How does our gut become so messed up? And what is SIBO?

If you decide to read Dr. Davis’ book, Super Gut, which I highly recommend, you will listen to him explain in great detail how we’ve messed up our guts. I will provide a brief summary of some of his reasons here:
 

• Modern pregnancy (no concern for a whole food diet), childbirth (C-sections) and child-rearing (formula, antibiotics and processed food) have deprived us of critical microorganisms that are supposed to be present from birth on, and has contributed to the overgrowth of nasty ones.
   

• Modern life, modern food, and exposures have caused the loss of important microbes like L. reuteri, that used to be widely prevalent along the entire GI tract.
   

• These modern ills have created dysbiosis that allows fecal gut microbes to travel up the GI tract into the small intestine and “fecal-ize” in the wrong place, causing untold amounts of negative health consequences.
   

• They disrupt the delicate balance keeping our incredibly important mucosal lining in our guts at just the right level, opening up the entire body to toxins.
   

• They perpetuate the environment that allows microbes to travel where they don’t belong and cause chronic illness - SIBO

Let’s hear from Dr. Davis about what exactly SIBO is:

“SIBO is an invasion of your small intestine: unhealthy fecal bacterial species proliferate in the colon, outmuscle beneficial probiotic species, then ascend to take up residence where they don’t belong, in the small intestine. These unwanted interlopers degrade the thin single layer of intestinal mucus that lines and protects the upper GI tract. The weakened muscular lining then paves the way for toxic microbial breakdown products to gain entry into the bloodstream for export to other organs.”

You may be wondering, is this really that big of a deal? It sounds like a rare occurrence that most people shouldn’t worry about. But according to Dr. Davis, approximately one in three people in the US have SIBO. That’s a pretty staggering number that could easily exceed 100 million people. So yes, you should be concerned that this could be going on in your gut.

Especially if you have:

Food intolerances

Fat malabsorption

Persistent or recurrent skin rashes

Specific health conditions with the high likelihood of SIBO (see below)

Take stomach acid suppressants or anti-inflammatory drugs

A lack of stomach acid

History of opioid drug use

Hypothyroidism

History of abdominal surgery

These are all signs that you may have a gut situation that needs to be addressed. If this is you, I would highly recommend that you grab a copy of Dr. Davis’ book and read the entire thing.

What are the “Specific health conditions with the high likelihood of SIBO”? See below. If you have any of the following health conditions, there is at least a chance that it could be caused by or amplified by SIBO:

Obesity

Diabetes

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

Inflammatory bowel disease

Fatty liver

Autoimmune diseases

Skin rashes

Parkinson’s disease

Alzheimer’s dementia

Restless leg syndrome

Depression and anxiety

Confirming with a doctor that you have SIBO is a complicated process. You may mention this to your doctor and get a reply like “I don’t know what that is.” Yippee.

I prefer to figure these things out on my own, and so I was thrilled to see that Dr. Davis recommends an at-home test to determine and monitor your gut. This device is called a Digestive Breath Tester (AIRE 2) and it is made by a company called FoodMarble. You simply blow into the device and then use a phone app to see the results. Get it here.

This device measures the amount of hydrogen and methane gas in your breath. It was designed for use by people with food intolerances, wanting to test their reaction to FODMAP foods, but we will use it for a completely different purpose (which means you don’t need to follow the apps recommendations, since in this situation we don’t care about tracking food.)

Using a prebiotic fiber, such as inulin, we can see what happens when we consume it. If you take a dose of inulin on an empty stomach, then time it out, you can track the amount of hydrogen and methane gas released as the inulin travels down your digestive tract. This will tell you if you have microbes (that release these gases) in your small intestine, i.e., SIBO. Super fun, right?
 

I have already tried this device, and I can attest to its ease of use. I am excited that I can easily test again, whenever I want to, to track my progress. Plus multiple people in the household can use the same device, they just need to download the app. All the details about how to use the device for tracking SIBO are in Dr. Davis’ book - have I mentioned that you should get it?

Dr. Davis also spends an entire chapter on SIFO, which is small intestinal fungal overgrowth, which is also serious business. These nasty fungi can travel all over the body (like the brain) when given the power to. In many cases it accompanies SIBO, and many of the ways to treat one will likely treat the other. But if you have specific concerns about SIFO (like candida)  definitely go to the book for all the details.

Our next discussion will be about the fun part - making yogurt!