Preventing SIBO

Preventing SIBO is often the first thing people think about when they get clear SIBO test results. But there seem to be more questions around this than there are around treatment. Even after years of treating and then studying SIBO I get a little nervous to write about this topic. If we struggle so fiercely with why we get SIBO, how do we really know how to prevent SIBO?

The reality is, is that I am not an expert on preventing SIBO. But I do have 6 tricks up my sleeve that have helped keep my SIBO away, even when I felt like my SIBO was returning.

Why does SIBO return?

SIBO usually returns because we haven’t quite finished healing. Perhaps we reached 90% healing- enough to feel better and test perfectly, but we still had a 10% hiding somewhere out of sight and recognition. This 10% might not be a SIBO bacteria or colony but something that allows our bodies to fall back into a cycle of SIBO. Maybe our body decides that last 10% needs to be addressed and is finally ready to reveal itself. Or maybe we do something or experience something to call SIBO back.

Stress is recognized as one of the biggest call backs for SIBO. This means that any highly stressful period can trigger a reoccurrence of SIBO. Two times in 2017 I experienced intense stress for several days at a time that were out of my control. Both times I felt like my SIBO might return. I could feel the shift of good digestion move into stagnancy where all systems in my body seemed to move from happy go-lucky to radioactive melt down – complete with flashing lights and warning sirens inside. So, very quickly my mind raced through, “How do you actually prevent SIBO when it seems like it is right about to happen?” I thought back to all of my research, doctor’s appointments, and experience and set to work as fast as I could. And to great success I prevented the reoccurrence of my SIBO!

Now, I cannot promise that these 6 steps will work for you. The biggest trick in preventing SIBO is to know and understand how your body works and then respond accordingly.

My personal recipe for preventing the return of SIBO

1.) Reduce stress NOW.

Reduce the stress you are experiencing right now! Not as soon as possible, but right now. That might mean removing yourself from the situation and going for a walk or run or doing some meditation. It might mean practicing breathing exercises, doing yoga, listening to calming music, reading scripture or inspirational quotes, or singing or even finding a place to scream and yell until your stress level drops.

One of the wisest examples of reducing stress was told to me by a wise, old nurse:

Look at the wolves. Look how when wolves experience stress in their environment they will run until they can run no more, or the will howl and cry and scream. Or if they can’t do those then wolves will shake allowing their whole bodies to tremble out all of the energy that was caused by their stress in order to free their bodies from the negative impact and energy of the stress.

So why do we, in a modern, educated world, allow ourselves to carry around stress when nature does not allow such burdens?

Scientifically speaking, stress paralyzes the nervous system. Stress induces a fight or flight response sending all of our energy away from internal use to make it available for external use like moving out of the way of a falling rock. This shift in energy causes the nervous system to paralyze and halt the digestive system. When this happens, the vagus nerve may stop directing digestive function, acids and biles may not be released when food is consumed, and the Migrating Motor Complex might not trigger the cleaning of the small intestine after food. There are all sorts of systems that may not work when the nervous system is paralyzed due to stress.

Is going through another round or two of SIBO treatment worth the amount of stress you are experiencing?

2.) Don’t eat until your stress level is back down to a reasonable level.