Looking back at this last year I almost had eradicated SIBO  twice.  I had two technically negative tests, one in March and one in September.   Each time I relapsed a few months afterwards, this last one even while I was still taking herbal antibiotics for 40 days.   I was trying to figure out what these two periods had in common and it finally hit me – herb, and not the antibiotic herbs.   In March I was unable to sleep from so much gut pain that I started using medical marijuana to put me out, it worked and I got the rest I needed.  After a few months I stopped but my SIBO was back.   In September I increased my dose of low dose naltrexone to 4.5mg and was waking up wide awake at 2:00 am every night so I got back on the herb usually vaping a few hits in the middle of the night and going back to sleep.  Again, I relapsed within a few months.

After seeing this possible connection I did a bit of research and sure enough marijuana slows gut motility enough that marijuana smokers, like opioid users, are more likely to develop SIBO.   One post I found the doctor had told the person that they would never clear SIBO if they kept smoking pot, it just has too strong an effect on motility.  I knew CBD slowed motility but thought that if I went with a  low CBD/high THC strain like Grandaddy Purple, I’d be OK.  GDP puts me out and keeps me out plus is all THC and almost no CBD but no, even it mucks with ones gut motility.  From a general overview of Cannabis and the Gastrointestinal Tract:

Shook & Burks[x] found that THC reduced the frequency of intestinal contractions, and reduced the flow of food in the small intestine, without altering basal tone, and concluded “…delta 9-THC, delta 9,11-THC, cannabinol and nabilone (but not cannabidiol) exert an inhibitory effect on GI transit and motility in rats”.

Granted, I’m not a rat but this is exactly NOT what is needed for SIBO, you want to increase intestinal motility as much as possible.  I take LDN and a lot of ginger to try and increase motility to help flush out the bacteria and then a few tokes of pot would undermine the effects of those agents.

So, goodbye Mary Jane, it was nice knowing for for a few months this year and you helped me sleep when I really needed it but right now I need to get rid of the SIBO so I need to pack up the vaporizer and stay away.   Luckily I seem to be adapting a bit to the LDN and am sleeping a bit better again but I’m almost back to the start on curing my SIBO and my two years to heal clock just got reset.