Welcome to my blog! Today’s topic is on something you might not be familiar with but it’s something you need to know about. A lot of people have never heard of it and may suffer from it. Also, a lot of people may have it and their doctor has diagnosed it to be something else. My son has it and we are just now learning how to “fix” it and what he can eat and what he cannot eat to get it under control. SIBO stands for Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Let’s find out what it is and what we can do about it. Just so you know this blog post is a little longer than most due to the information it contains. But it’s well worth the read!
What is SIBO?
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) occurs when there is an increase in the bacteria in the small intestines — in particular, certain types of bacteria not commonly found in that part of the digestive tract. In other words,…It’s not supposed to be there! This condition is also known as blind loop syndrome. SIBO commonly results when there is something causing a decrease in the passage of food and waste products in the digestive tract, creating a breeding ground for bacteria. The excess bacteria may cause diarrhea and may cause weight loss and malnutrition, but not always. Sometimes people might just experience an irritable bowel.
While, a good bit of the time, SIBO is often a complication of stomach (abdominal) surgery, this condition can also be the result of a structural problem such as some diseases. Sometimes surgery is needed to correct the problem, but antibiotics are the most common treatment. We have opted out of the antibiotic route for my son due to his age and the harmful side effects of antibiotics. There are much better and healthier ways to treat it. So, let’s now talk about what causes it and what kind of symptoms you might experience.
A good bit of the causes as mentioned above is complications after a certain type of surgery such as gastric bypass, or gastrectomy to treat ulcers and some cancers. There could be scar tissue wrapped around the small intestines which could protrude through the walls of the intestines. You could have certain medical conditions that may cause it as well. Some of these conditions might include Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, diabetes, or scleroderma just to name a few. Now let’s talk about symptoms that you may experience.
Some of the symptoms that you may experience is a loss of appetite, abdominal pain, nausea, bloating, malnutrition, diarrhea, or maybe just an uncomfortable feeling of being full after every meal. My son had bad stomach cramps after eating and a very slow digestion. What’s interesting during this whole thing is, after doing some research with SIBO after my son was diagnosed with it, we had found out that it is very common in children with autism, ADD, and ADHD.
Complications and Treatments
SIBO can cause a lot of problems that many people might not be aware of or some people may have these problems and just ignore them thinking that it’s something else. These problems include:
- Poor absorption of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. Bile salts, which are needed to digest fats, get broken down by the bacteria in your small intestine, this results in incomplete digestion of fats and could cause diarrhea. These bacterial products may also harm the mucous lining of the small intestine, resulting in decreased absorption of carbohydrates and proteins.
- Side note- The bacteria will end up competing for available food. Compounds produced through the bacterial break-down of undigested food can also trigger diarrhea. Together, these effects of bacterial overgrowth result in diarrhea, malnutrition and weight loss.
- Vitamin deficiency. As a result of the incomplete absorption of fats as mentioned above, your body can’t fully absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Bacteria in the small intestine synthesize as well as use vitamin B-12, which is essential for the normal functioning of your nervous system and the production of blood cells and DNA.
- Side note- The overgrowth of bacteria can result in a B-12 deficiency which can lead to weakness, fatigue, tingling, and numbness in your hands and feet and, in extreme cases, to mental confusion. Damage to your central nervous system resulting from B-12 deficiency may be irreversible.
- Weakened bones (osteoporosis). Over time, damage to your intestine from abnormal bacterial growth causes poor calcium absorption, and eventually may lead to bone diseases, such as osteoporosis.
- Kidney stones. Poor calcium absorption may also eventually result in kidney stones.
A number of diagnostic tests are currently available, although the optimal treatment regimen remains vague. Recently there has been renewed interest in SIBO and its alleged association with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Many doctors may diagnose you with IBS when in reality it could be SIBO, which is totally different. Please ask your doctor about it and get tested! There are two main treatment options for SIBO that I will mention here, but your doctor might mention some others. One is of course as mentioned earlier is antibiotics to “kill” the bacteria that has overtaken your intestines. The problem that I have with this option is #1 Your doctor might prescribe these antibiotics without even testing you first! #2 A short dose of antibiotics may reduce the number of bacteria in your intestines, but the bacteria can and will come back once you stop taking them! Well that defeats the whole purpose people! That’s not going to help you, and this is exactly why we did not go this route! (Not to mention the side effects).
Ok so what route did we go with? We decided to go with the second treatment option that is available and that is Nutritional Support! In other words, changing how and what you eat. It’s not for everyone, but it is the better, healthier, and safer option of the two. Some nutritional support might be going to a lactose free diet. Adding a multivitamin with a concentration in B vitamins will be included as well as a low carb diet. From the research I have done personally due to my son having it, I have found that these bacteria that lives in the small intestines love sugar! So, that’s why no lactose, no carbs or low carbs, no raw sugar, no syrups, no juices, no jelly’s or jams etc. We had to really redo his diet and basically start over with creating this diet plan to kill the bad bacteria and try to add in good bacteria.
So that’s basically it. I am sorry this post was so long, but it is great information if you are experiencing any of the symptoms and want to talk to your doctor. I suggest having your doctor give you an OATS test. It is just a urine sample sent off to a lab and it will show if you have an overgrowth, or any other bacteria in your system. OATS stands for Organic Acids Test. If you Google it and read about it, you will see that it can be very helpful to you in determining any problems that you may be having. My son took one and it came back that he had the overgrowth. But we are on the right path in helping him and I’m sure it can help you too.
*The diet we decided to put my son on is the restricted carb diet. I can talk about this in another blog post but for now just Google Carb-restricted Diet and it explains all about it.
I hope this helps you live a happier, healthier life. Please let me know if I can ever help you in any way. I am just a click, text or call away and I am always eager to help people reach their goals. Until next time,
Take Care,
Darren
Harmony Shift 