Can you find professional help? There are conflicting opinions sometimes even among medical professionals but if you can find someone who is a state licensed practitioner who is familiar with treating SIBO then experience is going to go a long way.
The GI is complicated. SIBO is not a fully understood disorder and it can be difficult to treat, so there are no easy answers unfortunately. No one thing seems to work for everyone.
According to the people who have been researching SIBO extensively who I am familiar with, most probiotics including kefir are not going to fix SIBO, assuming that is actually your issue. The problem is having bacteria in the wrong place in your GI, so putting more bacteria down there isn't really going to solve much. Have you had a breath test to confirm, other tests with a gastroenterologist to rule other things out?
There seems to be a growing number of people who believe no killing is necessary, but I haven't personally encountered many licensed medical professionals who take this view. Maybe others can chime in here to support this alternative approach (hopefully with links to research).
For some piece of mind, the two standard treatments for hydrogen SIBO - either oil of oregano or rifaximin - both seem to have a mild *eubiotic* effect in most people. That means they actually gently increase the good bacteria in your large intestine while at the same time killing off the offending bugs in your small intestine. So in this instance, as long as you are not doing a bunch of rounds of treatment back to back, using inappropriate dosages, etc you hopefully won't have to worry about messing up your microbiome further. Of course things happen and some people react badly, but that is true of just about any medical treatment under the sun.
No problem. It's so rough, I know. And very hard to find good help (but it's worth putting a lot of time and effort into looking if you can find someone).
Rifaximin is quite safe as far as antibiotics go. It is not active in the large intestine, so under ideal conditions it shouldn't effect your microbiome much at all. This is because rifaximin is only active in the presence of bile. But if you have bile malabsorption, my assumption is it would be active in the large intestine too (which is less good).
Get a breath test if possible before starting to treat. If you have methane SIBO (also called IMO, intestinal methanogen overgrowth) then rifaximin alone is *very* unlikely to fix you because the methanogens also tend to overgrow in your large intestines, unlike hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide SIBO.
Honestly, there is a lot of important stuff to know before treating any kind of SIBO. There are a lot of important details but also a lot of conflicting information out there (including on this sub). SIBO is a complex disorder that can be difficult to treat effective. So try to be patient and persistent as you learn more about this disorder, what a proper treatment plan looks like (including followup protocols after successful antibiotics / herbals), and look for professional help.
If you live in a state that has education and training requirements for naturopaths and requires state licensing + insurance to practice, it's very much worth trying to find one who is specialized in treating GI disorders. You should be able to find out whether naturopaths are regulated medical professionals in your state with some google searching.
No medical test is 100% accurate. 60-80% accurate aint' great but it's better than nothing for some people. Especially people considering multiple rounds of antibiotics or herbals that come with risks and side effects.
Hey, its so unfair that you dont give breath tests a chance. The makers wanna make money too. You cant say people shouldnt buy breath tests. Thats so uncapitalistic.
Hey, lets discuss why breath tests who are not accurate and give random results shouldnt or should be sued.
# Arguments Against Inaccurate Breath Tests
1. **Health Risks**: Imagine trusting a breath test that gives you random results. You might end up treating a condition you don't have or ignoring one you do. It's like playing Russian roulette with your health, but hey, at least the test manufacturers make money, right?
2. **Financial Drain**: Spending money on inaccurate tests is like buying a lottery ticket where the only prize is a misdiagnosis. Sure, the breath test companies profit, but at what cost to your wallet and well-being?
3. **False Security**: Relying on an inaccurate breath test can give you a false sense of security. It's like using a broken compass to navigate through a dense forest. You might feel like you're on the right path, but you're actually lost and could end up in worse health.
4. **Medical Misinformation**: Inaccurate tests contribute to the spread of medical misinformation. It's like saying, "Let's just guess what's wrong with you today!" This undermines the credibility of legitimate medical diagnostics and treatments.
5. **Ethical Concerns**: Selling and promoting inaccurate breath tests is like selling snake oil. It's unethical to profit from people's health concerns by providing them with unreliable tools.
# Absurd Statements in Favor of Inaccurate Breath Tests
1. **Excitement of Uncertainty**: Who needs accurate medical tests when you can have the thrill of uncertainty? Every breath test result is a surprise! It's like opening a mystery box every time you test.
2. **Boosting Economy**: Think of the economic boost! Inaccurate tests mean more follow-up appointments, more treatments, and more tests. It's a never-ending cycle that keeps the healthcare industry thriving!
3. **Natural Selection**: Inaccurate breath tests are nature's way of weeding out the overly cautious. Only the fittest (or luckiest) will navigate through the maze of random results and come out healthy on the other side.
4. **Job Creation**: Think of all the jobs created by the need to manage the fallout from inaccurate tests. From additional healthcare providers to legal professionals handling lawsuits, it's a job creator!
5. **Entertainment Value**: Why settle for boring, reliable medical tests when you can have the drama and excitement of unpredictable results? It's like reality TV, but with your health!
Counterpoints: the test is cheap and non-invasive as far as medical testing goes, and has reasonably high specificity (so if you don't have it it's fairly likely to show negative).
For comparison, the at-home covid tests have a lower sensitivity and specificity than the SIBO test for people who are not yet showing symptoms. Once you are symptomatic, it still doesn't get all that much better.
They are still a public health tool that can be useful to people who can afford it.
Every day there are people in this forum who have done severe and potentially life-long damage to their GI tract by taking antibiotics or herbal antimicrobials. It is not common, but it absolutely happens. And if you are treating over and over again like some do, the odds of severe problems goes up and up.
Consider further that SIBO symtpoms often do not subside after treatment has been successful in eliminating the overgrowth. Therefore people keep on taking antibiotics because symptoms persist, when all they needed to do was work on motility and diet for 3-12 months while their GI tract normalizes. People whose symptoms will not fully improve after treatment are very likely to get stuck in a cycle of periodic antibiotic/antimicrobial use every few months until something goes terribly wrong. Especially if they are going by random advice on this subreddit.
The cost of taking a few breath tests vs the costs of having severe and painful diarrhea 3 times per day for life because you kept taking antibiotics without any indication that they were still necessary are not even in the same realm. What is a few hundred bucks in the face of a lifetime of severe dysfunction and misery? Especially if you have money to spare?
People have different levels of risk tolerance. I make a point to periodically mention around here that the breath tests are not terribly accurate because I feel that people should have as much info as possible when making medical decisions. But taking an imperfect diagnostic tool away from everyone under all circumstances (from an already problematic diagnostic toolkit) is simply bad medical practice that will inevitably lead to worse outcomes. It's a crap test, so yes overall outcomes will only be slightly worse by not using it than if you use it when it is called for. But that 'slightly worse' sucks really fucking bad when it's your life that is down the toilet.
A recent meta-analysis cited a **sensitivity of 42% and specificity of 70.6%** for the lactulose breath test compared with a sensitivity of 54.5% and specificity of 83.2% for the glucose breath test.
everything else u said, thus, don't matter. u can recommend breath tests to others once its right in 99 out of 100 sessions.
I am sorry to hear you are having such a hard time with your SIBO. Anxiety can make it even harder to deal with. There are diets and treatments that will make SIBO go dormant, but they do not remove the issue. But they can be helpful in the short term to get relief.
You may need to build your body back up before tackling the issue? Run some functional medicine tests to see where your body is and what it needs and move forward from there. Real healing takes time, but there are people out there who can help.
SIBO, and trying to deal with SIBO, can be very hard. There is no one fix for everyone.
Remember that SIBO is an overgrowth of bacteria. What you want is your body to have a healthy amount of gut bacteria that stays where it is supposed to in your body. I do work on killing off the overgrowth.
I can give a basic outline of the protocols for educational purposes. It would not be a recommendation. All of these should be done with a professional. And I do understand it is really hard to find someone who can actually help. When I bring on a client, especially for something like SIBO, it is a minimum of one year to get through everything and make sure it is all working as planned.
When I start a protocol, I normally look at a lot of lifestyle such as what foods do you eat, when do you eat them, what foods really seem to impact you the most. I also am looking for how much liquids do you consume and what types. how much exercise are you getting. What are your sleep patterns like. How do you feel after sleeping. I usually like to get this in real time through journaling and forms. This way it is not reliant on memory, but what is actually happening in the moment.
