Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)

So, one thing that can be helpful that we’ve talked about on a few different shows is Lauricidin or monolaurin.  It’s an extract of lauric acid, which has antimicrobial effects, and it’s pretty well tolerated by most people and, I think, doesn’t really tend to have a negative impact on the gut flora.  It’s pretty safe to take and even safe to take for several weeks at a time.

Another thing you want to consider in a SIBO protocol is biofilm disruption because a lot of bacteria can form biofilm, which is an extracellular matrix where they share nutrients and even DNA, and the biofilm protects the bacteria inside it from our innate immune defenses.  It’s much more difficult for us to get rid of biofilm than it is bacteria in other states.  And there are a number of different nutrients that disrupt biofilm formation.  One is lactoferrin, apolactoferrin.  I think we’ve talked about that in the context of iron chelation in the past. 

Probiotics are actually a mixed bag with SIBO because SIBO often involves an overgrowth of D-lactate-producing probiotic species, and that causes a buildup of D-lactate in the gut, and a lot of the symptoms associated with SIBO are caused by that.  So, you want to avoid in many cases taking any probiotics that have D-lactate-forming species like Lactobacillus acidophilus, which is, of course, one of the most common probiotics that people take.  There’s a D-lactate-free product sold by Custom Probiotics that’s helpful.

Low stomach acidIrritable bowel syndromeCeliac disease (long-standing)Crohn’s diseasePrior bowel surgeryDiabetes mellitus (type I and type II)Multiple courses of antibioticsOrgan system dysfunction, such as liver cirrhosis, chronic pancreatitis, or renal failure

Risk factors for SIBO

The cause of SIBO is usually complex, and likely affects more than one of the protective mechanisms listed above.  A number of risk factors for SIBO have been identified, with some of the more common risk factors listed below.  For a more complete discussion of associated diseases and risk factors check out this study and this study.

Doctors give this autoimmune disease the name of IBS because they are totally clueless of why this happens, so they just grab all the symptoms and put them in one bag calling it IBS… to me it is just the doctors another way of saying they are clueless but they don´t want to show it to us so they won´t look bad.

Dr. Pimentel who has come up with the theory about SIBO is the cause makes me think that he is correct, this is the only one doctor that had a clue.

Since many if not all IBS people are prone to getting E.Coli overgrowth again, you will have to keep on taking L-Glutamine and Probiotics for the rest of your life. I am on this treatment for 1 year and now I eat Pizza, Junk food, Spicy food, drink sodas and Coca-Colas and am totally normal as I was before. I will not say I am cured because it must be an auto-immune disease, but you may keep it in check and be 100% normal by just taking this for the rest of you days ( L-Glutamine and Probiotics).

The development of a wireless motility capsule (WMC) (SmartPill) that evaluates pressure, pH, and temperature throughout the GI tract offers the potential to identify patients with small bowel transit delays who may be at risk for bacterial overgrowth.