Top products from r/SIBO

disclaimer, I'm not a doctor and this isn't medical advice... just someone else who's had many months of hell before figuring out how to properly motivate his doctors and care for himself. I've managed to beat down many of my symptoms, but it's a long road... here's some of the lessons learned.

All this stuff is somewhat individual, but some things you can try now while you get the professionals in line (dealing with doctors is like herding cats).

Are you taking a PPI? I know it can aggravate SIBO, but it can also be a bridge to help get you through and prevent gastritis/esphogitis.

If you are taking a PPI, take it about 30 minutes before bed. Elevate the head of your bed.

Have you tried a low FODMAP or SCD diet? This can really help eliminate symptoms. At one point I literally stripped my diet down to:

1. Egg whites for breakfast, cooked with canola oil spray or dry. With a little salt.
   
2. Plain chicken usually breast meat for lunch and dinner. Salt only if needed.
   
3. Sometimes a plain steak or burger.
   
4. Zucchini, and strawberries (small amounts)
   
5. Almonds (plain)
   
   Then add one food item every 24 hours to see how you feel. I now have a list of "safe" foods that I can eat. Foods I was able to introduce early (phase 2):
   
   
6. White rice (minute rice)
   
7. Plain white bread. Baguettes (I'm OK w/ Gluten, many are not)
   
8. Deli Ham (uncured, natural brand)
   
   Note that on the base diet that it's really hard to maintain weight. I lost 20 lbs trying to squash the GERD and SIBO, but it worked until I got the meds and supplements adjusted and could expand the diet to the "part 2" list above.
   
   Also, you may not like this, but it's helpful... get to a psychiatrist and/or CBT... you might be developing anxiety symptoms (either about eating, SIBO, whatever) ... they are seriously common with GI issues. A good psych will run vitamin deficiency bloodwork and thyroid bloodwork to rule out physical anxiety causes. It takes a long time to get an appointment, so get in the queue early. Benzo's and/or low dose Amitriptyline can be extraordinarily helpful in mitigating some of the symptoms.
   
   Can also be helpful to find an ND who will "prescribe" digestive enzymes and natural anti-microbials.
   
   Exercise! It lifts your mood and can help with all the symptoms.
   
   GI is strongly coupled to mood via serotonin. You can read more about it. Sometimes you have to treat both the stress/anxiety and the GI issues in order to break the cycle.
   
   Read this book: "The SIBO Solution" https://www.amazon.com/SIBO-Solution-Comprehensive-Eliminating-Intestinal/dp/0986146021 ... she talks about Berberine, Neem and Allicin.
   
   Have you tried any probiotics? I live off these... I take them nightly. VSL #3 is great, expensive, but it works for me. YMMV.
   
   Things I would try immediately b/c they can't hurt:
   
   
9. Elevate bed
   
10. Probiotics
    
11. Strip down your diet and go one food per day to see if you can get some relief.

I’m so sorry. It SUCKS to live like this, especially as you know when you are not even DIAGNOSED... and with multiple concurrent illnesses. I really strongly believe in a serious connection between hormonal disorders for women and gut dysbiosis and all of my hunches keep getting confirmed with actual research. Have you had success treating your SIBO? These are the capsules I’ve been lucky to have great success with. https://www.amazon.com/Zane-Hellas-Oregano-Softgels-Concentrate/dp/B07HGFG9M3. I really hope your surgery is successful and that healing is in your future! I literally never thought I would be well. I based all my life’s decisions on being in pain all the time and I would literally just feel suicidal looking at Instagram and seeing women my age do normal stuff like exercise or travel or have kids. It felt IMPOSSIBLE to me when I could barely even leave my apartment. There is hope, even though I thought there wasn’t. It can be so hard to see which is why I came here to share my story. If I can even help just ONE person, I will be beyond thrilled. No one deserves this and living in the mental and physical prison of a sick body is truly not something normal people will ever understand... it takes a LOT of strength. Hugs.

By the way, did you ever give any thought to use whey or plant protein instead of the Jo Labs stuff? I am not a chemist / biologist but if I had to take a gander I would say there's not much of a difference between how either item would be absorbed by the body and protein powders are economically superior in terms of price (at a glance, I could be wrong).

