How To Cure SIBO Naturally – IBS Diarrhea & SIBO Connection

Want to know how to cure SIBO naturally? Or IBS diarrhea perhaps? I bet you do! I’ve been plagued with chronic diarrhea for decades, but it seems that I’m finally free of it – and curing SIBO was the key!

IBS diarrhea has been part of my life for decades, and I thought my large bowel was the problem. If you have IBS diarrhea, you probably think that too. So what I’m going to say next is possibly going to surprise you. There’s a really good chance that you’re going to have to learn about SIBO and how to cure it! Yep. SIBO is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and studies have shown that most cases of IBS diarrhea are either caused by, or have as a contributing factor, SIBO! The cause is actually your small intestine, and not your large one. Your large intestine is just where all your symptoms are being felt…

Treating SIBO to Cure IBS Diarrhea

Learning about SIBO is precisely where I’m at, and where my Carnivore diet journey has thus far, led me. Throughout the past eighteen months, I’ve been confused as to why I’m getting so many benefits from eating a carnivore diet, while at the same time, still struggling with IBS diarrhea along with the ‘very connected’ anxiety, that have plagued me for so many years.

But finally it’s starting to make sense and I feel like I’m getting somewhere (which is pretty darn exciting!). The absolute BEST resource I have found on this topic, is the SuperGut book by Dr William Davis and I’d recommend grabbing a copy and reading it if you think SIBO or dysbiosis might be an issue for you. I’d also recommend it if you have any gut problems, autoimmune disease, or problems with anxiety or depression.

I’d never really looked into SIBO until the past six months or so. I’d heard of it, and I knew basically what it was, but I honestly never considered that it might be my problem because my problem was with my LARGE intestine – not my small intestine… Doh!

It wasn’t until I began to experience some pretty full on histamine issues, that the misery of those symptoms led me to start learning about what causes histamine intolerance. In my search for answers to my histamine issues I began to understand that SIBO could be the cause of most of my problems.

So I’ve been learning so much about all this, and while learning about the causes and symptoms of SIBO, and how it relates to IBS diarrhea, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve probably had SIBO for much of the sixty years I’ve spent in this body! And that’s a long time… So my focus has now changed, and I’m learning how to cure SIBO naturally!

What IS SIBO?

SIBO stands for ‘small intestinal bacterial overgrowth’. In a nutshell, what that means is that invading bacteria have moved into your small intestine and taken over. They’re living and multiplying in there, causing havoc, and turning the food you eat into poop which should only exist in your colon!

This is obviously a pretty messy situation that can wreak havoc on your health, and over time it can seriously impact your life.

Common symptoms of SIBO include:

• IBS diarrhea (common)
• Constipation (less common)
• Indigestion, reflux or GERD
• Bloating
• Abdominal pain and discomfort
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Skin issues
• Autoimmune diseases
• Joint pain
• and more…

The most likely cause of SIBO is food poisoning according to research being done by Mark Pimental. Other common causes of SIBO are antibiotics, NSAIDs such as Ibuprofen or Voltaren, and drugs that reduce stomach acid. But also, lifestyle factors such as eating a processed food diet, overeating, eating too often and chronic stress can all play a role is these tiny microbes taking up residence where they don’t belong.

Is SIBO Curable?

SIBO is curable, but it seems that it’s tricky and often recurs. Mainstream treatments generally consist of the use of an antibiotic to reduce the numbers of bacteria, and occasionally dietary changes are recommended. These treatments commonly only result in temporary relief, with SIBO symptoms often recurring.

Natural health practitioners also use antibiotics, although sometimes herbal, but tend to also focus on nutrition, supplements and other lifestyle factors much more. But even with this more holistic approach, SIBO symptoms often still return.

My thoughts on the reasons why SIBO is seemingly so hard to ‘cure’ is that humans being fairly predictable creatures, often return to old habits once their symptoms are gone. In fact I’d not hesitate to guess that many SIBO sufferers continue to eat (or return to eating) a high carbohydrate, highly processed diet containing sugar and seed oils, while also expecting their chosen health practitioner and their antibiotics to ‘fix’ their problem.

How To Cure SIBO Naturally – What I Did

So what am I doing that’s different from these other approaches? What am I doing to cure IBS diarrhea? Well, for a start, I’m eating a very low carbohydrate, meat based diet. The same Carnivore diet that I’ve been eating for the past 18 months, but now with a few tweaks based on the protocol in the SuperGut book and other information I’ve sourced online.

