I Had A Bacterial Overgrowth Test Today
#272752 - 07/06/06 07:58 AM
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The results were positive. I wanted to know what you feel this indicates or means so far as my IBS goes and ways of treating it.
How common is this for IBS and what is your knowledge of it?
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IBS-C and Bloating
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How does your doctor think it should be treated?
I've only read something about this in passing. I think the doc needs to give you antibiotics. Afterwards, I think you're supposed to take probiotics? Can someone correct me if I'm wrong about this?
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I have to meet the doctor and discuss, my reason for asking the board is because I wanted to know if you have this or how consistent this is with IBS and your thoughts.
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IBS-C and Bloating
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I noticed you stopped taking probiotics. Is this something your doctor told you to do? Both probiotics and antibiotics are used to treat bacterial overgrowth. You may want to talk to your doctor about whether or not you should continue taking the probiotics.
As for if it is related to IBS, it could be causing some of the symptoms you're having.
Hope you get better soon,
Kat
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Kat
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Supposedly this is very common in IBS patients. I suggest the book, "A New IBS Solution" by Mark Pimentel. It talks only about bacteria overgrowth in IBS patients and how to deal with it.
According to the book you're suppose to take Xiafaxan(antibiotic) for 10 - 20 days. I'd ask your doctor if he's heard of this book as well since he's the doctor that came up with this discovery. Good luck.
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Jon - (IBS C)
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Here is the situation, and thanks for the response.
I had to stop taking the probiotic because of the test.
In order to prepare for the test you must be off the probiotic, after the test yesterday I went back on it, so that issue is resolved.
The next thing, I had the test done in order to be able to receive a prescription for Rifaximin.
The generic brand I think is Xifaxan, the doctor had told me this was approved in Europe and the U.S. but for travelrs d, he actually wanted me to do a trial of Rifaxmin to help it be approved for IBS treatment, but once I found out my insurance compnay would pay for it then I wanted to skip the trail and get a prescription.
I have to ask, if Xifaxan is so useful howcome not only did Heather not speak of it in her book, howcome she pretty much feels medications are not the correct approach?
It seems should Xifaxan be so regarded this contradicts Heather's premise.
What do you or anybody know of Xifaxan by chance?
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IBS-C and Bloating
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I can't answer for Heather, but I don't believe the majority of people with classic IBS have this bacteria overgrowth. In that situation, diet is key in helping to stablize IBS, but in some cases a combination of diet and medication is needed.
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So does this mean I likely have SIBO and not IBS, that SIBO mimicks IBS, and if diet it the key, I have been on Heather's diet for over a year.
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IBS-C and Bloating
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I don't think that Heather is against medication. It seems to me that medications don't work for everyone and that a lot of people find that a combination of things (diet, medication, exercise, etc.) work best. If you have a bacterial overgrowth, that seems like something that may not be managed with diet alone.
Did you notice any improvement being on the diet? I wonder if the medication and the diet in combination might not do the trick.
Hope you're finding more answers....it's so awful to be feeling bad and not know how to fix it!
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IBS-D and STABLE!!!!
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Oh the diet has helped to a certain extent.
I notice when I have felt worse, it almost is always from eating dark meat, insolubale fiber, essentially all the food Heather makes as ones to avoid I have, and when they aren't, believe me I feel it.
That said, diet alone has not done it, there has been improvement, but only to a certain extent, it seems as my doctor said diet will exasberate symptoms, but it does not cause anything to happen.
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IBS-C and Bloating
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SIBO is actually the main cause in IBS according to Dr. Pimentel for the vast majority of IBS sufferers. I recently tested negative for this but it was sent through the mail which I learned can skew the results so I may take it again with another doctor.
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Jon - (IBS C)
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How possible is it then for SIBO to be treated, and if SIBO is treated, does this mean the IBS is too, and that you can live and eat as you would normally do before?
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IBS-C and Bloating
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Hello, I am new to the boards. My daughter has had colitis for 4 years. I can't figure out how to post a message, only reply to a posted message. Help!
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For IBS to be cured if you have SIBO, you're suppose to starve the bad bacteria in your gut with the antibiotics. If you successfully kill off all of the bad bacteria it's possible that you'll be free of IBS but I think you're more prone to get it again than someone who has never had it before.
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Jon - (IBS C)
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Here's an article I found about SIBO. Do a search in the IBS Library and you'll find more.
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As far as I know, at this point SIBO and IBS are two different things. If you've been diagnosed with IBS you may in fact have SIBO instead, which means you've been misdiagnosed. I do not believe that everyone who has been diagnosed with IBS actually really has SIBO.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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SIBO is a possible "CAUSE" of IBS in many patients. The theory goes that if you cure the SIBO you cure IBS.
You're correct, not everyone who has been diagnosed with IBS has SIBO.
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Jon - (IBS C)
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I'm still going to disagree with this. SIBO may cause IBS-like symptoms, but it does not cause IBS. It is simply another condition - like endometriosis, ovarian cancer, thyroid problems, celiac disease - that needs to be ruled out before an IBS diagnosis is made.
web page
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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what is the name of this test? can a regular doctor perform it? how much does it cost? I do not have health insurance but want to get the essential tests done...
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Here are a few quotes from the book. Make of it what you will.
In Dr. Pimentel's back cover of his book. It reads, "Dr. Pimentel believes that the "missing link" or root cause of most IBS symptoms can be attributed to an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine."
