SIBO Test!!

List your symptoms again. And what you experience after certain food groups. If details include TMI- include it if you want.

TMI-

personally I think they need a SIBO fart test, vs breath test . Prob way more positive results then.

Im very certain I had that for months late spring and early summer. Test said negative. Seems impossible since I got better by treating with supplements known to combat SIBO. Iam back to 90% "gut normal" for me.

Could have been a temporary bile duct issue to though. You cant digest fats if that happens. Conventional medicine was not very interested in that theory to begin with. But (no pun intended) I did test low for pancreatic enzymes recently.

astroman: My symptoms are lined up with IBS. Bloating/Distension, lack of appetite at times, loose stools, stomach gurgling, diarrhea occasionally, constipation occasionally, cramps occasionally.

Garzie: I've read how the breath tests aren't perfect, but you breakdown went into depth I hadn't read about before. Thank you. I used glucose before the test. My results weren't even borderline. They were well within normal range. I didn't find much relief in Xifaxan. I agree with you that there seems to be something with Lyme/Bart and dysbiosis. Infected nerve related? I don't know. I know my stomach issues improved quite a bit when I was on Disulfiram a few years ago and my whole condition improved. Then it declined over time after I came off of DSF.

After watching Bartonella Babe's videos and monitoring my symptoms I was expecting the breath test to come back positive. Just another mystery to add into the mystery box.

yep - i think Ox bile may have helped me also with a recent flare of gut symptoms and weight loss - i took more than that with each meal though

i also took Betaine HCL with pepsin and bitters - again 2 large capsules per meal

i also restricted carbs more than before - think my consumption may have been creeping up over the recent months - which may have not helped

in general - restricting carbs has been the single most effective thing in controlling my gut symptoms - vs any supplement i have tried - and i have tried many - many many

so i have been eating a whole food ketogenic diet with only controlled amounts of certain low fermentable content vegetables with each meal for a couple of years now - and my recovery only really started after i took this step - i think it took a load off the immune system - and let it function a bit better

celery, broccoli spears or purple sprouting, lettuce, asparagus, green olives, mushrooms, carrots in v small quantities - all seem tolerable
when my gut symptoms subside my systemic symptoms also improve - fatigue, aching, headaches etc

i eat almost no grains (a tiny amount of gluten free oats now and then) - no baked goods, no cereal, no pre prepared food or processed food of any kind at all - my health is moving forward - so to me its well worth it.

i have friends who when i tell them how i eat - or they see what i eat - they say things like - "i couldn't do it" - but they didn't experience the 5 years of illness and hardly being able to leave the house or function at all

the first few weeks are hard - but you adjust - and then its just the norm

its the single biggest improvement i have experienced in 7 years of treatment - and its virtually free - and has almost no side effects
what's not to like ?

hi Lightlife

i listed the following as the main vegetables i eat - after lots of experiments this is what seems to work best
celery, broccoli spears or purple sprouting, lettuce, asparagus, green olives, mushrooms, carrots in v small quantities - all seem tolerable

fermentable content is largely sugars and starches that your gut bacteria can use as food - which they use to ferment for energy, multiply and create bacterial by products.
this is what they are supposed to do in the colon - but when they do this in the small intestine - which should be home to only comparatively small numbers of bacteria - you get blooming of bacterial growth there - which leads to inflammation, leaky gut etc - and lots of symptoms - both gut and systemic
the general term for such fermentable products are FODMAPS
see https://www.monashfodmap.com/about-fodmap-and-ibs/

but there may be some individual variation in which carbohydrate sources can be tolerated or reacted to - so individual experimentation is likely needed to optimise keto for each individual

for me all forms of starch cause adverse effects

yep - i feel MUCH better eating this way - its not a cure for Lyme and bart - but a big step forward - and can take a load off your system that enables the body to function better and recovery to start. My partner had even more wild gut issues than me - and was out running 2 miles within days of changing to a Keto Diet - then working part time within 6 months and full time within 12 months - she only did a few weeks of antibiotics( for an ear infection - rather than lyme bart) and some basic Buhner herbs - the Keto was the big thing for her recovery.

i have been eating this way for over 2 years now and am gradually recovering - now at around 60% recovered
i am able to exercise - am gaining weight and strength back - and able to do more each day.

would i prefer to be able to eat anything i wished any time i felt like it - without suffering any ill effects - sure!
but that's not the choice in front of me
the actual choice i have is - do i want to be sicker and be stuck making no progress - or continue eating as i do and move forward?
i simply am sicker if i try to eat what would be a more normal western diet - so its a no brainer.

even with the restrictions i have in my diet - i would guess 90% of the population have a much less nutritious diet than i do.

Ox bile seemed to aggravate my gut for the first couple of days before improvements were noticed. But I’m pretty sure I no longer have tick infections.

I have read multiple places that ox bile taken on an empty stomach, (which I also used in the morning before food, Not just with meals) , will kill SIBO.

I wonder if you have candida yeast overgrowth?

Candida kill off apparently makes some people feel intoxicated. It never occurred to me though.

yep - i tend to agree - the only really effective treatment for me is likely to be successful treatment of the underlying infections / root cause
until then i think i m stuck managing symptoms as best i can - to manage my day to day function - but also to help take a load off the immune system so it can have more resources available to fight the infections.

i do feel there is a bit too much focus on this drug or that drug in treatment - which is understandable - as they seem to offer a prospect of a cure in the near future.

my experience is though, that for people who have been ill for several years - there simply is no drug that can give us a cure in a few weeks - and that the role of the immune system in clearing these infections is under appreciated

without a functioning immune system no amount of antibiotics will cure us of any chronic bacterial infection - just look at AIDS patients for a demonstration of this.
no matter if you knock the infection back by 99% ( which is way more than any of the trials show for persister cells treated with abx by the way) - the immune system still has to do its job and clear up the remainder - or we will simply relapse.

in my view, for this reason i think treatment has to be both prolonged and systematic - but must also focus on the immune system function.
-food,
-sleep,
-exercise,
etc
-as well as identifying and addressing anything that is upsetting the immune system more than it should,
all have a significant role to play.