally I might feel a very faint twinge in my side but all was well.
July 2020 is when the sensitive spot on the left side of my scalp started. I had my hair cut and colored, and the next day is when I noticed the sensitive patch. The sensitivity got fainter for a while, but then got stronger. It comes and goes in how noticeable it is and has never truly gone away. Its only felt if I touch that area of the scalp or move my hair.
I started exercising again Oct 2020, but end of Jan 2021 the nerve pains and rib aches resurfaced along with the vulvodynia type throbbing. Feb 2021 I also had a new symptom which felt like intestinal cramping right above my left hip mostly (sometimes right side) which is what got me to the GI doctor testing for celiac. The neuropathy seemed to have gone beyond just fingers and toes, it was occurring in legs, arms, face, abdomen. My GP tested for vitamin levels, and vit D was a 36 this time, not super low like the previous year. I also went to a neurologist who didn’t seem to think it was neurological in origin. I’ve also been to an endocrinologist and had many hormone levels tested, all seemingly normal at the time it was measured. Free Testosterone at one point was very slightly elevated. Tried going to a chiropractor in the month of April 2021 to see if perhaps the issue was a lingering injury from the awkward sleep position from the previous year. That was only mildy beneficial but maybe I needed more than 4 sessions.
The GI doctor appointment was April 26 2021 which is when that doctor told me that celiac or gluten sensitivity could cause odd symptoms like mine. They did the blood tests for Celiac disease, which is the ttg IgA (result 1), serum IgA (result 166), and ttg IgG (result 6). I also did the celiac gene test and don’t have either of the genes most associated with the disease.Since I only had an elevated ttg IgG of 6 (should be 5 or less) and don't have either celiac gene, it sounds most likely not celiac and it could be the non celiac gluten/wheat sensitivity. I started the gluten free diet on April 30, 2021. Within 5 days the nerve pains were definitely a lot better. The rib/side pains were still present. Had some gluten eating slip ups/accidents as well in the following weeks and also discovered other foods I feel I'm sensitive too. For example, the second week I tried GF oatmeal and the nerve pains got super strong the next day. I also tried some GF cereal (which had oats) and some GF cereal bars (also has oats) and felt a similar but not as strong reaction.
By about week 5 of going gluten free and avoiding the other foods I knew about that were triggers, I thought I was feeling pretty good. June 6 and 7th, I purposely ate gluten entrees because I had originally planned for an endoscopy for early July, prior to getting the celiac gene test results back. June 6th I ate a salad with croutons. The next day, in the morning, I had what I can only describe as rectal spasms of some sort. It felt like being stabbed in that area. That lasted for about 5 minutes (haven’t had those since and never had them before). That same day I ate spaghetti for dinner. The following day the nerve pains came on strong. When I got the negative celiac gene results back, I went back to eating GF, and postponed the endoscopy.
First week in July I cleaned out my pantry and may have glutened myself handling (inhaling) pancake mixes. The nerve pain from this seemed to be worse than when just eating the gluten (from June 6 and 7th). Maybe the powder form is more potent.
My main issue right now is nerve pains/neuropathy with head ache (after ingesting certain foods or if I inhale certain substances) and moving/alternating rib pains on both sides (most of the time on the sides not on the sternum), and body aches. Like I mentioned before, I cleaned out my pantry and was handling gluten based pancake and waffle mixes in July and the next day got the day long head ache with weird nerve pains prickling sensations all over body. Same happens after being in a hair salon (possibly from gluten containing hair spray in the air?) and from cleaning out the oven (just used baking soda as the cleaner, but maybe there was gluten residue on it).
Due to the food restrictions with the gluten, dairy, etc. I had started to eat more nuts as snacks. Doing this I broke a crown off one of my teeth that has to be replaced with a dental implant. This occurred in May 2021. In July I had the remainder of the broken tooth removed and had to take amoxicillin for a week. This was around July 14. I got the covid shot July 23rd and the rib/side pains flared up a day after and I reacted strongly to the vaccine. A few days after this is when the stomach burning sensations started popping up. I am not sure if it was the antibiotics or the vaccine or a combination of the two that triggered it. Its basically burning sensations in the stomach that seems like gastritis.
I was already scheduled for an endoscopy Aug 31 2021 to test for celiac disease. They did not find evidence of that. They did see “minimal chronic gastritis” and “a very mild layer of inflammation” in my stomach. That was all. This has been causing me off and on issues with eating certain things like coffee or alcohol or too many acidic foods. About a week after the endoscopy, all the symptoms seemed to go away. For 30 days I was feeling back to normal/symptom free (as long as I was not eating the reacting foods). Because I was feeling good I decided to try to eat some of the foods that I couldn’t before. I tried some Greek yogurt in early October 2021 and the aching rib sensations came back within 24 hrs followed by the nerve pains a few days later. It seems like the yogurt cancelled out a lot of the progressed I had made.
Milk or cheese alone didn’t seem to cause that much of an issue since I would eat those every now and then. I think the Greek yogurt is very concentrated.
Since this time, its basically been slow improvement again as long as I stick to eating only a whole foods (fruits, vegetables, meat) clean diet, and not eating dairy or any grains or certain nuts (almonds and walnuts). I can eat white rice sometimes with no reactions. I also noticed these vitamin D gel caps trigger the nerve pains too. There must be something in the capsule that I react to.
Update as of August 2022, the foods I know I can't eat all are corn ( Corn is #1), Most likely gluten as well, oats, almonds, walnuts, pecans, citric acid, balsamic vinegar, yogurt.
I definitely react to high to certain histamine foods (dried fruit and bottled tuna) but not all the time. Bananas that have any spots/old or eating them too much. Too much dairy like milk and cheese, infrequently it's ok. Pears that are too hard/unripe. Potatoes and tomatoes in larger quantities.

[Dezww007]

Hello, thank you for posting this. I’m sorry to hear DIM caused so many problems for you. Although I didn’t have as many adverse reactions to DIM as you did, the pain from the gas alone was enough to make me stop after one week.

I bought it on Amazon after doing a lot of research on it (read articles, watch YouTube videos by doctors, examined the ingredients and origin of DIM, etc). It sounded good, but my body hasn’t been the same since.

There were some good things that happened, but the flatulence outweighed all of them. I was up all night in pain and couldn’t go to sleep until I had passed all of the gas. It was terrible and I would not recommend this product to anyone, despite all of the positive reviews I’ve seen.

[bmg9fuva]

It's a good thing you stopped it. There were all kinds of terrible stories about people taking the dim from Amazon. One lady got her period for 30 days straight and was bleeding so much went to the ER and the doctor was considering blood transfusion!