You’ll find the subscription form at the top-right side of your screen. Be sure to subscribe to A Path to Natural Health to receive it and all future articles on this blog. NOTE: The low FODMAP diet will be the topic of the next article in this series on gut health. Therefore, avoiding such foods can help bring your bacteria back into balance. A diet rich in these foods is likely to produce excess gas and bloating in the small intestine. “FODMAPs” (“Fermentable, Oligosaccharide, Disaccharide, Monosaccharide and Polyols”) are short-chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine. Originally developed by a research team at Monash University in Australia, the Low FODMAP diet was designed to treat and manage the symptoms of IBS and SIBO. Determining the best brand and strain of probiotic for you can be done via a stool culture under the guidance of your physician. Probiotics are supplements that can help the intestines repopulate with healthy bacteria. However, natural botanical antibiotics can often be just as effective as pharmaceuticals. Doctors often treat SIBO with a course of pharmaceutical antibiotics, such as Rifaximin or Metronidazole. How Do I Treat SIBO?Ĭurrently, there are four main approaches to the treatment of SIBO:Īntibiotics are drugs that kill bacteria in the body. If the test indicates these gas levels are higher than normal, a diagnosis of SIBO can be confirmed. In each sample, the levels of hydrogen and methane gas (normal by-products of gut bacteria) are recorded. How Is SIBO Diagnosed?Īt present, the only reliable way to diagnose SIBO is a hydrogen breath test, in which multiple breath samples are collected at timed intervals. For example, low calcium can lead to muscle spasms, selenium deficiency to skin rashes and dermatitis, and vitamin B-12 deficiency can cause nerve pain, anemia and fatigue. People who have gone untreated for SIBO a long time may also exhibit symptoms of malabsorption of vitamins and minerals, which can lead to some of the “generalized, nonspecific symptoms” above. Generalized unexplained symptoms, such as fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, muscle pain, etc. Stomach pain, bloating and abdominal distention (especially after meals).You may suspect you have SIBO based on symptoms such as: The result is “small intestinal bacteria overgrowth” – SIBO. Such an imbalance could arise from foreign, invasive bacteria entering the gut OR from an abnormal increase in native intestinal bacteria in the small intestine. If those bacteria become imbalanced, it can disrupt the normal functioning of the entire digestive system. Under normal conditions, the majority of gut bacteria are housed in the large intestine, while only trace amounts of bacteria live in the small intestine.Īlthough small intestine bacteria are fewer in number, they still play an important part in producing regularity signals to the intestinal cells. Produce hormones that help regulate weight and metabolismīacteria are present in our stomach, small intestine and large intestine.Gut bacteria play many roles in our overall health, helping our bodies: Having the right types in the correct balance is essential to our health. Our bodies have a symbiotic relationship with gut bacteria. In this article, I will share the fundamentals about small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, so you can feel confident and informed if you wish to discuss diagnosis and treatment options with your doctor or naturopathic physician. Despite this, I still find that many people suffer with SIBO without knowing they have it, and many doctors fail to diagnose it. This may be due to our modern lifestyle, or it could be that more people are learning about the condition and asking their doctors to test them for it. Over the past few years, the number of people being diagnosed with SIBO seems to be on the rise. This week, we’ll look at “small intestinal bacterial overgrowth” – commonly referred to as “SIBO” – one of the leading causes of IBS and digestive problems. Last time in this series on digestive health, we looked at Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
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