Have you ever had a fecal fat test? If not, you definitely should! While doing some research on probiotics for you, I ran into some very helpful information for myself... I had the 24 hour fecal fat test done several months ago. The level of fat in my stool was double that of a normal person - this finding was an indicator of the following: 1. Celiac - both the blood test and endoscopy ruled this out. 2. pancreas insufficiency - CAT scan ruled this out. 3. Chron's - colonoscopy ruled out the possibility of this in my large bowel, but the camera pill will rule out the possibility in my small bowel (which I'm scheduled for next month) 4. Infection, Giardia, small bowel overgrowth (SIBO) - I was tested for giardia but not SIBO. I didn't even ask my doc about SIBO because the way he wrote it down, I thought these 3 were all one in the same - It wasn't until researching for you tonight that I ran across info on this. So, I'm now very angry with my doc (but that's ok b/c I had already planned on firing him).
Anyway, typical symptoms of SIBO are: excess gas, bloating, diarrhea and abdominal pain. But, they do say that a small number of people have chronic constipation.
Also, very interesting note (here's a quote from the link below): "There is a striking similarity between the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and SIBO. It has been theorized that SIBO may be responsible for the symptoms of at least some patients with irritable bowel syndrome. The estimates run as high as 50% of patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Support for the SIBO theory of IBS comes from the observation that many patients with irritable bowel syndrome are found to have an abnormal hydrogen breath test, and some patients with irritable bowel syndrome have improvement of their symptoms after treatment with antibiotics". And another quote: "The most popular theory is that patients with irritable bowel syndrome have a subtle abnormality in the function of their intestinal muscles that allows SIBO to occur."
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Re: IBS-C Gas Bloating Probiotics Success Story