This is what I’m doing (as well as my meat based diet) to heal my SIBO that so far seems to be working for me:

1. I took 1000 mg of Berberine for 4 weeks. I did start initially on a full dose, but then dropped it to one 333mg capsule a day, then gradually increased the dose until I was back on 1000mg a day. This was because it sounded like there was a war going on in my belly for a full 48 hours initially, and the grumbling continued even though it did quiet down – a bit.
2. I also took for 2 weeks twice a day while taking the berberine. I combined 2 drops of oregano oil with fractionated coconut oil in a capsule, and took it morning and night for 14 days.
3. After finishing the Berberine, I then started eating the SIBO yogurt as described in Dr Davis’ SuperGut Book. To make this yogurt you will need specific bacteria, and specific STRAINS of those bacteria. These are the probiotics that Dr Davis recommends as starters for the SIBO yogurt – L Reuteri – L Gasseri – Bacillus Coagulans
4. You will also need a yogurt maker that is flexible with temperature settings, and that will allow you to ferment the yogurt for 36 hours. !
5. Then I learned about the Migrating Motor Complex or MMC. So I started taking a motility supplement morning and night to help make sure that this was working correctly, and that my small intestine is able to move food through efficiently.
6. I also started taking a milk thistle supplement again to help my liver, as over the past 18 months on carnivore I’ve been aware that my body isn’t handling fat well. I’ve often seen the evidence of that in the toilet! Bacteria from SIBO can affect the gallbladder, so I figure the more assistance I can give my liver the better. The Globe Artichoke in the motility supplement is also beneficial for the liver.
7. I also started drinking clove and green tea as per the SuperGut book. I’m using Acacia fibre in the tea even though Dr Davis recommends FOS purely because I had Acacia fibre in the pantry and it dissolves perfectly. I’ll get some FOS later.
8. I’m now back eating home made sauerkraut and dairy kefir as fermented foods help the overall ecology of the gut. Apparently the microbes in fermented foods can be beneficial for other microbes living in your gut. As with everything in nature, there is a synergy and community between these many microbes, and some of them make byproducts that others use to thrive.
9. I’m using various prebiotic fibres to feed my microbiome and the bacteria that I’m ingesting from the SIBO yogurt and other fermented foods I’m consuming. These include Acacia fibre, Inulin, Apple Pectin, plus what is in the cabbage and garlic in the sauerkraut. I’ve also started eating some onion again as it is a good source of prebiotic fibre.
10. I have also been taking Betaine HCL with my meals in case my stomach acid is low.

So How Is My SIBO Healing Plan Working?

It’s been about ten weeks since I started all this, and although I had quite bad diarrhea initially, what I found over the past few weeks was that my bowel motions gradually became more and more solid by the day. I’ve now had three weeks of almost perfect bowel motions!

Also I’m pleased to report that my anxiety is way down (I did have some bumpy days in the beginning), and my happiness is up. My skin is good with no new pimples or red patches for about three weeks now (I was getting pimples a lot and redness off and on, which I had been putting down to oxalate dumping).

My sleep quality is getting better and better. I still have had some nights where I’ve had trouble falling asleep, but they’re becoming few and far between. This had become a regular thing due to histamine issues I eventually realised.

And the last thing is that my visceral fat is down! I have a set of scales that measure my body fat, bone weight, hydration and visceral fat. According to the instructions that come with the scales, a reading between 1-12 is healthy for visceral fat. I was at 16 when I started on the carnivore diet, then went down to 14 where I seemed to have gotten stuck.

But a few days ago, the scales read 12. Happy days! Lower is obviously better, but because visceral fat is such a big driver of inflammation and disease, I’m very pleased to be down in the healthy range – even if it is the top of that range!

So What’s The Plan Moving Forward?

It seems to me that a big part of these bacteria overgrowing in the small intestine comes down to diet. In particular processed, foods, carbohydrates, grains and sugars – AND EMULSIFIERS! All things that are removed in the Carnivore diet. So I figure my meat based, low carb diet is going to help stop any recurrence. At least, that’s what I hope!

Therefore my plan is to carry on with my current version of the carnivore diet because it seems to working! I will just carry on, at least for some time and I’ll see how it goes. I’ve experienced the benefits and the healing of a mostly meat diet, so I’m not about to stop that, but it makes sense to me that while humans have hunted and eaten a mostly meat diet for over 2 million years, they also consume a little plant material and so some of us just might need that. Especially when your microbiome isn’t good. Time will tell!