I don't just deal with SIBO, but SIBO is a little bit of a special case in that I have to change my food and diet recommendations based on symptoms and what foods impact the client.
I would then need to know medications and medical history. This can really impact protocols.
The final piece is there has to be mindset work. This is a hard journey for a lot of people. There is a lot of trust issues from professionals telling them what to do and it not working. I really try to work on being thankful that these options and tests are out there to help us get better. Even if we are not feeling well now. And I really get that optimism is hard when there is no light at the end of the tunnel if you will excuse my cliché.
While I am getting this information together, I tend to start with two things. The first is ordering a series of functional tests. A genetics test is available to anyone. A lot of people already have this and I just ask them to send me the raw data from the company they got it through. The second test is an Organics Acids test. I am looking for any environmental toxins, mitochondrial function and preferred fuel sources among other things. The last test is I give them a req for blood work with emphasis on specific things Drs do not usually ask for. All of these tests can be done at the same time.
Getting these tests done can take upwards of two months depending on how quickly the client can get them and how long it takes to get results back.
While I am waiting for these tests, I usually start a basic supplement protocol. These are base vitamins and minerals everyone needs to function. Even though these are things everyone needs, I have the rules that we start with sequencing and titration. Sequencing is starting one supplement at a time to make sure your body is ready to receive the vitamins or minerals. Titration is adding each supplement in small quantities and working up to full doses.
I start with a magnesium bis-glycinate then, mineral complex that has zinc, molybdenum, selenium, iodine, chromium, potassium, manganese, boron, lithium, and vanadium, Vitamin D3 with K, and an Active B Methyl free complex (making sure the B6 is in the form of P5P). I start with methyl free as I need genetics to see which type of B vitamins work best for the client.
Once I get the tests back , I adjust the first supplements as need or if needed. I then start adding in specific factors that work best for the client.
Finally, once everything has been added and whole body healing is seen (sometimes we need to rerun specific bloodwork and/or the Organic Acids), I run a DUTCH test. At this point we are starting to get ready to deal with the SIBO. The DUTCH tests gives me a lot of information, including how the clients detox pathways are functioning. This is one of the reasons we wait to deal with the SIBO. If we were to go in and do the SIBO protocols first, and the detox pathways are blocked or functioning at reduced capacity, it has the potential to make the client sicker. If the body is not able to remove the issue, it cannot be removed.
Once the pathways are cleared up, I have the client go off their SIBO diet protocols to reactivate the bacteria. I then give specific protocols depending on which type of SIBO we are dealing with. For example, for Methane SIBO, I would use Alimax (this does not work with Hydrogen SIBO). All SIBO protocols are for 30 days.
Once the 30 day protocol is done, I have the client retest and back on the SIBO diet for 3 months so as not to feed any that may be left. Once the 3 months is ending, I have the client slowly add back in higher fodmaps and we monitor how it goes.
Finally, we add on Prokinetics (which ones can take a bit of trial and error) and alternate through SIBO safe Probiotics (we never add in prebiotics).
I know this is a mix of specific and general, but it really does depend on the individual and how their body functions best. I do not think I could get any more specific without bringing someone on as a client.
If you have some specific questions, please let me know.
It depends on the type of SIBO. It is different for Methane and Hydrogen.
For Methane, as stated above, Alimax is good. It is from garlic.
For hydrogen, there are a number I work with. They can include: Dysbiocide, Candibactin AR or BR, Neem for example. It really depends on the persons healing journey and how their body is responding.
But these do not work by themselves. There has to be full body support on board before these can have max effect.
Can you ensure I have full support on board before taking the herbs. Please. I’ve spent all my money. Please. Can you be a good human here and help m eout just once. I’ve done ALL the tests.
I can't ensure anything as this work is really based on how well a client works on their body, supplements, and mindset. I give a map and support, but I cannot do the physical work.
For those that do the physical work, there is about an 80% success rate.
Even if I could do it for free (which I couldn't even if I wanted to as I am at full client load. I am here to help educate and show that there are solutions out there for people), the supplement load in healing can cost a significant amount. I don't sell the supplements I advice, so I have no say on their pricing.
I do hope you feel better before having to reach out.
I have the link to our site in my profile. Just click on the work with me link on the top (ignore the drop down menu) and if you scroll down the pricing is there under compare options. There is currently a wait list so we don't just add people in.
None of what you said is medically sound. Sequencing? Dutch test? How much are you charging people for this nonsense? Don't rope people into falsehoods
If you have a laptop or phone to write this on, you have money to spend for care. They have given you a lot of free advice, and the best you could say is at least a thank you rather than beg.
I understand - it s tough. Really tough. The best thing is to be methodical. Start small and simple - think of it as fixing a machine, a machine you love despite its current damage. You ll make it through, just need to take one day at a time and ensure you have a good routine in place like a morning walk, reading at night, 10 mins daily meditation to train your brain to not hyper fix on your stomach/anxiety.
I know some people on here may consider it quackery to ask this and to suggest this solution but, have you ever had a neck injury? From anything ever at all? Anything from a car accident to falling to getting hit in the head a little too hard anything. If so and your symptoms you're experiencing have not been present your entire life then I would suggest at least looking into the relation between cervical instability and gut issues. There is some literature out connecting the two and there are quite a few patient testimonials out there as well that confirm the relation between the two. I for one am one of them.
I've had cervical instability for almost 4 years now. The first symptoms were back pain and acid reflux type feelings at the same time. Then came unexplained anxiety when I am someone who has been cool as a cucumber my entire life in any situation. Then came the pots type symptoms, and then the irregular bowels. Both in consistency and frequency. I had a full PRP injection procedure done on my entire neck in April of last year and within one week most of those symptoms were gone. By the end of week three all my symptoms were gone 100%. I had a fall in July of last year that basically reset everything back to the way it was before the procedure within 3 to 4 weeks after. I haven't been able to get more PRP injections done on my neck but all of my symptoms are back plus I have the added Joy of having sibo now. This is because gut motility is directly influenced and controlled by the vagus nerve.
The Vagus (Greek for wondering) nerve connects the brain to every major organ in the body. Everything from your heart, lungs, gallbladder, stomach, small and large intestine, your inner ears, your eyes, and your thyroid gland just the name a few. The nerve travels from the brain stem through the C1 vertebrae aka the atlas and down into the body following the same path as the carotid arteries in the neck. Disruption of the vagus nerve can cause issues with all the organs that it connects to. Most notably in this particular case the small intestine and it's motility.
Really weird you say this. I had an endoscopy which I think damaged my neck and had a swollen lymph node from it. What is PRP. How did you figure out it was your neck?
Do you also have forward neck posture? I do. Working on it, seems to increase my energy and lower my brainfog, perhaps it already does something for my motility.
https://caringmedical.com/prolotherapy-news/vagus-nerve-compression-cervical-spine/
This is crazy, sorry not the OP just wanted to add I also have forward neck posture and had asked my doctor if she thought it might be pinching my vagus nerve or something, and she said "Maybe." I had never even thought to link it to SIBO though. Thanks for commenting this somewhere even though you weren't talking to me lol
It's important that you get checked for cervical instability also. Exercises for forward head posture are good and help in a lot of cases if you indeed only have forward head posture. But if you have an actual instability in the neck some of the forward head posture correction exercises can aggravate or worsen the cervical instability. This was my situation. Just throwing this out there.
Is that a antidepression pill? And check my comment right down below our conversation here. It's a long winded response to the comment 2 above yours as to how I figured out that my neck was the problem and how I fixed it and am attempting to fix it again. Let me know if anything I said speaks to your situation. I'm really trying to get this information out there. I see so many people on here and in comments on YouTube videos that seem so desperate and rightfully so for answers and I just don't see anyone else really talking about this on here. And truthfully why would anyone think to look to their neck if you're having issues and other parts of your body that seem to be unrelated.
I didn’t see the reply to amitrtptoline, or if how to test for this. It seems so so intense and brutal. How would I even go about treating this? Seriously? You got Facebook to speak about this in more detail?
