# From SIBO to back to Normal



## SIBO Sufferer (Oct 4, 2012)

I was diagnosed with IBS in my early 20’s, though my case was fairly mild. I’d always had a bit of a delicate stomach, with alternating C and D, but not all the time. Mostly, my episodes were brought on by bad dietary choices (mostly greasy foods or high fat dairy). After an appendectomy (unrelated I think), my surgeon told me to eat more fiber, which was news to me at the time. That solved 90% of my issues for 15 years. A little over a year ago, I decided I needed to clean my diet up; I added a lot more fruits and vegetables, tried to reduce gluten and soy, and added several supplements, including fish oil, acidophilus and vitamin d. Within 2 weeks of making all these changes, I started having pretty bad bloating, mostly after eating. Then I started being woken up nightly with bloating and gas pain. After a month or so of constant bloating, I went to the doctor. I told him I’d made all these dietary changes and supplement changes. He told me to take Align (because he had a pharmaceutical company coupon) and suggested I do allergen testing (because his office offered it in house). After another 2 months of being woken up nightly and having a painful, bloated stomach most of the day, I went on an elimination diet, removing soy, dairy, gluten, peanuts and eggs. Adding them back one at a time after a month without them accomplished nothing and the symptoms were the same (during the elimination and after). So I went to a GI specialist. By this time, my BM’s were affected and had become irregular and not very productive. I explained to the GI doc when all these problems had started and the changes I’d made. I was convinced that one of my changes, or a combination of my changes had caused the issue. The GI doc ordered a colonoscopy, sonogram, MRI and a SIBO test. Everything came back negative, except the SIBO breath test. With a SIBO diagnosis, the GI doc prescribed Xyfaxan. I read up on SIBO and the conventional wisdom suggested that after a round of Xyfaxan, some sufferers were able to prevent a recurrence with a consistent dose of probiotic, so that’s what I did. I was perfectly fine for 6-8 weeks after my Xyfaxan course. Then, all my symptoms came back, literally overnight. The terrible bloating, the inability to sleep and the irregular BM’s…I switched to low FODMAPS foods and ordered a food allergies test, which came back negative across the board. I added L Glutamine, a vegan protein powder and digestive enzymes. The digestive enzymes were an addition because I constantly felt like my digestion would just “stop”, allowing the bloating to start. The enzymes actually helped a little, but I would still frequently have bloating attacks. The FODMAPS diet didn’t seem to help and foods that would be fine one day would cause terrible problems a few days later. By this time, I’d been suffering on and off (mostly on) for about 9 months and I’d tried everything I could except for the complete, long-term elimination of all carbs. I was reluctant to do that because I’d tried carb elimination for a period of a few days, but still had the same symptoms. I finally gave in, got a refill of antibiotics and decided to nuke my GI tract again and go completely FODMAPS. Right about this point, my wife reminded me that I’d read some conflicting info about probiotics. She suggested that I try removing them after the antibiotics course. That was 3+ months ago and I’ve been perfectly fine ever since. I was very anxious early on about eating carbs, but even foods that normally exploded in my digestive system have been perfectly fine since removing the probiotics. I can eat white bread and whole wheat bread. I’ve switched back to a high fiber cereal (usually Kashi) with no ill effects at all. This is the longest I’ve gone in more than a year without a single symptom.I suspect that for most people, probiotics are just fine. For me, they seem to prevent proper digestion, allowing bacteria to infest my small intestine and preemptively feed on anything I ate. I used 4 different brands of probiotic over the period when I struggled (generic acidophilus, Align, generic Align and Culturelle). All seemed to have basically the same effect on my digestion. I mention this for the potentially small percent of sufferers who might have an adverse SIBO reaction to probiotics like I do.


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## SIBO Sufferer (Oct 4, 2012)

Just wanted to provide an update. I've now been off probiotics for over 5 months and I've not had a single SIBO recurrence. For those using probiotics as a treatment, it might be worth considering an antiobiotics course, followed by the removal of probiotics. I've read in several SIBO technical books that probiotics are the most dependable long-term hope for returning to normal, but a minority of the literature suggests that probiotics can cause SIBO. I now assume that for a minority of sufferers, probiotics can be a cause...


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## Brownish72 (Aug 26, 2012)

Your really lucky that antibiotics worked for you.

Unfortunately for me, they didn't. However, I did do the Vivonex Fast that seems to be well known for curbing SIBO. It was an awful experience, yet it worked for me. However, only about 2 months of success. In that time, I did take probiotics intermittently, but never daily. This is an interesting take on probiotics. Thanks for sharing.

On a side note: Do you follow any diet now? I see you eat some grains, and fiber. But other than that, do you pay attention to carbs at all?


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## rudibear (Jul 28, 2012)

I've been wondering about probiotics too. I have cut what I take in half. Am now having fewer bms, but the ones I have are now hard and rocky. Just got off an antibiotic treatment for SIBO a month ago. GI thinks I am still rebuilding the bacteria in my gut. So it may be too soon to tell if it is working. I do think I have a UTI from all the diarrhea the antibiotics caused. Its bad enough so that I am going to have to go back to the doctor. Probably means for antibiotics.


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