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S.I.B.O. Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth


TimothyRyan

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TimothyRyan Rookie

Just diagnosed with this small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, going on antibiotics. was wondering if any other celiacs have this condition as well? and any helpful info to take in addition to my doctors opinion...

TIM


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jtangema Apprentice

Hi,

I would very highly recommend taking a good probiotic. It will help the good bacteria in your gut grow. I take Florajen 3- it is supposed to be on of the good ones.

Jennifer

  • 1 month later...
kpm2319 Rookie
Just diagnosed with this small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, going on antibiotics. was wondering if any other celiacs have this condition as well? and any helpful info to take in addition to my doctors opinion...

TIM

Hey Tim, I was just diagnosed last month and my doctor prescribed xifaxan but it did not help. Then he prescribed a tetracycline antibiotic which has not helped either. Did the antibiotics work for you?

Kevin

  • 4 weeks later...
JodiC Apprentice

Try apple cider vinegar (with mother)up to 2 tbls a day with water and Shaklee's optiflora.

  • 1 year later...
TimothyRyan Rookie

Well, One year and 3 months later after my Xifaxan antibiotic treatment did work and get rid of the SIBO. It seems my exact symptoms have returned. I started another cycle of Xifaxan, which by the way, is the most outrageously priced medicine in the world. ( i no longer have insurance.) Anyway, they wanted me to do a 1200mg a day cycle, but since i can not afford it, I am doing a 600mg a day cycle. which is what i think worked last time.

Also, this time, i shall take all your advice, and try to regularly take probiotics after i finish this cycle of antibiotics. Anyone have any other advice?

-Tim

sfsassy Rookie

There is a good forum out there for SIBO on the Yahoo boards. You may want to explore there as well as here for more advice on what people are doing.(sibonation ) I had SIBO before I was diagnosed with Celiac. I went on 2 rounds of antibiotics to treat it as well as a probiotic. The results were not very positive, but I did get better in time. I think my diet helped. Low carb/Sugar.

ravenwoodglass Mentor

Well, One year and 3 months later after my Xifaxan antibiotic treatment did work and get rid of the SIBO. It seems my exact symptoms have returned. I started another cycle of Xifaxan, which by the way, is the most outrageously priced medicine in the world. ( i no longer have insurance.) Anyway, they wanted me to do a 1200mg a day cycle, but since i can not afford it, I am doing a 600mg a day cycle. which is what i think worked last time.

Also, this time, i shall take all your advice, and try to regularly take probiotics after i finish this cycle of antibiotics. Anyone have any other advice?

-Tim

When I have to take antibiotics I start upping the probiotic intake the day I start the antibiotic. It seems to keep the nasty effects of the antibiotic from ever starting. You may want to ask your doctor is that is okay for you do.


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sfsassy Rookie

I just thought of something that I heard from my dietician but never tried it. She was saying that before you start a round of antibiotics for SIBO you should prep your body as if you were doing a colonoscopy. Meaning, fast the day before and take a laxative to clear out your gut. (I would totally ask your Dr about that before you tried it. )

She also mentioned taking the probiotic after the antibiotics were finished.

TimothyRyan Rookie

I just thought of something that I heard from my dietician but never tried it. She was saying that before you start a round of antibiotics for SIBO you should prep your body as if you were doing a colonoscopy. Meaning, fast the day before and take a laxative to clear out your gut. (I would totally ask your Dr about that before you tried it. )

She also mentioned taking the probiotic after the antibiotics were finished.

Well, i already started the cycle yesterday. And I've had to goto the bathroom with D like 4 times today. So it's clearing something out. haha.

But yeah, i think I'm gonna go on some probiotics when this cycle is done. Xifaxan is way too expensive to let this come back with out looking out for it this time.

Hope it all works. Thanks for the advice.

burdee Enthusiast

How were you diagnosed with 'SIBO'? That term is like 'IBS', because many different kinds of critters can cause intestinal dysbiosis (imbalance of intestinal microflora) or SIBO. I've had 5 different bacterial infections, 2 parasites and candida, all diagnosed by stool tests. So I wondered whether your doc used a stool test to diagnosed your SIBO. If so, exactly which bacteria, parasite or candida was causing the 'overgrowth'? Did your test results include a sensitivity test, which indicates which drugs or botanical supplements can kill the 'bad bugs' in your gut? Not all bugs are sensitive to (can be killed by) the same drug or botanical supplement. Many labs will 'culture out' bacteria and yeasts to determine which treatments are most effective, by sensitivity tests. Parasites usually can't be cultured. So docs will use whatever treatments (usually drugs) have been proven most effective in erradicating a particular parasite.