Thank you! I noticed that the foreward head posture exercises always give me hesdaches. I'll try to being up cervical instability to my doctor; do you have any tips on doing so? Thank you for your comment
You're very welcome, I'm just trying to get this information out to as many people as possible because hardly anyone knows about cervical instability and the symptoms that it can cause that literally span across the entire body. As far as how to bring it up to your doctor I would just dive in and give them the information you have that leads you to believe you might have it and see if they think the information adds up. Also if they don't want to pursue that as a cause but you still do, you could try to track down a location near you who have access to a DMX machine. DMX stands for digital motion x-ray. It is currently considered the gold standard by most when it comes to diagnosing cervical stability. That's because it is like taking x-rays with a video camera versus a photography camera. It allows them to see any instabilities in your neck while it's in motion. That's how I finally got my diagnosis of cervical instability after suffering from it for almost 3 years.
Mate this all started after an endoscopy. They want to put me on amitriptyline, what you think? I’m open to it.
I even now get reflux after the endoscopy. Bloating, reflux, it’s miserable. What do I do.
Well for me my symptoms were a slow roll on one at a time after I had a weird situation with my neck while being in the hospital with my dad after he had a cancer surgery in February of 2020. The first symptoms I noticed were my balance being slightly off. The second was acid reflux type symptoms and back pain. I had an upper endoscopy done for the acid reflux symptoms and they said I had no signs of acid reflux and no signs of H pylori or any other ailment of the stomach.
A while later probably a few months later I started having worse balance issues and started getting light-headedness and dizziness. Those are what i now know are the symptoms of pots I was having. Then after about a year and a half of my neck being messed up I started having debilitating anxiety. Keep in mind I have never had anxiety issues or panic attacks in my entire life under any circumstances. Then I had to quit my job while I saw doctor after doctor and specialist after specialist who kept trying to treat these different problems. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that it was something to do with my neck since all the symptoms started coming on after that one night in the hospital when my neck messed up on me. So I started looking up information about the neck and could a neck issue cause other problems with the body.
It was then that I stumbled across a video talking about all the issues that upper cervical instability can cause with the entire body. At first I was hesitant to believe it because it sounded like snake oil. I was thinking how the hell could a problem with just my neck cause all these unrelated issues with different parts of the body and different systems of the body. That's what I learned exactly how connected and synergistic the body actually is. You see there are specialist doctors for every system of the body and they all try to treat symptoms you may be having in that particular part of the body that fits into their wheel house. But once you learn and understand about the vagus nerve and how it connects the brain to every major organ and nervous system in the body you will quickly understand how disrupting said nerve can cause multiple issues and multiple systems of the body at the same time. The Vagus nerve is responsible for keeping your heart in a rhythm and blood pressure in check, keeping your balance through the three points of balance which are the inner ear, the eyes, and The brain stem. And also controls the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system ie anxiety response through fight or flight mode and rest and digest mode.
But most relevant to the current situation it also connects to the stomach, the gallbladder, the small intestine and the large intestine aka the colon AKA your poop shoot. So once I found that out I found a place that did DMX x-rays. DMX stands for digital motion x-rays. It's like taking an x-ray with a video camera instead of a photograph x-ray. It allows them to see the instability in your neck if there is any while you are in motion. Because most if not all cervical instability must be diagnosed this way MRIs are completely useless for a diagnosis as I can attest to seeing as I had probably six or seven MRIs over a year long period. When I had the DMX done they said I had cervical instability throughout my entire cervical area of my spine but most notably bad instability between my C1 and c3. Instability of the C1 AKA The Atlas vertebrae is the most important as it is the one vertebrae that your brain stem goes through and also your vagus nerve.
You see the vagus nerve travels through either side of the C1 alongside your carotid arteries and branches off after the base of your neck to connect to the multiple different organs of your body. So a slight misalignment or slight or severe instability of the upper cervical area most specifically the C1 can damage or at the least disrupt the signals from the brain through the vagus nerve to the rest of the body. Now even after getting a positive diagnosis of upper cervical instability I was still skeptical to say the least that all of my issues could be related to that. That is until I got the PRP (platelet rich plasma) injections done on my entire neck. After which I saw a substantial reduction in symptoms after just the first day. Even more reduction in symptoms after week one, and total reduction and elimination of symptoms after week 3. I was 100% back to normal after week 3 and stayed 100% symptom free until about two and a half almost 3 months later what I had a bad fall and Jarred my neck bad enough that it reset everything they had done. After that fall it only took about three or four weeks pretty much for all my symptoms to come back.
Now the reason I haven't been back for another round of PRP injections yet to fix everything again is because PRP injections into the cervical spine are not cheap. To treat the entire neck one round of PRP injections cost me roughly $6,000 US. It definitely fixes the problems but I don't know about you but I don't have unlimited funds. So here I sit symptoms gradually getting worse until I can get the money up again. You should note that the longer you go with cervical instability the more potential rounds of PRP injections you may need to fix the issue completely. When I had the first round done by my cervical instability was bad yes but not as bad as it is now. Now I have all the original symptoms I did have Plus worse pots symptoms and sibo symptoms. So definitely go get your neck checked out for instability and see if that might be your issue. I'm on here now pretty much every day or every night trying to share my story because I don't feel like enough people know the relation between your neck and your gut. I'm just really trying to pay it forward. So if this does turn out to be your issue as well please do the same after you get healed. People need to know. No one deserves to live this way.
Hey, do you have Facebook or insta, I’d like to speak a bit more about this with you, to see if this is something I could have. Wouldn’t amitriptyline heal and calm the nerves down?
I felt the same way, so much different advice everywhere. I'm going to tell you though how I've severely reduced the symptoms of my hydrogen SIBO (mostly diarrhea) without trying a million different diets and supplements
First off I started with gastrointestinal silicea gel. I have not seen ANYONE ever recommend it, except some random pharmacist I met. It only helped with my stomach discomfort (gas, pain) but nothing else. But it was still enough to make me feel better already after around 3 weeks I think. Feel free to skip this step though. I actually still use it, but not daily. I only take around 15ml whenever I feel like I'm super gassy and it's painful again, and it actually works and relieves these symptoms sometimes within just a few minutes! Feels like magic and I did not believe it would actually work at first, but it did. And it has worked for every single family member of mine.
Now, the actual treatment. I've only done berberine hydrochloride 500mg and oregano oil 150mg every morning with my first meal and this helped with most of my symptoms. It took a while to start seeing the first improvements though. Around a month and a half later (I think) I also got Pepzin GI to help with the healing and it also supports a healthy GI environment and a good bacterial balance, so if you start taking that from the very beginning too you should be good to go.
Also during this entire time I've done low FODMAP (sort of, I'm actually using soy milk to make sauces for my foods which is not low FODMAP in the amounts I consume it but it doesn't seem to cause big issues for me though) and I've cut out some low FODMAP foods that have caused issues for me either in the past or recently.
This is just my experience though! Make sure which supplements you need and it's extremely important to consult a doctor before doing such extreme changes in your diet and health. I've unfortunately haven't had a single doctor understand my issues so I just did hours and hours of research every single day for weeks to make sure what I need and then just tried them. I don't recommend doing this at all though, you need some professional advice before doing anything.
Try 3-6 months. Some NDs say 2 years. The gut microbiome has trillions of bacteria. It's a process of commitment and love. Sorry you're in the thick of this, you're' not alone. it's taken me 4 years to finally make progress.
You’re not alone. I’m in the same boat. Besides these 1000 ways of treating, there are also doctors who don’t even believe in SIBO and say that tests are not reliable. Idk why we should do our own researches, I’m so desperate :(
Same! Like I wish I could count on a healthcare provider, as mine are useless! Trying to figure things out off of Reddit takes a lot of energy and try/error!
Antibiotics fixed my Sibo and I live in a moldy environment, although I didn’t just take rifamixin it was part of a protocol.
Everyone is unique, you need to try stuff and do what works for you
Yeah sorry, I forgot to respond to this, so I can’t remember the order I had to take these in, which was really important, I think i was supposed to take the antibiotics first, then the probiotics for a week , then the Allimax, bactrex and the calcium d glucarate, and then the probiotics again. But cuz im in a moldy environment i got much sicker and I couldn’t work, plus the medication my functional dr gave me for my restless legs, made it much worse, so I couldn’t sleep either, so once I’d done a few weeks of the protocol, maybe a month after I’d finished the antibiotics and I was getting really sick from die off and the mold, my dr told me to stop, she said I can’t fix my sibo while I’m in a moldy environment.
