Hmmmm - the links are working fine now. It might have been a hiccup on the network or something .
Oh - I understand your frustration. I have spent more then 35 years figuring out my management plan. Heather's diet gave me a valuable clue about using the ratio of IF to SF to manage some of my symptoms.
You may be right. Bacteria may play a significant role in IBS but perhaps not the bacteria associated with SIBO. SIBO is associated with bad bacteria in the small intestine. IBS may be concerned more the 300-400 species of good bacteria that live in the large bowel whose population may have been disturbed by something such as an infection.
There is lots of evidence to show that what you eat can change the bacterial flora in your colon (e.g. prebiotics and probiotics). For example, most IBS suffers report benefits from SFS but only some IBS-C suffers report benefits from IF. And some people report problems with some SFS while others report difficulties with different ones. The thing they all have in common is that SF and IF along with other carbohydrates like fructose and sugar alcohols (e.g. sorbitol) can pass mostly undigested to the colon where they act as food for colonic bacteria. These bacteria ferment the undigested food and produce by-products such as SCFA and gases that can change GI motility.
It is difficult to figure out how to modify your diet to manage your symptoms with the lack of good professional guidance. Heather's EFI guidelines are a great place to start. Hopefully, the next generation of GI docs will be better informed about the role of diet in managing IBS than the current one.
Good luck
-------------------- STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
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Re: SIBO and IBS
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