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I am IBS -C mostly, sometimes D. Last summer I unfortunately was subjected to THREE rounds of antibiotics for a resistant sinus infection. During the last course, which lasted two weeks, I experienced near total relief from all my symptoms. But as soon as I was done with the drugs the IBS came back the same as before. I thought it was interesting anyway. Made me think perhaps there is something to the bacterial theory.

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However, even when the subjects studied did not have bacterial overgrowth, a randomized control trial of neomycin given for just 10 days showed a transient improvement 1 week after treatment ceased, an effect which was greatest for those whose breath hydrogen fell the most. Others have also reported transient symptomatic benefit with antibiotics such as metronidazole. The mechanism of benefit is unclear, but may be similar to that seen in diets that exclude sources of poorly absorbed carbohydrate, which have been shown to lead to a reduction in 24-h hydrogen and methane gas excretion. However, antibiotic treatments seem unlikely to be useful, as symptoms promptly return on stopping antibiotics and chronic antibiotic therapy is invariably associated with the development of bacterial resistance. Furthermore, other authors have suggested that the consumption of antibiotics actually increases the risk of subsequently developing IBS symptoms.

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Over the years it has been observed many times that antibiotics can bring temporary relief of IBS symptoms. Here is an interesting quote from a recent review of the role of antibiotics in IBS

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However, even when the subjects studied did not have bacterial overgrowth, a randomized control trial of neomycin given for just 10 days showed a transient improvement 1 week after treatment ceased, an effect which was greatest for those whose breath hydrogen fell the most.

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Hmm, that's oddly interesting. Given that the hydrogen breath test is so highly unreliable (often return a false negative result), could it be that the antibiotics are temporary relieving symptoms of SIBO that was thought to be IBS because of a false negative test result? Heather has stated numerous times that IBS is not bacterial related so I would have to believe that these people studied did in fact have SIBO or some sort of bacterial infection, the tests just didn't show it. Who knows it could even be cell wall bacteria (there is no test to determine if you have this other than an autopsy).

Also note that they even state that the improvement was greatest for those whose breath hydrogen fell the most (this indicates to me that they had a bacterial overgrowth to begin with). It sounds to me like they're contradicting themselves - what do you think?

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Jeanette IBS-D, then switched to IBS-A, now stable with Udo's Choice Super Bifido Plus Probiotic

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