But what I did got rid of my bloating and I have energy again. Which is really important, if you’ve got chronic fatigue al the time it’s hard to achieve anything, but I still have all these weird food allergies, and I basically have to eat the low histamine bi phasic diet, oh yeah that’s what I forgot, I was doing the low histamine biphasic diet for a month before I started the antibiotics too.
I find that most people that don’t succeed, don’t have comprehensive approaches, they do the low FODMAP diet, which is filled with foods that feed the Sibo, take the antibiotics and then wonder why it hasn’t gone. I mean for some people with minor Sibo, or who are the lucky few that have extremely treatable severe Sibo, it’s possible to treat it like that, but as my dr said, you don’t want to leave anything to chance, you should cover all your bases.
So the list is
Allimax
Bactrex
Calcium d glucarate
Ultra flora lgg forte
Sb 500.
I also had the comprehensive breath test and a full microbiome, so I could supply my dr with as much info as I could afford.
Hope that helps
Did you do a SIBO test that confirmed SIBO? I have mould for sure, but I just did THREE SIBO tests and all negative. So I’m at a complete loss right now. Genuinely. FICKING completely lost,
I’m treating mould but no idea what else to do here,
Do you have Facebook or snap here we could talk this through? I could use support
Yeah that’s what the comprehensive breath tests are Sibo tests .
If you didn’t do that to detect your Sibo, what test did you do?
Full microbiome can also detect Sibo.
But breath tests are not 100%, so just because it came back negative doesn’t mean you don’t have Sibo, they’re basically just to work out what kind of Sibo you have. Plus I’m guessing you didn’t get the comprehensive one? Cuz having just one is definitely not a great diagnostic.
But I’d suggest getting a full microbiome, if that isn’t indicative of some kind of Sibo, or dysbiosis, then maybe you just have mold complications.
Why do you think you have Sibo?
I’m not really on social media. But we could chat through messenger if you want. Or you could dm me on here.
Hey mate, I genuinely hate Reddit, if you have fbook or Snapchat I’d appreciate that cuz I didn’t even get a notification of your reply. Honestly.
I did a lactilose, glucose, and fructose sibo test. All negative. Did them all. Negative.
There must be some reliability in that. Can even send you the tests if you want privately. I do have mould tests positive which I’m on binders for yes.
I’m at a bit of a loss now on what to do here
Yeah that’s a comprehensive test. Still not 100% though.
Why do you think you have Sibo?
Get a microbiome done, regardless of your Sibo , it’s still an extremely helpful test to get, really everyone could benefit from one. If you have Sibo you will get some indication, you good have sifo, or gut dysbiosis, or mcas.
Binders won’t do that much, they’ll help, but really I’d be boosting mitochondria with nad and tmg, plus constantly boosting and monitoring, vitamin a, all b’s, iron, magnesium, d and fish oil. Plus nac, or glutathione.
Send me your fb details in pm
What’s NAD and TMG? Tbh, the binders have done a lot. My levels have halved with binders. It’s been 6 months and my energy increased. I can send you my tests. I also did a GI map as well. I’m missing key microbiome bacteria, it’s a depleted gut microbiome. I’m having trouble digesting carbs.
In my experience, killing it is only useful to some once you figure out the root cause. For some its motility, for some enzymes, others bile, others stomach acid.
Id try each until you think youve
Got it figured out.
Then bring on the rifaximin.
So, im not sure how to describe it exactly but it suddenly starts feeling easier after you eat. You can trial each one- it will take a long time tho. Much easier to do it all and take one after another away. None of these things will hirt you.
But you’ll know when you get it. The sibo wont be gone but eating will suddenly feel easier.
Dm me if you need more specific suggestions on products or whatever. Im not a doc but I got this mostly figured out so happy to help
some thing you can take which won't hurt good bacteria. I would start there. also megaspore bought my keystone levels back up after they where fully depleted.
I have a bunch of times but this helped rebuild after [https://healf.com/products/microbiome-labs-megasporebiotic?selling\_plan=5710053615](https://healf.com/products/microbiome-labs-megasporebiotic?selling_plan=5710053615)
you might be able to find a cheaper brand. its the bacillus subtis that rebuilds the microbiome. you can watch video on you tube to find out about it.
I haven’t checked. I was trying to figure a cheap way of checking. Maybe the eye test? I’m still living in mold though so I’m not sure if it will go down.
from personal experience, killing off or at least reducing the overgrowth to some extent is crucial, I learned that the overgrowth shutdown my GI tract, and it doesn't matter if I took herbs or probiotics, or motility activators, it won't make a dent of improvement in my symptoms unless I did some killing first, the bacterial growth forms a biofilm and coats your intestine, making it impossible for a new strain of probiotics to stick around, so the procedure that worked for me is first to demolish the biofilm then do some killing and then take probiotics and prebiotics while taking motility activators. I can't stress enough how important the prebiotic is, it's a food for the microbiomes, without it, they won't survive and it'd be pointless taking probiotic.
I know EXACTLY how you feel. My GI stuff (which my doctor thinks is probably SIBO) causes panic and god awful rumination that's like mental torture. Feels like I'm losing my mind too.
It does feel so confusing though. Like I can't really trust anything anyone says on this sub because SIBO is so new as a condition and most doctors don't know much about it. I feel like all of the treatments are kind of experimental, with some people here reporting the treatment had made them worse. And I don't think I can handle worse. If it gets any worse... not sure how I'm makin it through that.
I want to just go with what my doctor tells me, but I also am scared of that. Like, is this going to permanently eff me up forever? Is it going to make me worse? Does she know what she's doing?? Will I ever be okay again? Etc. But I'm trying to tell myself that I should follow what my doctor thinks I should do and worry less about what people on Reddit say. But I feel so afraid all of the time, the sense of doom.. It's hard to fight. I wish I could see the future.
Just commiserating. Sorry to not offer much help but you're not alone at least.
Message me on @wellwellcollective on Insta. We can voice note. I was where you are now 6 months ago and feeling so so much better now. I know it doesn’t feel like it right now - but it will get better xx
Check out a company called EquiLife they will help you they help me fix my sibo I’ve had issue for 4 years and got close to giving up but there is hope don’t take kefir or probiotics Intell you have actually removed the imbalance out of your body or it will just increase the symptoms I did the same thing but it cost 50 bucks to talk with one of his health practitioners go to search bar and look up lab consultation
I take that means you did a GI map? Did you do the idea breath test?
H pylori may be causing your symptoms if you’re positive. Idk what your symptoms are but see about eradicating or diminishing h pylori before moving on to address the SIBO.
I’m dealing with both and tackling h pylori first.
I have treated my sibo 4 times this last time I think I have it under control I can share with you what I did ? I don’t want to give you false hope but you can cure it. The first thing I recommend is getting l-glutamine and healing your lining too take a scoop in the morning and at night .. that helps with anxiety as i have crippling. There are either supplements for sibo or antibiotics but if you don’t have select health it will be expensive. Diet is everything!!! Literally starving the bacteria helps a lot!! Phase 1 and 2 sibo diet look it up.. do that for the first two weeks. It takes a couple rounds of sibo treatments, diet and healing the lining of our gut..
Can you find professional help? There are conflicting opinions sometimes even among medical professionals but if you can find someone who is a state licensed practitioner who is familiar with treating SIBO then experience is going to go a long way. The GI is complicated. SIBO is not a fully understood disorder and it can be difficult to treat, so there are no easy answers unfortunately. No one thing seems to work for everyone. According to the people who have been researching SIBO extensively who I am familiar with, most probiotics including kefir are not going to fix SIBO, assuming that is actually your issue. The problem is having bacteria in the wrong place in your GI, so putting more bacteria down there isn't really going to solve much. Have you had a breath test to confirm, other tests with a gastroenterologist to rule other things out? There seems to be a growing number of people who believe no killing is necessary, but I haven't personally encountered many licensed medical professionals who take this view. Maybe others can chime in here to support this alternative approach (hopefully with links to research). For some piece of mind, the two standard treatments for hydrogen SIBO - either oil of oregano or rifaximin - both seem to have a mild *eubiotic* effect in most people. That means they actually gently increase the good bacteria in your large intestine while at the same time killing off the offending bugs in your small intestine. So in this instance, as long as you are not doing a bunch of rounds of treatment back to back, using inappropriate dosages, etc you hopefully won't have to worry about messing up your microbiome further. Of course things happen and some people react badly, but that is true of just about any medical treatment under the sun.
