- For over a year I had abdominal pain and other gastrointestinal problems.
- I tried to lower my stress levels, but it didn’t ease my symptoms.
- I went to a gastroenterologist and was diagnosed with SIBO, a bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine.
I’ve always had a sensitive stomach. I’ve known since I was a child that eating fried foods, lots of pasta, and lots of dairy products can cause stomach pains that last for almost 24 hours. Then, two years ago, everything I ate started making me nauseous and bloated.
For over a year, I ignored my symptoms – until I, too, started experiencing diarrhea, weight loss, fatigue and a loss of appetite. I convinced myself that stress was to blame, so I did what I could to lower my stress levels; I meditated, added exercise to my schedule, and tried to get more sleep. But for the most part, these things did little to improve my symptoms.
Finally, after struggling to get up the stairs in my house for eight months, I decided to see a gastroenterologist, a doctor who specializes in diseases and disorders of the digestive tract.
The gastroenterologist diagnosed SIBO, a bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine
As I sat in the doctor’s office, I realized how tired I was and how bad I felt every day. After a checkup, the doctor sent me home with a stool culture kit to test for salmonella. She also provided an at-home breath test to measure fermented gases (hydrogen, methane, and hydrogen sulfide) in my gut.
The stool sample was negative for salmonella. But the breath test showed a positive result for SIBO, or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, an imbalance of bacteria in the small intestine as a result of slow bowel movements.
Although my gastroenterologist isn’t sure how my SIBO developed, she said that stress may have caused the intestinal infection. The Mayo Clinic reports that SIBO can also be a result of surgery or diseases that affect the small intestine.
My first attempt at treating SIBO failed, but I continued
As soon as I was diagnosed with SIBO, I was desperate to get rid of it. I saw a nutritionist who recommended that I treat SIBO with an antibiotic and an expensive powder called the Doctors’ Elementary Diet, which involved drinking a mixture of powder and water every 45 minutes for two weeks as my only form of sustenance.
When I got home and started the diet, I struggled to get the mixture down without gagging. At one point I was very sick and had a terrible headache. I watched videos on YouTube about people who went through this diet to try to convince me to go ahead with it, but in the end I gave up. I knew getting rid of SIBO would be a challenge, but I wasn’t about to feel even sicker than I already did doing it.
I called the gastroenterologist, who suggested treating my SIBO with a temporary low FODMAP diet. FODMAP (which stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols) is an acronym for a specific type of carbohydrate that can be particularly difficult to digest. I incorporated low FODMAP foods like eggs, meat, almond milk, oats, rice, zucchini and oranges into my meals and avoided wheat, lactose, legumes, apples, avocados and sweeteners like honey and corn syrup.
My symptoms have subsided. After four weeks of this strict diet, I reintroduced foods one by one for three weeks to try to determine which foods might be causing symptoms. A study published in October linked a low-FODMAP diet with a reduction in symptom severity for people with GI issues, including SIBO. This is because the diet reduces the intake of carbohydrates that can ferment in the gut and fuel bacterial overgrowth.
I have learned that large amounts of soft cheeses and gluten cause stomach discomfort, so I refrain from eating them.
Now I know how to keep my symptoms under control.
Five months after completing my low FODMAP diet and reintroducing foods, I feel like a new person. I wasn’t tired, my mood had improved, and my stomach aches were minimal.
But in the last month, as I’ve been attending holiday meetings and cutting back on my SIBO-compliant eating, I’ve started to feel uncomfortable in my stomach and sometimes have to force myself to eat.
While it’s frustrating, I’ve made an appointment with my gastroenterologist and plan on taking another breathalyzer test. If I ever get a SIBO diagnosis again, I know that a low FODMAP diet, along with meditation and walking, can help ease my symptoms and lower my stress.
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