I sort of can't help but wonder if Siebacker agreed to plug Jo Mar Lab's product, which while I am sure it is fine, is no different from an animal or plant derived product. If I end up going with anything it'll most likely be pea protein isolate unflavored (<2 carbs).

For example this has 18 amino acids, as opposed to the 21 from the Jo Mar Lab's. It's missing L-Glutamine, Taurine, and Cysteine but either way it has the 9 essential AAs.

https://www.amazon.com/Protein-Powder-North-American-Farms/dp/B00NBIUGA2/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1EFEMI0CNQM91&keywords=pea+protein+powder&qid=1567938741&s=gateway&sprefix=pea+pr%2Caps%2C168&sr=8-5

The Jo Mar Labs product page states that you don't know what you're getting from food-derived proteins, but ironically, their own product lists the ingredients as a proprietary blend, whereas the product I just linked lists out how many mg of each AA you get per serving...lol. I'm sure it doesn't matter and I am just being overly tinfoily but this is definitely a field where the average company can definitely easily take advantage of customers with exploitative pricing and scrupulous claims.

So a couple of thoughts here. My daughter actually has some major issues iwth oxalates. Does it ever feel like you are peeing razor blades? That is part of her problem (in addition to MCAS and SIBO). She inherited the mast cell stuff from me and the SIBO was courtesy some major antibiotic treatments. One thing you could try is both B-6 and a Supplement called tri-alkali (not cheap). I've included a link below to the supplement. You have to be careful to match it to only when you eat foods with oxalates in them (which of course is all plant foods :) ). But you didn't ask about that...just providing 2 cents for what my experience has told me there. Combining those two when she has oxalate foods has really helped (she is just over 2 and we couldn't figure out why peeing was so painful for her). But our amazing doc figured it out (using different testing protocols). AS I write responses to the issues you are looking into I realize how just sick my family (my wife, myself, and our little cherrub) are...

https://www.pureformulas.com/trialkali-345-gram-by-pure-encapsulations.html?CUSTOMTRACKING=CUSTOMTRACKING&CAWELAID=532165705&CAGPSPN=pla&CAAGID=61402356212&CATCI=pla-60014043246&CATARGETID=530005240008780650&cadevice=c&gclid=CjwKCAjwhbHlBRAMEiwAoDA34_Tg16xGCmeVIjsZJyxV9E6Ls_RjHHjoBGNKQ2dTTp1axS-eKDrrJxoCGDgQAvD_BwE

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Meals, I eat massive meals. Always have. I know it isn't the best, but if I am only eating one or two a day, by golly I am going to eat like a horse. If I go back to a higher fat diet I would cut that down, but right now I am relatively low fat. Like I said, I've toyed with going back to a modified GAPS which really is a high-fat, high-protein diet. But I'm still pretty vegan since going nutritarian screwed with my stomach and now I can't really tolerate meat all that well :(.

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Anecdotally I think the grounding is helping. You can get a pretty expensive rounding strap online (if you want I can ask my wife tomorrow when I get home where she bought ours). Another option would be to just walk around outside without your shoes on...for 20 minutes at a time. That is the OG way to earth :).

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Here is what we bought many years ago:

https://www.amazon.com/Earthing-EBBK-Body-Band-Kit/dp/B06X9F98BT

Those doses are right, you could even do berberine at 5000mg/day.

Berberine link (but can use others if you want)

Allicin link (really need to use this brand)

Prucalopride is the best option prokinetic for most. Erythromycin is second best, just don't take it with berberine and watch other interactions. Natural supplements often aren't strong enough, but given your slightly more mild case, you might be fine with them. Iberogast is considered very safe despite that one outlier. For it to cause liver issues, you'd supposedly have to take a lot higher dose.

Interesting. I'm about to start taking this:
https://www.amazon.com/Designs-Health-Microb-X-Botanical-Capsules/dp/B0011002BA?th=1
It was really hard to get it to France but an American GI recommended it so we'll see how this goes.

Did you find any success?

I read that the s. boulardii is fine because its a probiotic yeast and not a bacteria. I use This one because it doesn't have "MOS".