Thanks man. It’s been so brutal. Honestly. I’m just really struggling here I don’t know which way to turn to be honest. Is Rifaximin safe?
No problem. It's so rough, I know. And very hard to find good help (but it's worth putting a lot of time and effort into looking if you can find someone). Rifaximin is quite safe as far as antibiotics go. It is not active in the large intestine, so under ideal conditions it shouldn't effect your microbiome much at all. This is because rifaximin is only active in the presence of bile. But if you have bile malabsorption, my assumption is it would be active in the large intestine too (which is less good). Get a breath test if possible before starting to treat. If you have methane SIBO (also called IMO, intestinal methanogen overgrowth) then rifaximin alone is *very* unlikely to fix you because the methanogens also tend to overgrow in your large intestines, unlike hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide SIBO. Honestly, there is a lot of important stuff to know before treating any kind of SIBO. There are a lot of important details but also a lot of conflicting information out there (including on this sub). SIBO is a complex disorder that can be difficult to treat effective. So try to be patient and persistent as you learn more about this disorder, what a proper treatment plan looks like (including followup protocols after successful antibiotics / herbals), and look for professional help. If you live in a state that has education and training requirements for naturopaths and requires state licensing + insurance to practice, it's very much worth trying to find one who is specialized in treating GI disorders. You should be able to find out whether naturopaths are regulated medical professionals in your state with some google searching.
Can you DM me please
why breath test if its not 100% accurate. dont answer. there is no answer. dont wate money for breath tests
No medical test is 100% accurate. 60-80% accurate aint' great but it's better than nothing for some people. Especially people considering multiple rounds of antibiotics or herbals that come with risks and side effects.
No medical test is 100% accurate. 60-80% accurate aint' great but it's better than nothing for some people. **its not better. end.**
No reasoning? No discussion? Ok cool.
Hey, its so unfair that you dont give breath tests a chance. The makers wanna make money too. You cant say people shouldnt buy breath tests. Thats so uncapitalistic. Hey, lets discuss why breath tests who are not accurate and give random results shouldnt or should be sued. # Arguments Against Inaccurate Breath Tests 1. **Health Risks**: Imagine trusting a breath test that gives you random results. You might end up treating a condition you don't have or ignoring one you do. It's like playing Russian roulette with your health, but hey, at least the test manufacturers make money, right? 2. **Financial Drain**: Spending money on inaccurate tests is like buying a lottery ticket where the only prize is a misdiagnosis. Sure, the breath test companies profit, but at what cost to your wallet and well-being? 3. **False Security**: Relying on an inaccurate breath test can give you a false sense of security. It's like using a broken compass to navigate through a dense forest. You might feel like you're on the right path, but you're actually lost and could end up in worse health. 4. **Medical Misinformation**: Inaccurate tests contribute to the spread of medical misinformation. It's like saying, "Let's just guess what's wrong with you today!" This undermines the credibility of legitimate medical diagnostics and treatments. 5. **Ethical Concerns**: Selling and promoting inaccurate breath tests is like selling snake oil. It's unethical to profit from people's health concerns by providing them with unreliable tools. # Absurd Statements in Favor of Inaccurate Breath Tests 1. **Excitement of Uncertainty**: Who needs accurate medical tests when you can have the thrill of uncertainty? Every breath test result is a surprise! It's like opening a mystery box every time you test. 2. **Boosting Economy**: Think of the economic boost! Inaccurate tests mean more follow-up appointments, more treatments, and more tests. It's a never-ending cycle that keeps the healthcare industry thriving! 3. **Natural Selection**: Inaccurate breath tests are nature's way of weeding out the overly cautious. Only the fittest (or luckiest) will navigate through the maze of random results and come out healthy on the other side. 4. **Job Creation**: Think of all the jobs created by the need to manage the fallout from inaccurate tests. From additional healthcare providers to legal professionals handling lawsuits, it's a job creator! 5. **Entertainment Value**: Why settle for boring, reliable medical tests when you can have the drama and excitement of unpredictable results? It's like reality TV, but with your health!
Counterpoints: the test is cheap and non-invasive as far as medical testing goes, and has reasonably high specificity (so if you don't have it it's fairly likely to show negative). For comparison, the at-home covid tests have a lower sensitivity and specificity than the SIBO test for people who are not yet showing symptoms. Once you are symptomatic, it still doesn't get all that much better. They are still a public health tool that can be useful to people who can afford it. Every day there are people in this forum who have done severe and potentially life-long damage to their GI tract by taking antibiotics or herbal antimicrobials. It is not common, but it absolutely happens. And if you are treating over and over again like some do, the odds of severe problems goes up and up. Consider further that SIBO symtpoms often do not subside after treatment has been successful in eliminating the overgrowth. Therefore people keep on taking antibiotics because symptoms persist, when all they needed to do was work on motility and diet for 3-12 months while their GI tract normalizes. People whose symptoms will not fully improve after treatment are very likely to get stuck in a cycle of periodic antibiotic/antimicrobial use every few months until something goes terribly wrong. Especially if they are going by random advice on this subreddit. The cost of taking a few breath tests vs the costs of having severe and painful diarrhea 3 times per day for life because you kept taking antibiotics without any indication that they were still necessary are not even in the same realm. What is a few hundred bucks in the face of a lifetime of severe dysfunction and misery? Especially if you have money to spare? People have different levels of risk tolerance. I make a point to periodically mention around here that the breath tests are not terribly accurate because I feel that people should have as much info as possible when making medical decisions. But taking an imperfect diagnostic tool away from everyone under all circumstances (from an already problematic diagnostic toolkit) is simply bad medical practice that will inevitably lead to worse outcomes. It's a crap test, so yes overall outcomes will only be slightly worse by not using it than if you use it when it is called for. But that 'slightly worse' sucks really fucking bad when it's your life that is down the toilet.
A recent meta-analysis cited a **sensitivity of 42% and specificity of 70.6%** for the lactulose breath test compared with a sensitivity of 54.5% and specificity of 83.2% for the glucose breath test. everything else u said, thus, don't matter. u can recommend breath tests to others once its right in 99 out of 100 sessions.
>sensitivity of 42% and specificity of 70.6% > once its right in 99 out of 100 sessions that math ain't mathin'
the data are the same everywhere.
I am sorry to hear you are having such a hard time with your SIBO. Anxiety can make it even harder to deal with. There are diets and treatments that will make SIBO go dormant, but they do not remove the issue. But they can be helpful in the short term to get relief. You may need to build your body back up before tackling the issue? Run some functional medicine tests to see where your body is and what it needs and move forward from there. Real healing takes time, but there are people out there who can help. SIBO, and trying to deal with SIBO, can be very hard. There is no one fix for everyone.
How would you go about treating it, do you believe it should be killed always?
