It has now been 60 days since I took any antimicrobial herbs and I must say, I’m feeling pretty darn good. Is the SIBO gone? No, I don’t think so since I still get some symptoms if I eat a bit too crazy on the FODMAP scale but overall I’m doing well and out enjoying life every single day. I had a few days where I considered starting herbals again but that passed and I blame it on a restaurant meal that just didn’t sit right with me. My liver enzymes went back to normal after 30 days off the herbals, AST at 25 and ALT at 20 which was a big relief. Everything is testing in a good range at this point. I’m going to review my Organix test next week and expect that will just be adding in some vitamins and maybe a few supplements. My weight is still on the low side but still I’m holding steady with a hunter-gatherer BMI with typical up and down fluctuations based on what I eat or how active I am.
So what am I eating these days? A pretty full AIP diet really. I’ve stopped paying quite so much attention to sticking low FODMAP and have even eaten a few things like plantains, sweet potatoes, and arrowroot starch that are off the SIBO diet completely but are part of AIP. The plantain/arrowroot combo in the cupcakes I made caused a bit of gut distress but it only lasted a short time. I eat asparagus almost every day which is full of inulin and last year would have killed me. I have tried a bit of garlic and it even seems OK, now onward to onions. My new favorite kitchen toy is the Inspiralizer which I use almost daily. I make Zoodles (zucchini noodles), butternut squash noodles and “rice”, and celeriac noodles all the time now. I’ve begun eating a bit of raw food finally after 18 months too, this week I’ve had a few very small salads and they were so good.
I’m still putting down a lot of fermented foods. I have homemade kraut or kimchee daily and some kombucha every few days plus a shot of Firefly Kimchee Probiotic Tonic every so often. I still need to try and add in kefir and try a few other vegetable ferments. I have not added in probiotics proper yet. I was ready to add n Primal Defense but then began reading articles about the potential dangers of Soil Based Organisms (SBOs) and decided not to chance it right now. I plan to add in a non-prebiotic probiotic that has some of the strains Dr. Siebecker has found effective for IBS/SIBO as soon as I can find an appropriate one or the one I have found is actually available. The ferments have helped get my colon balanced out, finally normal poo after all the weird ruin-like stuff that the heavy doses of herbals caused. I do think that last round did more damage to my colon than it did good against the SIBO. I’ll do a stool test at some point to see where I’m at flora wise and to see if we actually killed the blasto with all of that. I still think balancing the gut is essential to really recovering from SIBO and in reading The Gut Balance Revolution by Dr. Mullen it is clear he thinks the same way so I was so glad to hear someone at the Symposium actually talking about this.
What am I doing for supplements? Not much aside from motility. Here’s my total regime this past few weeks:
- With Meals – 20 drops Iberogast, 1 Digestzyme (digestive enzyme with HCL)
- At lunch – 2 Endozine caps to help with gut repair
- One hour before bed – 2mg time-release melatonin
- At Bedtime – 1500mg ginger, 4.5mg LDN, 250mg Triple Mag, 20 drops Iberogast (when I remember)
That’s it, less pills in a whole day than I used to take at breakfast. I have a month supply of AlliMed/Neem and a two week supply of CandiBactin sitting here should I decide I need it but at the moment am enjoying not taking so much crap all the time.
How’s my sleep? Much better. I’m getting around 8 hours every night and am not waking nearly as much or for nearly as long most nights. I feel rested most days and am not drained or tired feeling at all. On the contrary, I’m out biking, hiking, running or fly fishing every single day and really enjoying it, making up for all the time I missed last year due to being so sick.
So for now, holding steady with what I’m doing and hoping that as my gut balances and heals that the SIBO will continue to just drop w/o a huge intervention. If it doesn’t I may do a short round of treatment again to see if I can knock it out once and for all. My hope is that since I’ve been off AlliMed/Neem for almost 6 months that it will be effective again and can take out the last 8-9 points quickly.