I felt pretty good immediately after completion. Did he also prescribe a prokinetic? I got erythromycin and had to take it for a month after finishing the antibiotics.

Elemental diet is something I know next to nothing about, but here is the link to Candibactin AR and BR:

https://www.amazon.com/Metagenics-Candibactin-BR-180-Count/dp/B003B6SLM4/ref=sr_1_5_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1550623103&sr=8-5&keywords=candibactin+ar

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https://www.amazon.com/Metagenics-755571013354-CandiBactin-AR-60SG/dp/B004GLCWUA/ref=sr_1_4_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1550623103&sr=8-4&keywords=candibactin+ar

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A lot of the labels on Amazon look different or outdated, but as long as you buy directly from seller Metagenics you should be good.

I just went through this! That stuff turned into SLUDGE.

I know you’re already done, but for those that run into this in the future, here’s what I did:

I went out and bought empty capsules, measured out 5 mg (my recommended daily dose), scooped them into the pills, and took them with my antibiotics dose.

Based on the size of the pills I bought, 5mg fit into 5-6 pills total (depending on how packed they were), so I could take 2 pills 3x a day with my 3x a day antibiotics.

Also, I noticed one of them came out whole in a BM, so from then on I made sure not to close the cap too tight. That seemed to do the trick.

These aren’t the exact brand I got at the store, but same size.

Okay thanks.

For Berberine, do you think this would be a better option than this? It has more mg per capsule but the ingredients look different. The other one seems to have Barbery Root Extract, Oregano Grape Root Extract and Goldenseal Root Extract which I'm not sure if I need those or not.

Thank you! I’ve been taking SIBOtic https://www.amazon.com/Priority-One-Vitamins-SIBOticTM-Caps/dp/B07C8M9NNZ, Colon RX https://catalog.designsforhealth.com/colonrx, Regen RX Bile Ducts https://www.amazon.com/Bile-Ducts-RegenRx-Apex-Energetics/dp/B00FK9V4IS, and Futureplex Antitox https://www.drcousensonlinestore.com/Apex-Energetics-Futureplex-Heavy-Antitox-1-oz-p/hevanti.htm. Before this I was and continue taking Zenwise Digestive Enzymes before every meal https://www.amazon.com/Zenwise-Health-Digestive-Prebiotics-Probiotics/dp/B00RH5K26I. The Colon RX helped a LOT and I take 2 twice a day. Let me know if you have any other questions!

I love this question! I don’t love that you have this problem obviously, but I don’t think we talk enough about how to live our lives in spite of SIBO. It’s not a frivolous question at all.

Your French tuck trick could work with fancier dress pants (I’m thinking a cigarette style pant that’s stretchy to accommodate the bloat). Pair it with a fancier blouse (silk or silk imitation; floral print if that’s your thing) and I think that’d be fine for a wedding. You could also try a formless style of dress (like a t shirt dress - https://www.amazon.com/KORSIS-Womens-Summer-Floral-Dresses/dp/B07RD5V58C/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1567916890&sr=1-1&pi=SL180_SX140_CR0%2C0%2C140%2C180_QL70&th=1&psc=1) with a boyfriend blazer to hide the SIBO baby. Heels would keep these looks from feeling too casual, I think.

This is what I’m taking and I recommend it Ancestral Supplements.

Oil with infused garlic is fine -- not sure about the cooking with water substances and then removing.

I use this for cooking:

https://smile.amazon.com/Colavita-Roasted-Garlic-Extra-Virgin/dp/B005WF768C

Zane oregano pill link

https://www.amazon.com/Zane-Hellas-Oregano-Softgels-Concentrate/dp/B07HGFG9M3

How long did it take you guys to start seeing improvements using the herbals? My main complaint is massive swelling after I eat. I am on a low fodmap diet and I am on Metagenics Candibactin-AR Soft Gels, 120 Count https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JM60O4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QfDyDbHKZMZW7 and Metagenics - CandiBactin-BR, 90 Count https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TYJ93Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_cgDyDbQQRBYPS
I have been fighting with this for a year and I have done multiple rounds of antibiotics. I have aggressive auto immune diseases that make me extremely fatigued but I can’t tell if it’s lupus or sibo making my life so miserable right now.