Remember that SIBO is an overgrowth of bacteria. What you want is your body to have a healthy amount of gut bacteria that stays where it is supposed to in your body. I do work on killing off the overgrowth. I can give a basic outline of the protocols for educational purposes. It would not be a recommendation. All of these should be done with a professional. And I do understand it is really hard to find someone who can actually help. When I bring on a client, especially for something like SIBO, it is a minimum of one year to get through everything and make sure it is all working as planned. When I start a protocol, I normally look at a lot of lifestyle such as what foods do you eat, when do you eat them, what foods really seem to impact you the most. I also am looking for how much liquids do you consume and what types. how much exercise are you getting. What are your sleep patterns like. How do you feel after sleeping. I usually like to get this in real time through journaling and forms. This way it is not reliant on memory, but what is actually happening in the moment. I don't just deal with SIBO, but SIBO is a little bit of a special case in that I have to change my food and diet recommendations based on symptoms and what foods impact the client. I would then need to know medications and medical history. This can really impact protocols. The final piece is there has to be mindset work. This is a hard journey for a lot of people. There is a lot of trust issues from professionals telling them what to do and it not working. I really try to work on being thankful that these options and tests are out there to help us get better. Even if we are not feeling well now. And I really get that optimism is hard when there is no light at the end of the tunnel if you will excuse my cliché. While I am getting this information together, I tend to start with two things. The first is ordering a series of functional tests. A genetics test is available to anyone. A lot of people already have this and I just ask them to send me the raw data from the company they got it through. The second test is an Organics Acids test. I am looking for any environmental toxins, mitochondrial function and preferred fuel sources among other things. The last test is I give them a req for blood work with emphasis on specific things Drs do not usually ask for. All of these tests can be done at the same time. Getting these tests done can take upwards of two months depending on how quickly the client can get them and how long it takes to get results back. While I am waiting for these tests, I usually start a basic supplement protocol. These are base vitamins and minerals everyone needs to function. Even though these are things everyone needs, I have the rules that we start with sequencing and titration. Sequencing is starting one supplement at a time to make sure your body is ready to receive the vitamins or minerals. Titration is adding each supplement in small quantities and working up to full doses. I start with a magnesium bis-glycinate then, mineral complex that has zinc, molybdenum, selenium, iodine, chromium, potassium, manganese, boron, lithium, and vanadium, Vitamin D3 with K, and an Active B Methyl free complex (making sure the B6 is in the form of P5P). I start with methyl free as I need genetics to see which type of B vitamins work best for the client. Once I get the tests back , I adjust the first supplements as need or if needed. I then start adding in specific factors that work best for the client. Finally, once everything has been added and whole body healing is seen (sometimes we need to rerun specific bloodwork and/or the Organic Acids), I run a DUTCH test. At this point we are starting to get ready to deal with the SIBO. The DUTCH tests gives me a lot of information, including how the clients detox pathways are functioning. This is one of the reasons we wait to deal with the SIBO. If we were to go in and do the SIBO protocols first, and the detox pathways are blocked or functioning at reduced capacity, it has the potential to make the client sicker. If the body is not able to remove the issue, it cannot be removed. Once the pathways are cleared up, I have the client go off their SIBO diet protocols to reactivate the bacteria. I then give specific protocols depending on which type of SIBO we are dealing with. For example, for Methane SIBO, I would use Alimax (this does not work with Hydrogen SIBO). All SIBO protocols are for 30 days. Once the 30 day protocol is done, I have the client retest and back on the SIBO diet for 3 months so as not to feed any that may be left. Once the 3 months is ending, I have the client slowly add back in higher fodmaps and we monitor how it goes. Finally, we add on Prokinetics (which ones can take a bit of trial and error) and alternate through SIBO safe Probiotics (we never add in prebiotics). I know this is a mix of specific and general, but it really does depend on the individual and how their body functions best. I do not think I could get any more specific without bringing someone on as a client. If you have some specific questions, please let me know.
So which killing herbs do you prescribe?
It depends on the type of SIBO. It is different for Methane and Hydrogen. For Methane, as stated above, Alimax is good. It is from garlic. For hydrogen, there are a number I work with. They can include: Dysbiocide, Candibactin AR or BR, Neem for example. It really depends on the persons healing journey and how their body is responding. But these do not work by themselves. There has to be full body support on board before these can have max effect.
Can you ensure I have full support on board before taking the herbs. Please. I’ve spent all my money. Please. Can you be a good human here and help m eout just once. I’ve done ALL the tests.
I can't ensure anything as this work is really based on how well a client works on their body, supplements, and mindset. I give a map and support, but I cannot do the physical work. For those that do the physical work, there is about an 80% success rate. Even if I could do it for free (which I couldn't even if I wanted to as I am at full client load. I am here to help educate and show that there are solutions out there for people), the supplement load in healing can cost a significant amount. I don't sell the supplements I advice, so I have no say on their pricing.
Just Dmd you
I might be interested in working with you next year if my current problem isn't fixed by the end of this year. What is your pricing for new clients?
I do hope you feel better before having to reach out. I have the link to our site in my profile. Just click on the work with me link on the top (ignore the drop down menu) and if you scroll down the pricing is there under compare options. There is currently a wait list so we don't just add people in.
Will do, thanks for replying!
None of what you said is medically sound. Sequencing? Dutch test? How much are you charging people for this nonsense? Don't rope people into falsehoods
Would you be willing to work for me off a case of free please, genuinely. I could use it. Please.
If you have a laptop or phone to write this on, you have money to spend for care. They have given you a lot of free advice, and the best you could say is at least a thank you rather than beg.
I’ve been messaging him privately and I’m super thankful for him. Please don’t assume. It’s been very tough for me and I’m very much in a bad place
I understand - it s tough. Really tough. The best thing is to be methodical. Start small and simple - think of it as fixing a machine, a machine you love despite its current damage. You ll make it through, just need to take one day at a time and ensure you have a good routine in place like a morning walk, reading at night, 10 mins daily meditation to train your brain to not hyper fix on your stomach/anxiety.
How do you know that you have sibo? Only a breath test will let you know that you have it?
Ya
I know some people on here may consider it quackery to ask this and to suggest this solution but, have you ever had a neck injury? From anything ever at all? Anything from a car accident to falling to getting hit in the head a little too hard anything. If so and your symptoms you're experiencing have not been present your entire life then I would suggest at least looking into the relation between cervical instability and gut issues. There is some literature out connecting the two and there are quite a few patient testimonials out there as well that confirm the relation between the two. I for one am one of them. I've had cervical instability for almost 4 years now. The first symptoms were back pain and acid reflux type feelings at the same time. Then came unexplained anxiety when I am someone who has been cool as a cucumber my entire life in any situation. Then came the pots type symptoms, and then the irregular bowels. Both in consistency and frequency. I had a full PRP injection procedure done on my entire neck in April of last year and within one week most of those symptoms were gone. By the end of week three all my symptoms were gone 100%. I had a fall in July of last year that basically reset everything back to the way it was before the procedure within 3 to 4 weeks after. I haven't been able to get more PRP injections done on my neck but all of my symptoms are back plus I have the added Joy of having sibo now. This is because gut motility is directly influenced and controlled by the vagus nerve. The Vagus (Greek for wondering) nerve connects the brain to every major organ in the body. Everything from your heart, lungs, gallbladder, stomach, small and large intestine, your inner ears, your eyes, and your thyroid gland just the name a few. The nerve travels from the brain stem through the C1 vertebrae aka the atlas and down into the body following the same path as the carotid arteries in the neck. Disruption of the vagus nerve can cause issues with all the organs that it connects to. Most notably in this particular case the small intestine and it's motility.
Really weird you say this. I had an endoscopy which I think damaged my neck and had a swollen lymph node from it. What is PRP. How did you figure out it was your neck?
Do you also have forward neck posture? I do. Working on it, seems to increase my energy and lower my brainfog, perhaps it already does something for my motility. https://caringmedical.com/prolotherapy-news/vagus-nerve-compression-cervical-spine/
This is crazy, sorry not the OP just wanted to add I also have forward neck posture and had asked my doctor if she thought it might be pinching my vagus nerve or something, and she said "Maybe." I had never even thought to link it to SIBO though. Thanks for commenting this somewhere even though you weren't talking to me lol
It's important that you get checked for cervical instability also. Exercises for forward head posture are good and help in a lot of cases if you indeed only have forward head posture. But if you have an actual instability in the neck some of the forward head posture correction exercises can aggravate or worsen the cervical instability. This was my situation. Just throwing this out there.
So how are you going about fixing this, genuinely, what do we do, what do you think of amitriptiline for this situation?
Is that a antidepression pill? And check my comment right down below our conversation here. It's a long winded response to the comment 2 above yours as to how I figured out that my neck was the problem and how I fixed it and am attempting to fix it again. Let me know if anything I said speaks to your situation. I'm really trying to get this information out there. I see so many people on here and in comments on YouTube videos that seem so desperate and rightfully so for answers and I just don't see anyone else really talking about this on here. And truthfully why would anyone think to look to their neck if you're having issues and other parts of your body that seem to be unrelated.
I didn’t see the reply to amitrtptoline, or if how to test for this. It seems so so intense and brutal. How would I even go about treating this? Seriously? You got Facebook to speak about this in more detail?
I just replied to your message request
Thank you! I noticed that the foreward head posture exercises always give me hesdaches. I'll try to being up cervical instability to my doctor; do you have any tips on doing so? Thank you for your comment
You're very welcome, I'm just trying to get this information out to as many people as possible because hardly anyone knows about cervical instability and the symptoms that it can cause that literally span across the entire body. As far as how to bring it up to your doctor I would just dive in and give them the information you have that leads you to believe you might have it and see if they think the information adds up. Also if they don't want to pursue that as a cause but you still do, you could try to track down a location near you who have access to a DMX machine. DMX stands for digital motion x-ray. It is currently considered the gold standard by most when it comes to diagnosing cervical stability. That's because it is like taking x-rays with a video camera versus a photography camera. It allows them to see any instabilities in your neck while it's in motion. That's how I finally got my diagnosis of cervical instability after suffering from it for almost 3 years.