SUE

  • 8 years later...
Nancy547 Newbie

I have just been recently diagnosed with SIBO/Celiac & have researched the approved diets but find conflicting advice surrounding butter, and like TIM, I cannot afford Xifaxan on my health insurance, but have found through my research that antibiotics such as "Cipro, Flagyl, Sulfa, Ceplex" to name a few are just as efficient and a lot less expensive. I welcome any advice on diets from those that have dealt with this a lot longer.

cyclinglady Grand Master
2 hours ago, Nancy547 said:

I have just been recently diagnosed with SIBO/Celiac & have researched the approved diets but find conflicting advice surrounding butter, and like TIM, I cannot afford Xifaxan on my health insurance, but have found through my research that antibiotics such as "Cipro, Flagyl, Sulfa, Ceplex" to name a few are just as efficient and a lot less expensive. I welcome any advice on diets from those that have dealt with this a lot longer.

Cipro, a fluoroquinolone, has a black box warning from the FDA.  Make sure you weigh all the risks and benefits of this particular antibiotic.  

I hope you feel better soon!  

ravenwoodglass Mentor
6 hours ago, cyclinglady said:

Cipro, a fluoroquinolone, has a black box warning from the FDA.  Make sure you weigh all the risks and benefits of this particular antibiotic.  

I hope you feel better soon!  

I agree with C-lady about Cipro. I had a severe reaction to it. I only took one dose but it made me hallucinate and any food I ate for two weeks came back undigested.  Cipro is a powerful antibiotic that targets specific bacteria. Before anyone takes it the doctor should culture to make sure that the bacteria it is effective against is present. It is not a full spectrum antibiotic.

IMHO you should get on the diet strictly and try adding fermented foods to your diet like yogurt, saurkraut, etc. That will allow the good bacteria you need to florish. Antibiotics will kill off both good and bad bacteria and may slow your healing.

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    • Known1
      I am hesitant to post this as I have seen many people here recommending RO water.  With that said, I want to share my experience and how RO water now impacts me.  Three or four years ago a local store installed a RO water refill station.  I had been buying gallons of distilled and spring water prior to that.  I switched over to using the RO water refill station saving money by brining in my own clean empty gallon jugs.  Every 6-months I would replace the jugs by buying new gallons of distilled water.  This RO water is the only water I would drink while at home.  Two huge glasses every morning before work and two more after work.  I would also use the RO water to make coffee and hot coco. This past December, prior to my celiac diagnosis, my gut was making more noise than anything I had ever experienced.  Seriously, it was crazy, almost like fire works going off in my stomach.  I happened to pick up some distilled water for my 6-month jug rotation.  Literally, as soon as I started drinking the distilled water my stomach settled a great deal.  I could honestly feel the difference after the first glass of water.  I thought that maybe the RO water from the store's refill station was contaminated with some sort of cleaning agent.  I swore to myself I would never drink from that RO refill station again.  Instead I went back to buying distilled along with gallon jugs of spring water.  No issues with either of those as far as an upset stomach is concerned.  Cost, well that's a different story all together. After being diagnosed marsh 3c, I went shopping at Aldi's for the first time in my life.  I noticed they also sell water by the gallon.  Over the course of the last few weeks, I have purchased a total of 6-gallons of their water.  (Thankfully they were out on two of my visits.)  After having my stomach starting to make noises similar to mid-December again, it dawned on me, maybe its the Aldi water?  Initially I had contributed my bubble gut to some sort of gluten exposure or cross contamination.  Even though everything I have put into my stomach is naturally gluten-free or has been labeled gluten-free / certified gluten-free.  I had assumed that the Aldi water was spring water.  Come to find out, that was a bad assumption.  Looking close at the label it says purified by RO or distillation (or something like that). Again, I switched to different water.  Just like last December, the non-RO water instantly calmed my stomach and even felt better going down the hatch.  This was earlier today by the way.  Prior to creating this post, I did a few searches via Uncle Google.  I bumped into a thread on Reddit (where I am not a member) that has multiple people complaining of GI issues related to RO water.  So my initial thoughts on a cleaning agent in the refill station RO water were likely not correct.  Unfortunately, it seems the RO water itself causing me problems.  I am not sure if we are allowed to post links to other sites and hopefully I will not get into trouble for doing so.  I did try printing the Reddit thread to a PDF file.  Unfortunately, the file is 2MB in size, which is well over the 500KB file attachment limit here on this amazing forum.  Again, hopefully this is ok.  🤞  Here is the Reddit thread. This may not be a popular opinion here, but personally, I will not willingly drink another glass of RO water for the remainder of my life.  Who knows, maybe drinking RO water for the past several years is part of what activated my celiac?  No proof, but just a thought.  Come to find out RO water is well known to leech minerals from your body.  With people like us often lacking minerals to begin with, RO water does not seem like a wise choice.  As the Reddit thread mentions, there are RO water filtration systems that will inject minerals back into the water.  However, those systems are likely not being used at the grocery store refill stations nor by the bottling companies producing RO water for sale at your local store. Please do not shoot the messenger as I am just sharing my personal experience and letting others know that most RO water will leech minerals from your body. God bless and stay well, Known1
    • Known1
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    • Scott Adams
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