SIBO: Bacterial Gentrification

Gut Brain Education
Nov 1
3 min read

How SIBO worsens bloating and IBS

"I look like I'm 9months pregnant": This is a common complaint that I hear from patients daily. but why does it happen? I often tell them that bloating and distention, in an evolutionary sense, was a good thing. I believe that the sensation of bloating, feeling full developed as a way to tell us to stop eating.

Back in the day, our ancestors didn't always know where their next meal was coming from. What if they hadn't eaten in days, then found a bush full of berries and decided to eat as much as they physically could, even beyond their regular capacity? How would they know when to stop?

Perhaps the brain and gut adapted a way to say: "Hey, stop, before your stomach explodes." This "I am too full" signal, therefore, may have been passed on to help descendants survive periods where they were going-in on those beautiful berry bushes.

There goes the neighborhood

Normally, bacteria are floating around in the air, land on the food we eat, live on the surfaces we touch, as well as reside on our skin. After we swallow them, they are normally supposed to pass through the GI Tract, like annoying tourists in New York City and eventually leave (or die).

But what happens when these bacteria set up shop where they shouldn't, and overpopulate the neighborhood? They overcrowd an already crowded city (your gut) and release even more pollution (gas) than the city was set up to handle.

Overall, it can mean that the environment has changed in a way that allows bacteria that are normally present in the outside world—or even in the gut—to overgrow where they shouldn't.

Intestinal Global Warming

Tell me, what happens to your environment after eating a bunch of bean burritos? Right after that, imagine you get stuck in an elevator for a few hours (hopefully alone). You would expect lots of things to be released to the surrounding environment, right? Well Guess what? The same thing happens with bacteria, after they eat, they release gas. And if you have too many of the wrong bacteria releasing excess gas in the tight compartments of your gut, you will feel it.

So, how do we actually know if SIBO is causing the bloating? Well, obviously, if bacteria are making too much gas, we're going to test the amount of gas to make sure it is higher than what is considered normal.

Sometimes breath testing for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) can reveal that patients have an overgrowth of gas-producing bacteria. We do this by giving you some simple sugars—like glucose—that all bacteria love. While testing, if we then see a significant rise in gas, then it's possible that you have SIBO. This is assuming a licensed professional had ordered the testing method, you followed proper preparation before the test, and then the provider diagnosed SIBO based on those results.

SIBO and IBS

A large percentage of patients who suffer from chronic bloating, or who are diagnosed with conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) may also have SIBO aggravating their symptoms.

Treatment Options for SIBO

There are a few ways to treat SIBO, including:

Antibiotics (pharmaceutical and herbal)
Diet changes (e.g., Low-FODMAP diets)
Probiotics (often used in conjunction with other treatments

Many folks will have to try a combination of the three. Additionally, SIBO is often recurrent, so working on the underlying cause (chronic constipation, diarrhea, stress, diet, etc.) is necessary. Even then it may just reduce bloating symptoms by varying degrees. So, it's important to evaluate the benefit after treatment is complete. How much better do I feel? Is it worth repeating again in 6 months to a year if and when it comes back?

In summary, while treating SIBO may not resolve all your issues, it can be helpful to treat this in order to reduce its contribution to your symptoms and improve quality of life.

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