"The final, most recent theory defines IBS as a bacterial disease."
"Admidst all this confusion about defining IBS, and now with the association with bacterial overgrowth, I have had numerous patients ask me, "What should I call my condition? Do I have IBS or am I just suffering from bacterial overgrowth? I explain that it doesn't really matter what the label is. What matters is that identification of a treatable condition associtated with IBS provides a way to treat their condition and give them the lasting relief they desire."
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Jon - (IBS C)
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Healing,
You posted saying you couldn't figure out how to POST a NEW message, right? All you could do was reply?
If you go to the opening page of the appropriate Board ("IBS Diet", "IBS Recipes", etc.), there is a LIGHT BLUE bar beneath a green bar, that has a bunch of functions listed. "Post" is one of them.
Once you click that, you can post a completely new message. Make sure you do a clear Subject heading.
Once you are done writing, you click the "Continue" button at the bottom and that posts your message.
When you come back to check on responses, you might have to go through a few pages of newer posts in order to find it...just be forewarned. 
Hope that helps!
~ E.
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East Palo Alto, CA (San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley)
IBS-C, pain, nausea
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The key word there is theory.
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I agree with you Sand.
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I've read a few things, and continue to be confused on a few areas.
Are SIBO and IBS two distinct things?
Since I tested positive in the breathe test, does this mean I have SIBO, IBS, only SIBO, or the two?
If I take Xifaxan is it alleged this will cure the SIBO, IBS, or what my ailments are, if so, will I feel as I did before and be able to eat anything?
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IBS-C and Bloating
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I went to a nutritionist who tried to feed me the same theory. It is absolute bunk! What Sand said is correct according to every GI doctor I have talked to. These are two mutually exclusive ailments.
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So, if somebody has SIBO, they have SIBO alone not IBS as their ailment?
Is this generally accepted?
As far I am concerned, I was positive for the breathe test, does this mean I have SIBO and not IBS, and that if given Xifaxan I should be good and can go back to eating as I used to eat before?
I find this hard to imagine that SIBO and IBS have the exact same symptoms but are mutually exclusive.
From essentially all I have read from Heather, I have the same major symptomes, bloating being the biggest, c, trapped gas, and the trigger foods HEather lists, even so much as eating insoluable fiber on a low stomach, all make me ill.
So how can it be they can be identical yet not mutually exclusive?
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IBS-C and Bloating
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I'm not a doctor so I can't tell you that. All I know is when I asked my doctor about what the nutritionist told me, my doctor told me that bacterial overgrowth is something totally different from IBS and the theory that IBS is caused by bacteria is not true.
My two cents: If your doctor diagnosed you with SIBO then focus on treating that first with his/her guidance. If it doesn't go away then look at it from an IBS standpoint. I really don't know what else to tell you. I'd talk to your doctor about this instead of all of us here.
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which means if you slice up an IBS patient's insides, you would find NOTHING out of the ordinary. No celiac disease, no blockages, no ulcers, and no bacterial overgrowth. IBS is a rule-out diagnosis, meaning it's the conclusion doctors give when there is no physical problem. IBS is diagnosed when everything looks like it should work right, but for some reason, the muscles and fluids can't coordinate themselves properly (maybe because of bad signals from the brain). Bacterial overgrowth is a physical situation that can be the culprit for the digestive problems you are experiencing. If you eliminate that physical problem and you are still not functioning properly, then an IBS dianosis may be in order. But it is illogical to say that a phsysical problem (SIBO) and a functional problem (IBS) are the same thing.
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Amanda
I live in the Big Apple, but I don't eat the skin
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...and so perfectly stated that I can't add anything, only reiterate:
IBS is "diagnosed" by default when everything else has been ruled out. If you've been diagnosed with something other than IBS, then THAT's what you have, not IBS.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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IBS can coincide with just about every other digestive (or non-digestive) disorder out there. Find out if you have SIBO, and if you do get treated for it. Hopefully, that will be all she wrote, and you will be cured.
If, however, you also have IBS, you can get rid of the SIBO but you'll be left with IBS because it's functional, not bacterial. A lot of people with one digestive problem end up developing IBS as a result, because IBS can start after any kind of insult to the gut. (Just about everyone with inflammatory bowel disease, for example, tends to develop IBS as a direct result.) So, you can cure the original problem, but be left with the IBS.
Hopefully that is NOT the case with you, and once you get rid of the SIBO you won't have any symptoms or other problems left.
Best,
Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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More and more doctors seem to be coming around that SIBO plays a bigger role in IBS than most believed. Hopefully this isn't "bunk" but something that can definitely help IBS patients. There is a lot of evidence that says that this is helping quite a few IBS patients. Stay tuned.
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Jon - (IBS C)
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but they really have SIBO. But I don't think that they'll find that SIBO is the same thing as IBS, or that everyone who has IBS really has SIBO and will be cured with a run of antibiotics. There's too much research supporting IBS as a distinct brain-gut dysfunction at this point, and also too many people with an IBS diagnosis who do not fit the bill for SIBO (and who do not get better with antibiotics).
- H
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Thanks all of your for the detailed information, I really do want to thank you for sharing all of this with me.
I still am unclear however that because the breathe test was positive, does this mean I do have SIBO from it?
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IBS-C and Bloating
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You need to discuss this with your doctor in detail.
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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