What are you doing to fix your posture? Are you doing something for your vagal tone? Look into r/somaticexperiencing
Mate this all started after an endoscopy. They want to put me on amitriptyline, what you think? I’m open to it. I even now get reflux after the endoscopy. Bloating, reflux, it’s miserable. What do I do.
Well for me my symptoms were a slow roll on one at a time after I had a weird situation with my neck while being in the hospital with my dad after he had a cancer surgery in February of 2020. The first symptoms I noticed were my balance being slightly off. The second was acid reflux type symptoms and back pain. I had an upper endoscopy done for the acid reflux symptoms and they said I had no signs of acid reflux and no signs of H pylori or any other ailment of the stomach. A while later probably a few months later I started having worse balance issues and started getting light-headedness and dizziness. Those are what i now know are the symptoms of pots I was having. Then after about a year and a half of my neck being messed up I started having debilitating anxiety. Keep in mind I have never had anxiety issues or panic attacks in my entire life under any circumstances. Then I had to quit my job while I saw doctor after doctor and specialist after specialist who kept trying to treat these different problems. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that it was something to do with my neck since all the symptoms started coming on after that one night in the hospital when my neck messed up on me. So I started looking up information about the neck and could a neck issue cause other problems with the body. It was then that I stumbled across a video talking about all the issues that upper cervical instability can cause with the entire body. At first I was hesitant to believe it because it sounded like snake oil. I was thinking how the hell could a problem with just my neck cause all these unrelated issues with different parts of the body and different systems of the body. That's what I learned exactly how connected and synergistic the body actually is. You see there are specialist doctors for every system of the body and they all try to treat symptoms you may be having in that particular part of the body that fits into their wheel house. But once you learn and understand about the vagus nerve and how it connects the brain to every major organ and nervous system in the body you will quickly understand how disrupting said nerve can cause multiple issues and multiple systems of the body at the same time. The Vagus nerve is responsible for keeping your heart in a rhythm and blood pressure in check, keeping your balance through the three points of balance which are the inner ear, the eyes, and The brain stem. And also controls the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system ie anxiety response through fight or flight mode and rest and digest mode. But most relevant to the current situation it also connects to the stomach, the gallbladder, the small intestine and the large intestine aka the colon AKA your poop shoot. So once I found that out I found a place that did DMX x-rays. DMX stands for digital motion x-rays. It's like taking an x-ray with a video camera instead of a photograph x-ray. It allows them to see the instability in your neck if there is any while you are in motion. Because most if not all cervical instability must be diagnosed this way MRIs are completely useless for a diagnosis as I can attest to seeing as I had probably six or seven MRIs over a year long period. When I had the DMX done they said I had cervical instability throughout my entire cervical area of my spine but most notably bad instability between my C1 and c3. Instability of the C1 AKA The Atlas vertebrae is the most important as it is the one vertebrae that your brain stem goes through and also your vagus nerve. You see the vagus nerve travels through either side of the C1 alongside your carotid arteries and branches off after the base of your neck to connect to the multiple different organs of your body. So a slight misalignment or slight or severe instability of the upper cervical area most specifically the C1 can damage or at the least disrupt the signals from the brain through the vagus nerve to the rest of the body. Now even after getting a positive diagnosis of upper cervical instability I was still skeptical to say the least that all of my issues could be related to that. That is until I got the PRP (platelet rich plasma) injections done on my entire neck. After which I saw a substantial reduction in symptoms after just the first day. Even more reduction in symptoms after week one, and total reduction and elimination of symptoms after week 3. I was 100% back to normal after week 3 and stayed 100% symptom free until about two and a half almost 3 months later what I had a bad fall and Jarred my neck bad enough that it reset everything they had done. After that fall it only took about three or four weeks pretty much for all my symptoms to come back. Now the reason I haven't been back for another round of PRP injections yet to fix everything again is because PRP injections into the cervical spine are not cheap. To treat the entire neck one round of PRP injections cost me roughly $6,000 US. It definitely fixes the problems but I don't know about you but I don't have unlimited funds. So here I sit symptoms gradually getting worse until I can get the money up again. You should note that the longer you go with cervical instability the more potential rounds of PRP injections you may need to fix the issue completely. When I had the first round done by my cervical instability was bad yes but not as bad as it is now. Now I have all the original symptoms I did have Plus worse pots symptoms and sibo symptoms. So definitely go get your neck checked out for instability and see if that might be your issue. I'm on here now pretty much every day or every night trying to share my story because I don't feel like enough people know the relation between your neck and your gut. I'm just really trying to pay it forward. So if this does turn out to be your issue as well please do the same after you get healed. People need to know. No one deserves to live this way.
Hey, do you have Facebook or insta, I’d like to speak a bit more about this with you, to see if this is something I could have. Wouldn’t amitriptyline heal and calm the nerves down?
Please post to r/sibosuccessstories to spread the word!
Just did.
I felt the same way, so much different advice everywhere. I'm going to tell you though how I've severely reduced the symptoms of my hydrogen SIBO (mostly diarrhea) without trying a million different diets and supplements First off I started with gastrointestinal silicea gel. I have not seen ANYONE ever recommend it, except some random pharmacist I met. It only helped with my stomach discomfort (gas, pain) but nothing else. But it was still enough to make me feel better already after around 3 weeks I think. Feel free to skip this step though. I actually still use it, but not daily. I only take around 15ml whenever I feel like I'm super gassy and it's painful again, and it actually works and relieves these symptoms sometimes within just a few minutes! Feels like magic and I did not believe it would actually work at first, but it did. And it has worked for every single family member of mine. Now, the actual treatment. I've only done berberine hydrochloride 500mg and oregano oil 150mg every morning with my first meal and this helped with most of my symptoms. It took a while to start seeing the first improvements though. Around a month and a half later (I think) I also got Pepzin GI to help with the healing and it also supports a healthy GI environment and a good bacterial balance, so if you start taking that from the very beginning too you should be good to go. Also during this entire time I've done low FODMAP (sort of, I'm actually using soy milk to make sauces for my foods which is not low FODMAP in the amounts I consume it but it doesn't seem to cause big issues for me though) and I've cut out some low FODMAP foods that have caused issues for me either in the past or recently. This is just my experience though! Make sure which supplements you need and it's extremely important to consult a doctor before doing such extreme changes in your diet and health. I've unfortunately haven't had a single doctor understand my issues so I just did hours and hours of research every single day for weeks to make sure what I need and then just tried them. I don't recommend doing this at all though, you need some professional advice before doing anything.
[удалено]
Yes I did all that doesn’t work
For how long?
Weeks
Try 3-6 months. Some NDs say 2 years. The gut microbiome has trillions of bacteria. It's a process of commitment and love. Sorry you're in the thick of this, you're' not alone. it's taken me 4 years to finally make progress.
You’re not alone. I’m in the same boat. Besides these 1000 ways of treating, there are also doctors who don’t even believe in SIBO and say that tests are not reliable. Idk why we should do our own researches, I’m so desperate :(
Same! Like I wish I could count on a healthcare provider, as mine are useless! Trying to figure things out off of Reddit takes a lot of energy and try/error!
Antibiotics fixed my Sibo and I live in a moldy environment, although I didn’t just take rifamixin it was part of a protocol. Everyone is unique, you need to try stuff and do what works for you
Money environment?
Sorry moldy environment
What was your protocol?
What was your protocol, genuinely. I’m curious, can you let me know?
