# Fixed my IBS-D with SIBO protocol



## Orius (Apr 7, 2014)

I originally came across an old post on this forum here and felt compelled to post a reply because that thread was a gold mine of knowledge for me. Here is my story...

I had food poisoning in September 2013 and in the aftermath lost all ability to digest gluten, dairy, solanacea family vegetables, high fat food, etc. It was extremely disturbing. I thought that maybe the acute phase of my illness did some damage and that in time it would recover. Nope. By January 2014 I was still afflicted. Had urgent diarrhea several times daily that smelled foul, and there was oil on the surface of the water (steatorrhea). I started to develop negative personality changes, anxiety/depression, chronic fatigue, insomnia, weight loss, and a general loss of vitality. The recurrent force of diarrhea caused an anal fissure to form, causing blood loss with each bowel movement, so I became anemic as well. There was a concern that maybe I had pancreatitis and proper enzymes were not being released, but when I took enzymes and included rich enzymatic foods in my diet, there was no improvement.

I'm an herbalist by profession so I also tried every medicine I could think of, to no avail. If it wasn't for my perfect diet and supplementation, I would have deteriorated far, far faster. What little my gut was absorbing was high quality. Unfortunately, by February I had tried all manner of dietary protocols and nothing was working, so I turned to a self-made parasite cleanse just to rule out parasites. My symptom relief was immediate, and once the protocol was completed I took some probiotics to restore gut flora. Within a few days my symptoms had all returned, and by a week they were worse than ever.

I had already investigated Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), but because the parasite protocol worked I assumed that the problem had something to do with parasites. It wasn't until I read the forum post above that I put two and two together. My herbal protocol for parasites was basically an herbal anti-biotic which sterilized the small intestine of gut flora. At the end of the protocol I took a high count oral probiotic that was enteric coated for maximum delivery, which brought back the SIBO.

Recently I tweaked the protocol. First thing in the morning before breakfast, I take one dose black walnut tincture, one OO gel cap of freshly ground clove, 1 dose grapefruit seed extract, 1 fresh clove garlic, 1 piece of fresh ginger. With breakfast, I consume 20g of L-glutamine. One of the only food groups which I did not have painful inflammation from was organic meat, especially beef. In fact, it helped relieve my symptoms. In hindsight, beef is high in glutamine so it was probably soothing my gut lining. The spices I use can be hot and irritating, so I drink mullein, coltsfoot and marshmallow root tea (simmered for 5 minutes on low-medium) because they are demulcents which line the gut and sooth it.

I could have just taken the pharmaceutical antibiotic rifaximin to clear my gut in one go. It's one of the only antibiotics that doesn't get absorbed, so it can sterilize the GI without broader implications. However, I have a sordid history with drug antibiotics (long story), so I opted to continue using the herbal ones above. Plus the herbal ones have other benefits that go beyond the gut.

I did not, however, eliminate probiotics entirely. Once a week, I do a probiotic enema. I believe this is key. The reason for the enema is to restore colon flora without going the oral / small intestine route. Only the last 6 feet of large intestine should be heavily colonized, at billions of organisms per mL of fluid; the small intestine only has about 100,000 cells per mL of fluid by comparison. I take a few table spoons yogurt and break 3-4 probiotic capsules into it, and stir. I then add warm water, and a few chia seeds as a pre-biotic to feed the bacteria. I then let it sit for 16 hours, loosely covered, at room temperature. Once it's ready, I wait until I have a bowel movement and flush out my bowels with a warm water enema. It's at that point that I administer the probiotic solution. If you're lactose intolerant then you might just want to do the straight probiotic capsules in the enema. I hold the solution in for as long as possible (even a couple hours) before voiding. Some people I've spoken to online hold theirs in all night but I'm not comfortable doing that.

So far, I'm having solid, non-smelly bowel movements for the first time in 6 months. My mental health has already improved drastically, and I'm putting back on weight. Sleep still remains dicey, but it's because I have so much energy now that if I don't use it during the daytime, I'll have trouble sleeping. I have other mental health issues linked to insomnia though, so it wasn't directly an IBS problem.

One thing about enteric flora that's important to understand is that you develop normal immune response to them from chidlhood when your mother's flora first colonize your sterile gut as a baby. Your immune system then modulates itself to keep the right type and proportion of flora in check. It has been proposed by some people that we need specifically targetted strains of flora in our probiotic supplements otherwise it won't work; however, your constitutional immune response to flora may ensure that their numbers become modulated anyway. Introducing the flora via the colon means they will gradually migrate upward to the small intestine where they will be gradually modulated. When you take oral probiotics, you are introducing billions upon billions of flora to your small intestine which don't belong there, and it can cause an inflammatory response. Read some of the basic Wikipedia sources I provided below to understand the basics of this issue. If you have SIBO, the only way my method won't work for you is if your immune system itself is severely compromised, in which case the re-introduced flora might bloom out of control again.

IBS is certainly caused by many different things, but I believe an understanding of gut flora is crucial. I recommend the following introductory reads to understand how this all works:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probiotic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_intestinal_bacterial_overgrowth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamine#Examples_for_the_usage_of_glutamine


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## acureisoutthere (Jun 28, 2014)

Hi,

I have IBS-D. I'm really determined to find a cure.

Have you, or anyone on these forums ever heard of FMTs ? It stands for Fecal Microbial Transplant. Dr. Barody, in Australia has been curing people of varius GI problems using a colonoscopy in conjunction with a FMT. He has cured people with C. Diff. too. This treatment has proven to be very effective with cure rates of 80 to 90 percent and more, with very very few problems associated with it. That's right !

So, I encourage research into this subject for everyone. However, recently the FDA stepped in and declared it can only be used to treat C. Diff. and under a clinical study. Perhaps if enough people put pressure on the FDA ?

Also, worth noting: there are instructions on the Web for doing it yourslef. There is even a Youtube video about it. So, it might sound a tad gross, but it cures ! ck out The Power of Poop website too.

Also, a freind just told me about SBOs, Soil Based Organisims in a probiotic. She said it definetely helped her with her GI problems (not IBS, but I think it was close). Swanson Ultra carries an SBO, and there is also Prescript Assist. It sounds like regular food probiotics don't always solve problems for IBS.

There has even bee a clinical trial with an SBO, and it helped IBS, and symptoms didn't come back even a year later. So, that's pretty neat huh ?

Which leads to another interesting subject : eating small amounts of dirt. Yeah, that stuff that babies can't wait to put in their mouths, and doesn't kill them. It actually turns out that babies are helping to establish their gut flora (which influences whether we come down with a host of problems) Well, anyhow research it, a little bit of dirt has thousands of bacteria strains, the stuff we probably need. Sure probiotics provide a few strains but dirt has many more (thousands ?) Just research it and don't get dirt contaminated by feces or urine or from other contaminants, just good clean dirt, (this is what I've read).

For me, right now I am trying every natural probioitc I can ; Kimchi, Kombucha, souerkraut, summer sausage, miso, Kefer, and non lactose yogurt. I will try a course of the SBOs also, maybe both kinds, what's 80 bucks if I can heal myself ? Eventually if these don't cure me, I may try very small amounts of soil, after making sure my tetnus shots are up to date, and studing to find a very good place for soil. Yes, small amounts.

If that doesn't do it I my find a very healthy stool donor, have them tested, and do a home FMT.

Hope this is helpful to this selfhelp and support goup. This is my first post.


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