Why you shouldn’t ignore weight loss during SIBO treatment?

Amy Hollenkamp17 Comments

During my SIBO journey, managing my weight was a monumental task. I had a very rapid and scary weight loss of about 25 pounds in a 4-month period. And I was at a healthy weight before the loss so I looked and felt quite emaciated when I reached my lowest weight. What was even scarier than my severe weight loss was how others perceived my weight loss. There were 3 main reactions that were all detrimental to my healing journey.…

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Is your SIBO diet too restrictive? Or not restrictive enough?

Amy Hollenkamp15 Comments

There was nothing that made me want to pull my own hair out more than trying to decide on what diet to follow during SIBO treatment. It seemed like many of the popular SIBO diets contradicted each other. I latched on to the popular notion that the more I could starve the bacteria the faster I would beat the SIBO. So, I religiously followed a low carb SCD/FODMAP combo for 4 months. It seemed like my whole life revolved around avoiding…

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How to repair the brain-gut axis? It all starts with the Vagus!

Amy Hollenkamp25 Comments

As I discussed in my last post, so many SIBO sufferers and practitioners mistakenly view SIBO as solely a bacterial problem. By blindly focusing on the overgrowth, many SIBO sufferers relapse continuously, because they haven’t addressed the motility problem that is causing their SIBO. These motility problems can stem from a plethora of potential root causes such as hormonal dysfunction (especially thyroid diseases like Hashimotos and cortisol dysregulation), large intestinal bacterial imbalances, autoimmune diseases, liver inflammation, heavy metal toxicity and brain inflammation…

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Why Severely Restricting Carbohydrates on a SIBO Diet Can Be Harmful and What To Do About It

Amy Hollenkamp10 Comments

This is a guest post written by Josh from sibosurvivor.com. I’m excited to share some of his experience with restrictive diets on my blog. Happy reading! Have you ever gotten so frustrated about eating because your digestive symptoms just won’t ease up? Yes, I’ve been there. I feel like everyone who lives with IBS-SIBO or any other digestive disease has low points where they are desperate enough to go to extreme measures. My name is Josh and I live with…

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Why I don’t believe in SIBO diets…

Amy Hollenkamp53 Comments

When I first got diagnosed with SIBO, my practitioner put me on the extremely restrictive Low FODMAP/SCD combination that seems to be the go to protocol by many in the SIBO community. I was on the diet for about 4 months in conjunction with herbal and antibiotic treatment. Although I was following the diet to a tee, my health continued to deteriorate. I struggled to maintain my weight, my gut symptoms were even worse than before and my hormones were…

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