Uncategorized

Migrating motor complex deficiency is seen in 70% of patients who have SIBO, because it creates an environment in the small intestines that is ripe for an overgrowth. An MMC deficiency also contributes to the high relapse rates seen in SIBO patients. Unless the MMC deficiency is addressed, no amount of herbs or pharmaceutical antibiotics will keep the small intestines clear. So what exactly is the migrating motor complex? The MMC is a cyclical pattern of electromechanical activity that is…

Read More

You just finished your herbal or pharmaceutical antibiotics and you are confused why you still have bloating, GI upset and irregular bowel movements. What now? I asked myself this same question following my 5 weeks on an herbal protocol. I discussed it with my practitioner at the time and he concluded that “if I still bloated, then I still had SIBO”. He advised me to jump on pharmaceutical antibiotics and “I would feel so much better”. With his advice, I…

Read More

Many in the SIBO community believe that SIBO is a relapse condition. You can clear it out temporarily, but you can never get rid of it entirely. With this belief, trying to heal from SIBO seems like a hopeless cause and cyclical antibiotic/antimicrobial treatment seems inevitable. This mentality is so flawed! It leads people to give up and just accept that they will have SIBO forever instead of digging deeper and looking for the potential root causes that could be…

Read More

Chris Kresser released an awesome article recently about how stress contributes to SIBO. This has been a topic I have been meaning to cover for a long time and his article inspired me to write about my knowledge and experience with the SIBO-stress connection. I have touched on how stress wreaks havoc on the gut in the past, but I am excited to do a deeper dive into the topic and discuss how I personally manage my own stress. Those…

Read More

Hello SIBO friends! I wanted to create a letter that could be shared with loved ones to help them understand what SIBO is and how they can best help us through our healing journeys.  Dear Family and Friends, As you probably already know, I have gut problems. I am actually battling a particular gut problem called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or SIBO. While it may have a cute acronym, there is nothing cute about SIBO. Let me get you up…

Read More

Looking back at my SIBO journey, I cringe thinking about some of the big mistakes I made. Luckily, I was determined to beat SIBO, so eventually I found my way! I wanted to share my biggest mistakes to prevent any of my fellow SIBO sufferers from repeating my same mistakes. Lets dive right in! 1. Restricting too many foods In the initial phases of treatment, I mistakenly thought that clearing the SIBO required me to starve the bacteria! I hopped…

Read More

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Sarah Hornsby, an awesome myofunctional therapist, about SIBO and gut health! We took a deep dive into SIBO during my interview! Here are the questions and topics that we cover: What is SIBO? And how it effects digestion? What is my SIBO story and how I figured out that I had it? The two biggest mistakes I made when treating SIBO? (I see so many others making these same mistakes!) How to…

Read More

This past week I had the pleasure of sitting down with Sarah Hornsby, a myofunctional therapist who helps patients all over the world with dysfunctional mouth and swallowing issues. Our goal was to shed some light on how myofunctional issues such as mouth breathing (even at night), dysfunctional swallowing patterns and improper tongue positioning could be exacerbating or even be the root of your GI issues. In the SIBO world, the brain-gut axis is almost always disturbed. MMC deficiency and…

Read More

When I first began my healing journey, I suspected that I had candida. I took a deep dive into the candida diet world and came out with an “all carbohydrates are the enemy” mentality. But when I went to my first functional medicine practitioner, he told me my symptoms were much more likely a result of bacteria and not yeast. After my SIBO diagnosis, I put candida on the back burner. Because if I had SIBO, I couldn’t possibly have…

Read More

Prebiotics are often given a bad wrap in the SIBO sphere! If you have an overgrowth of bacteria, the last thing you would want to do is feed those bacteria with prebiotics, right? If SIBO was truly a bacterial problem, then I think avoidance of prebiotics through all stages of treatment may be your best bet. But, SIBO is not solely a bacterial problem. The bacterial overgrowth is a symptom of a much bigger problem. It takes truly understanding the…

Read More