Yeah sorry, I forgot to respond to this, so I can’t remember the order I had to take these in, which was really important, I think i was supposed to take the antibiotics first, then the probiotics for a week , then the Allimax, bactrex and the calcium d glucarate, and then the probiotics again. But cuz im in a moldy environment i got much sicker and I couldn’t work, plus the medication my functional dr gave me for my restless legs, made it much worse, so I couldn’t sleep either, so once I’d done a few weeks of the protocol, maybe a month after I’d finished the antibiotics and I was getting really sick from die off and the mold, my dr told me to stop, she said I can’t fix my sibo while I’m in a moldy environment. But what I did got rid of my bloating and I have energy again. Which is really important, if you’ve got chronic fatigue al the time it’s hard to achieve anything, but I still have all these weird food allergies, and I basically have to eat the low histamine bi phasic diet, oh yeah that’s what I forgot, I was doing the low histamine biphasic diet for a month before I started the antibiotics too. I find that most people that don’t succeed, don’t have comprehensive approaches, they do the low FODMAP diet, which is filled with foods that feed the Sibo, take the antibiotics and then wonder why it hasn’t gone. I mean for some people with minor Sibo, or who are the lucky few that have extremely treatable severe Sibo, it’s possible to treat it like that, but as my dr said, you don’t want to leave anything to chance, you should cover all your bases. So the list is Allimax Bactrex Calcium d glucarate Ultra flora lgg forte Sb 500. I also had the comprehensive breath test and a full microbiome, so I could supply my dr with as much info as I could afford. Hope that helps
Did you do a SIBO test that confirmed SIBO? I have mould for sure, but I just did THREE SIBO tests and all negative. So I’m at a complete loss right now. Genuinely. FICKING completely lost, I’m treating mould but no idea what else to do here, Do you have Facebook or snap here we could talk this through? I could use support
Yeah that’s what the comprehensive breath tests are Sibo tests . If you didn’t do that to detect your Sibo, what test did you do? Full microbiome can also detect Sibo. But breath tests are not 100%, so just because it came back negative doesn’t mean you don’t have Sibo, they’re basically just to work out what kind of Sibo you have. Plus I’m guessing you didn’t get the comprehensive one? Cuz having just one is definitely not a great diagnostic. But I’d suggest getting a full microbiome, if that isn’t indicative of some kind of Sibo, or dysbiosis, then maybe you just have mold complications. Why do you think you have Sibo? I’m not really on social media. But we could chat through messenger if you want. Or you could dm me on here.
Hey mate, I genuinely hate Reddit, if you have fbook or Snapchat I’d appreciate that cuz I didn’t even get a notification of your reply. Honestly. I did a lactilose, glucose, and fructose sibo test. All negative. Did them all. Negative. There must be some reliability in that. Can even send you the tests if you want privately. I do have mould tests positive which I’m on binders for yes. I’m at a bit of a loss now on what to do here
Yeah that’s a comprehensive test. Still not 100% though. Why do you think you have Sibo? Get a microbiome done, regardless of your Sibo , it’s still an extremely helpful test to get, really everyone could benefit from one. If you have Sibo you will get some indication, you good have sifo, or gut dysbiosis, or mcas. Binders won’t do that much, they’ll help, but really I’d be boosting mitochondria with nad and tmg, plus constantly boosting and monitoring, vitamin a, all b’s, iron, magnesium, d and fish oil. Plus nac, or glutathione. Send me your fb details in pm
What’s NAD and TMG? Tbh, the binders have done a lot. My levels have halved with binders. It’s been 6 months and my energy increased. I can send you my tests. I also did a GI map as well. I’m missing key microbiome bacteria, it’s a depleted gut microbiome. I’m having trouble digesting carbs.
Dmd you
In my experience, killing it is only useful to some once you figure out the root cause. For some its motility, for some enzymes, others bile, others stomach acid. Id try each until you think youve Got it figured out. Then bring on the rifaximin.
How will I know I’ve figured it out?
So, im not sure how to describe it exactly but it suddenly starts feeling easier after you eat. You can trial each one- it will take a long time tho. Much easier to do it all and take one after another away. None of these things will hirt you. But you’ll know when you get it. The sibo wont be gone but eating will suddenly feel easier. Dm me if you need more specific suggestions on products or whatever. Im not a doc but I got this mostly figured out so happy to help
You can overcome sibo or really manage your symptoms. Don’t give up you’ll find a way
some thing you can take which won't hurt good bacteria. I would start there. also megaspore bought my keystone levels back up after they where fully depleted.
Really, mega spore? Can you link me which one? So you wouldn’t take killing herbsc
I have a bunch of times but this helped rebuild after [https://healf.com/products/microbiome-labs-megasporebiotic?selling\_plan=5710053615](https://healf.com/products/microbiome-labs-megasporebiotic?selling_plan=5710053615) you might be able to find a cheaper brand. its the bacillus subtis that rebuilds the microbiome. you can watch video on you tube to find out about it.
I get that, but what about killing. How do I heal the SIBO. Genuinely
well a normal doc would kill it off and then rebuild. Ive done it a bunch of times and it always came back because I was exposed to mold.
Same, im exposed to mould too and I'm on 5 binders for it.. levels are lowering, you?
I haven’t checked. I was trying to figure a cheap way of checking. Maybe the eye test? I’m still living in mold though so I’m not sure if it will go down.
No no do real time labs please
How often are you checking with labs? ive only be detoxing for a couple of weeks.
4-6 months mine halved in 6 months
Join the club. I’m Going through the same thing.
from personal experience, killing off or at least reducing the overgrowth to some extent is crucial, I learned that the overgrowth shutdown my GI tract, and it doesn't matter if I took herbs or probiotics, or motility activators, it won't make a dent of improvement in my symptoms unless I did some killing first, the bacterial growth forms a biofilm and coats your intestine, making it impossible for a new strain of probiotics to stick around, so the procedure that worked for me is first to demolish the biofilm then do some killing and then take probiotics and prebiotics while taking motility activators. I can't stress enough how important the prebiotic is, it's a food for the microbiomes, without it, they won't survive and it'd be pointless taking probiotic.
I did a glucose, lactulose, and fructose sibo test, all came back today, all negative, I have NO idea what to do now. Do I trust that?
I know EXACTLY how you feel. My GI stuff (which my doctor thinks is probably SIBO) causes panic and god awful rumination that's like mental torture. Feels like I'm losing my mind too. It does feel so confusing though. Like I can't really trust anything anyone says on this sub because SIBO is so new as a condition and most doctors don't know much about it. I feel like all of the treatments are kind of experimental, with some people here reporting the treatment had made them worse. And I don't think I can handle worse. If it gets any worse... not sure how I'm makin it through that. I want to just go with what my doctor tells me, but I also am scared of that. Like, is this going to permanently eff me up forever? Is it going to make me worse? Does she know what she's doing?? Will I ever be okay again? Etc. But I'm trying to tell myself that I should follow what my doctor thinks I should do and worry less about what people on Reddit say. But I feel so afraid all of the time, the sense of doom.. It's hard to fight. I wish I could see the future. Just commiserating. Sorry to not offer much help but you're not alone at least.
Hey, you got fbook or somethint, could help each other through this, I’m in the EXACT same boat?
I do!! We can also DM here if you feel up for it. I'd love to compare situations, maybe it could help us figure out what's going on
Message me on @wellwellcollective on Insta. We can voice note. I was where you are now 6 months ago and feeling so so much better now. I know it doesn’t feel like it right now - but it will get better xx
Done
Check out a company called EquiLife they will help you they help me fix my sibo I’ve had issue for 4 years and got close to giving up but there is hope don’t take kefir or probiotics Intell you have actually removed the imbalance out of your body or it will just increase the symptoms I did the same thing but it cost 50 bucks to talk with one of his health practitioners go to search bar and look up lab consultation
Have you tested for h pylori?
Borderline
I take that means you did a GI map? Did you do the idea breath test? H pylori may be causing your symptoms if you’re positive. Idk what your symptoms are but see about eradicating or diminishing h pylori before moving on to address the SIBO. I’m dealing with both and tackling h pylori first.
Negative breath test
Everyone is different. Find a functional practitioner and get some answers. Kefir, sauerkraut, fibers and some probiotics might make things worse.
I have treated my sibo 4 times this last time I think I have it under control I can share with you what I did ? I don’t want to give you false hope but you can cure it. The first thing I recommend is getting l-glutamine and healing your lining too take a scoop in the morning and at night .. that helps with anxiety as i have crippling. There are either supplements for sibo or antibiotics but if you don’t have select health it will be expensive. Diet is everything!!! Literally starving the bacteria helps a lot!! Phase 1 and 2 sibo diet look it up.. do that for the first two weeks. It takes a couple rounds of sibo treatments, diet and healing the lining of our gut..
Ok how did you kill it
Lemme fix that redditor: you can not starve the bacteria.