Over the last year I have been experimenting with several diets to help deal with SIBO – the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), the Low FODMAP diet, the Paleo diet and the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol (AIP). I have also recently been working on the SIBO Food Guide app and I got to do a lot of research into all of these crazy diets. The app gives the legal/illegal status for each of these diets along with FODMAP ranking of foods with serving sizes where appropriate. The app should be available by the end of the month.
Tag Archives: SIBO
Yet another relapse
I thought for sure that the last 40 days of herbal antibiotics was going to knock out the SIBO once and for all. Instead SIBO regained some strength and managed to fight back pretty hard and throw a few good punches. Things aren’t as bad as they have been but they sure aren’t as good as my September test and are much closer to the worst test in July than the September test. I went from a high of 10 at 120 minutes to a high of 42 at 120 minutes and now I not only have methane showing but also hydrogen showing. My hydrogen has never been above 2 before and now it is peaking at 9. My methane was down to a high of 8 from a peak of 42 and now it is back up to 33. Very frustrating to say the least.
Shocking news for my feet, SIBO update
I decided to try and do something, anything, to get my feet back from being numb and painful due to the neuropathy I’ve been dealing with. We never did figure out the cause of this but it is most likely either antibiotic toxicity or the methane producing bugs from SIBO. I visited a doctor in town who recommended an electro-stim until called The ReBuilder to fix neuropathy so I decided to just buy one instead of having to go in for regular treatments with it. Now every morning and evening I sit for 30 minutes with my feet in a hot foot bath or in conductive socks and I run current through my feet and legs. The good news, it seems to be working. My feet no longer hurt like crazy in the mornings when I first get up and many days I don’t even notice the numbness, especially in my left foot. They are still numb but not as bad as they were a few weeks ago. I’ve even been able to walk more and do a bit of light running since starting this treatment so I’m hoping that I can reduce it even more or at least keep it at the level it is at now.
Time to deliver the knock out punch
After finishing up three rounds of herbal antibiotics on September 8th I retested for SIBO on the 15th, waiting a week to get the herbs out of my system. This time I also did a 2 day prep diet to hopefully avoid the very odd results I had at the last test. Finally had some good news from a test – I made a serious dent in the bacterial levels going from a peak of 49 ppm methane (CH4) to a peak of only 10 ppm methane, that is an 80% reduction in levels. The other good news this week is that I weighed in at 155.4 on Wednesday, finally crawled up to my interim goal of 155. This is almost 8 lbs up from my low point in May. Now I’m aiming for 160. I really don’t know if I’ll ever get back up to 170 given the low carb diet I’m going to have to stay on but when I was in really good shape running I was at 165 so I’m ultimately shooting for that.
Herbals round 3 – Done
Today I finish up my third round of herbal antibiotic treatment for SIBO. In June I started taking Berberine Complex and AlliMed after a bad relapse in May. This didn’t do much so I switched to a higher dose AlliMed and Neem protocol in July and did two 30-day rounds of it. The first 30 days I couldn’t handle the Neem too well and had to cut it in half but for the last 30 days I decided to just suck it up and deal with the discomfort that the Neem caused and ride it out sinec I was assured it would make a difference. Luckily the upset stopped after a week and I’ve actually felt petty good for much of the last month. I still have a few symptoms after dinner each day so I think the SIBO isn’t quite knocked out but is teetering a bit.
A Tale of Two Tests
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Nope, wrong tale but sort of fitting to my tale too. I got my latest test results back and do not know what to make of them at all, neither do the doctors, even though I’m feeling pretty good these days.
Just a reminder, here is my June 30th test, pretty much a standard looking SIBO test for a methane producer like me:
Now, here is my July 30th test after 10 more days on the Berberine/AlilMed protocol and 20 days on the AlliMed/Neem protocol:
New treatment plan
I had a meeting with Dr. Melanie Keller at the SIBO Center yesterday and then met with my doctor here today to go over a new treatment plan that I’m hoping will get those numbers back down. I evidently made the right move in changing over my herbal treatment a few days ago but Dr. Keller told me to double down on it so my new dosage is:
- 2 caps/3x day AlliMed
- 2 caps/3x day Neem Plus
SIBO: The Methane Strikes Back
I’ve about had it with this SIBO stuff. After my initial testing in January showed that I had SIBO my test in March showed that maybe I didn’t have it any longer but the jury was out in my mind. As of June 30th the SIBO is back and at about the same level as in January, this is not the summer sequel I was wishing for. I had been feeling quite a bit better so expected the numbers to be down instead of back up. I’m not symptom free and still unable to gain weight even with eating massive amount of fat so I expected to still have SIBO but at much lower levels than this test showed and figured I would need one more month of herbals to knock it down, now it is looking like multiple months still to come of treatment.
A different kind of cocktail hour
A few months ago my SIBO induced malabsorption issues were starting to cause vitamin deficiencies that were severe enough that I was getting symptoms. I did some B12 injections but that wasn’t making a difference so my ND suggested I go in for a Meyer’s Cocktail. I’d never heard of this before so did some searching on the internet. Definitely not a mix of vodka and Meyer’s lemons, instead it is an IV injection of a mixture of vitamins and minerals, in my case heavy on the Bs, C, Magnesium and some other good stuff.
Fat tea is so freaking good
Matcha/Ginger Butter Tea
In an attempt to stop the SIBO caused weight loss I’ve been experiencing I had to add more fat to my diet since I can’t really add in carbs that give me extra calories and one can only eat so much protein per day. I was adding ghee to all the vegetables I was eating plus cooking with it and coconut oil but it still wasn’t doing the trick. Enter my new secret weapon that I hope is going to work – the centuries old butter tea.
This is not quite the traditional Tibetan Yak Butter tea but is kind of close. The recipe started out as Bulletproof Coffee and I was introduced to it by a friend last week. I’ve been off coffee now for 5 months (I know it is a crime) and wasn’t ready to go back so I decided to just try it with the ginger tea I’ve been doing lately. A few days ago I added some green tea to the mix and this morning made it with matcha, pretty amazing. I now don’t think I’ll ever be able to drink plain old tea again, it will just taste like flavored water. Plus, I get about 165-200 calories of good quality fat per cup of tea. I drink about 3 of these a day (minus the actual tea later in the day) which gives me an extra 500-600 calories per day without having to try and eat any more food in. So far I’ve only had one weigh in but got back above 150 so I’m hoping it is doing the trick for me.
Here’s the recipe:
1/4-1/3 c. ginger concentrate, made by blending ginger & some bit of water into juice 1-1.5 t. matcha tea powder 1 T. coconut oil 1-2 t. ghee or butter (I use Ancient Organics grass fed ghee) Boiling water
Put the ginger in a measuring cup, add in matcha, coconut oil and ghee. Pour boiling water over top. Mix in a blender or with an immersion blender which is what I use. Strain into a mug to get rid of the ginger fiber and enjoy.