February 2024: inside my 2 SeHCAT scans and results with radioactive pigeons

SheDaresLive

This is a video I made about the sehcat test I took to help have my inability to absorb vitamins like b12 and selenium properly.  My Pancreatic Cancer & Gut Health Journey: Inside SeHCAT Scan Experience (with radioactive pigeons)  Decoding My Gut Health with the SeHCAT Test (August 2022)   Join me on a journey back to August 2022, before my latest scan update. In this video, I share how I took the SeHCAT test, a fascinating tool used to assess nutrient absorption in the gut.    Dive deeper into:    What is the SeHCAT test and how does it work? Witness my experience firsthand as I undergo the test and explain it using radioactive pigeons.  Understanding my results: I uncover what a 27% SeHCAT result means and its potential implications for gut health.  Exploring the bigger picture: This video is separate and predates my recent scan update and focuses solely on the SeHCAT test and its insights.    This video is for:    Anyone curious about the SeHCAT test and its role in gut health.  Individuals following my journey with cancer    Join me as we:    Unravel the SeHCAT test and its significance.  Look at pictures of pigeons with backpacks  Celebrate the continuous learning.     Links:    Learn more about my journey: https://youtu.be/rsiaHKnYKWI (Diagnosis & Recovery)  How I Nearly Eradicated Cancer: https://youtu.be/yMIukE1tQBU (Diet, Exercise & More)  Yoga for Liver Health: https://youtu.be/Y4vk1dEK57w?si=STr-QxctIJ3UOtig  Like & Subscribe for more healing adventures!    Leave a comment below - I am interested who is watching these.

Transcript

00:00My gastroenterologist was trying to find out the cause of my gut issues. Glucose testing

00:08ruled SIBO out. Next came the CCAT test. This stands for the 75 selenium homocolic acid taurine

00:16test. This test is the gold standard for diagnosis of bile acid malabsorption. My

00:21gastroenterologist says the ileum or small intestine is often damaged by chemotherapy.

00:26Bile acid malabsorption occurs when your body has trouble properly absorbing bile acids from your

00:31small intestine. Bile acids are crucial for digesting nutrients so having bile acid malabsorption

00:37can lead to B12 deficiency. Imagine this pigeon is bile acid. Imagine a tiny tracer which gives

00:43off gamma rays, essentially a radioactive tag, is attached to the bile acid. In this test you

00:49swallow a capsule containing this tagged bile acid and then its journey is trapped through your

00:54digestive system using a special x-ray. The CCAT test measures the distribution of gamma rays in

01:00your body after the pill. A normal person retains over 95% of their bile acids. The CCAT test isn't

01:06a nuclear medicine test strictly speaking even though it takes place in the nuclear medicine

01:11department and even though it involves a radiactively labelled compound. The radioactivity only acts as a

01:17tracer and not as a therapeutic agent and the radiation isn't used to visualise the organs

01:22but instead only to track the movement of the tracer through the digestive system.

01:28I agreed to do the CCAT test because there's only minimal radiation involved contrasting with

01:32what's typically used in nuclear medicine procedures and I wanted to know the answer.

01:37In preparation for this test I really didn't have to do anything special particularly given my diet.

01:42I didn't have to stop taking Creon even as my gastroenterologist did not agree with that happening

01:48on the basis of the research and I did not have to stop eating or drinking.

01:51Oh I took one CCAT pill at eight o'clock in the morning. One hour later I had a scan via a gamma

01:57camera to measure the radiation in my body. I had to stand very still for 10 minutes. The gamma

02:02camera detects gamma rays and it's a bit like an x-ray. The results show on a computer screen next to

02:08the camera and this is a baseline result when there's no radiation. My scan one hour after the pill was

02:14taken there was lots of radiation. I had to come back one week later so we could repeat the scan to see

02:20how much radiation was still in my body hoping for as much radiation as possible to be found and

02:25measured on the scan. This is a photo of the second scan. I didn't photograph the results but they would

02:30have been on the left hand side of this screen. The medical team uses a mathematical formula to

02:34calculate the results. So how does the CCAT test for malabsorption actually work? We all know that not

02:40all of the food we eat is used by our bodies. Some of it comes out as let's say waste products but

02:47while it's in the small intestine our body reclaims and recycles as much as possible of

02:52the hard to find elements like B12 or selenium. By attaching the radioactive tracer to the selenium

02:58and then looking how much is left in the body after one week it's possible to work out a percentage

03:03score of how efficient the body is at recycling which is the measure of how effective your body is

03:10at reabsorbing bile acid. Normal people score about 95% on this test. For B12 injections you need to

03:18score under 15%. I scored 27%. This is a rubbish result but it wasn't rubbish enough to get me B12

03:27injections which would have solved my B12 issue. Nutrients which should have been recycled in the

03:31ileum were for the most part just passing through. But it did explain why taking pills didn't seem to

03:37stop me having a B12 deficiency and maybe a lot of other things. I had to find a different way to

03:42solve my B12 deficiency but more on that in another video. Follow my unconventional journey

03:47against stage 4 pancreatic cancer on She Dares Live.

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