RESEARCH IS CLEAR THAT SIBO HAS THREE MAIN CAUSES:

SIBO is a sign that something in your digestion system has gone wrong, not a disease in and of itself. We will work together to uncover the root causes (the reason the bacteria are overgrowing), and there can often be several at a time. As we treat your SIBO we may find food intolerances or other GI issues. Don’t be discouraged as we will work through these together. Yeast and fungal overgrowths commonly overlap with SIBO and are often greatly improved with the same protocol.

Important things to consider

• Healing takes time and will not occur overnight.
  • There is no magic pill for SIBO and it’s important to embrace the process, there can oftentimes be a period of trial and error.

• Progress at times will feel like one step forward and two steps back.
  • Herbs and natural antibiotics are not without side effects.
  • Toxins released by bacteria as they die can temporarily cause more symptoms than the bacteria themselves.
  • Recovery goes way beyond just getting rid of the bacteria overgrowth.
  • Be mindful of your stress levels. Don’t let the stress of treating SIBO become a new impediment to your healing. Incorporate quite meditation or gentle movement and stretching into your daily life.
  • Don’t over-sanitize your life, get in the dirt and encourage your whole microbiome to thrive.

The following pages include recipes, a food journal, and your nutritional therapy intervention which is centered around the SIBO Specific Diet. It is a combination of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) and the FODMAP diet, a type of an elimination diet that restricts carbohydrates by their structure in addition to limiting fermentable food items. The idea behind the diet is that only single sugar molecules (monosaccharides) can be absorbed by the small intestine and that other carbohydrates (disaccharides, polysaccharides) must be broken down (fermented) by bacteria and yeasts that live in the intestinal tract. The SIBO specific diet does not follow the individual “rules” of either the SCD or FODMAP diets. Rather, it combines aspects of both.

The SIBO Specific Diet is considered highly restrictive and requires careful observation of serving sizes and individual portions.

You may discover that certain foods, even those listed as legal may cause issues. If so, they should be removed for the time being, and we can work on a “re-introduction” schedule when it becomes appropriate. Take time to record what you eat and any reactions to those foods in the food journal at the end of this plan.