Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis
Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis
Ten Unexpected Signs of SIBO
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO, is now rampant, a virtual nationwide epidemic, a condition now carried by around 50% of the population. If you have food intolerances, fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, are overweight or obese, have irritable bowel syndrome, an autoimmune condition, atrial fibrillation or numerous other common conditions, it is highly likely that SIBO is either the original cause or at least an exacerbating factor. You can take all the antiinflammatory drugs, biologics, weight loss drugs or numerous other pharmaceutical “fixes” but, unless the SIBO is dealt with, you will lose this battle and more health problems are in your future.
In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, Let’s identify 10 unexpected ways that tell you that, yes, you’ve got this condition. Then let’s talk about what you can do about it naturally and without drugs.
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamDavisMD
Blog: WilliamDavisMD.com
Membership website for two-way Zoom: InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.co
Books:
Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO, is now rampant, a virtual nationwide epidemic, a condition now carried by about 50% of the population. If you have food intolerances, fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, are overweight or obese, have irritable bowel syndrome, sleep apnea, an autoimmune condition, atrial fibrillation or numerous other common conditions, it is highly likely that SIBO is either the original cause or at least an exacerbating factor, or at least an exacerbating factor. You can take all the anti-inflammatory drugs, biologics, weight loss drugs or numerous other pharmaceutical fixes, but unless the SIBO is dealt with, you will lose this battle and more health problems will be in your future. In this episode of the Defiant Health Podcast, let's identify 10 unexpected ways that tell you that, yes, you've got this condition. Then let's talk about what you can do about it, naturally and without drugs. Let's discuss some of the unusual and unexpected ways that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, sibo, can show itself.
William Davis, MD:You may already know that there are common symptoms that tell you you have SIBO, such as the signs or symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, bloating. Those are signs often diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome, but are also almost always due to SIBO. That's why IBS responds to antibiotics like Xifaxan, other conditions, other signs of SIBO. Common signs would be food intolerances, whether it's to nightshades, fodmaps, histamine-containing foods, fructose-containing foods and so many other forms. Those are all also signs of SIBO. The solution, of course, is not to remove the food, though you can do that in the near term to obtain relief, but the long-term solution is to address the SIBO. And then there are conditions virtually synonymous with SIBO, such as fibromyalgia and Russ's leg syndrome. Those are almost always caused by SIBO, and addressing the SIBO, of course, is the solution. Now, this applies to about half the population. How do I know that? Why do I say that? Well, it's very easy. Go through the several dozen studies that have been performed over the last decade in which this question was asked In condition blank.
William Davis, MD:What proportion of people test positive for SIBO? Usually using hydrogen breath testing, because microbes produce hydrogen gas on the breath, but you do not. So we can measure hydrogen gas on the breath and use timing to map where microbes are living in the human gastrointestinal tract. Well, that method has been used, along with some other methods In, for instance, irritable bowel syndrome, ibs. So, of the 60 to 70 million Americans with IBS, what proportion tests positive? Well, it varies from study to study, but about, on average 31%. So that's at least 18 million people right there. How about Americans with obesity? There's about 110 million people in the US with obesity. What proportion will test positive for SIBO? About 50%. We'll add another 55 million people to the list. What about type 2 diabetes? Neurodegenerative disorders, autoimmune conditions, sleep apnea, rosacea, psoriasis, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts Add up all the common conditions that afflict modern people and you can easily exceed 100 million, more likely, 150 million people, million people Now.
William Davis, MD:At first I was reluctant to believe that until we started testing for H2 on the breath, including using this device, the AIR device A-I-R-E, made by the company Food Marble, with which I have no formal relationship. I know the inventor, dr Angus Short, who's been very helpful for us, so he invented this device that detects hydrogen gas on the breath. This is the original one. A more recent version of it is different colors, black, and also measures methane for a different form of of overgrowth, but doing this on a broad scale, and numerous people showed that. Oh yeah, sibo positive H2 on the breath early upon ingestion of a fiber is is everywhere. It's rampant, it common, in fact. I find that the exceptional person is the one who tests negative.
William Davis, MD:Now there's a whole method to testing with the air device. See my SuperGut book, see my blog williamdavismdcom blog and you see the process we use to detect hydrogen gas, because there's a protocol to follow. It's very simple, but you want to get clean information. You don't have to get the air divided. It is very helpful, but you don't have to because it's so common and because the solution we now have is so benign, so accessible, so inexpensive that you don't really have to be all that confident whether or not you have SIBO. And the solution we have that we'll talk about later, what I call SIBO yogurt has so many spectacular benefits that you could just do the SIBO yogurt even if you don't have SIBO. But it is the solution we've been using with unexpected efficacy.
William Davis, MD:So what are some of those unexpected or unusual signs that you have SIBO? So, in addition to the ones I listed earlier, how about atrial fibrillation, a very common heart rhythm disorder? That's very troublesome. You have to go to the ER and the hospital numerous times. You have to go through multiple forms of medication Medication to slow the heart rate, medication to provide anticoagulation to prevent you from having blood clots in the heart and left atrial appendage that causes catastrophic strokes, medication to try to convert the rhythm back to normal cardioversion, passing a current through your chest, all kinds of procedures. It's very bothersome.
William Davis, MD:Once you have atrial fibrillation, the rule is repeated recurrences. Well, one of the effects of SIBO, via endotoxemia. Remember that phenomena when you have microbes invading the small intestine, trillions of fecal microbes. They live and die in just a space of a few hours. When they die they release their toxic components, like endotoxin, into the intestines which then gain entry into the bloodstream because the small intestine is very permeable and that's called endotoxemia. So endotoxemia is a trigger for recurrence of atrial fibrillation. We can say that endotoxemia or SIBO causes atrial fibrillation, but it's clearly responsible for the recurrences, the frequent recurrences, which are very bothersome. You end up going to the emergency room, the hospital, repeatedly. Well, this is a way to cut back on recurrences, restoring normal microbiome and gastrointestinal system by reducing fecal microbes.
William Davis, MD:Depression, low moods, suicidal thoughts these are very common signs of endotoxemia from SIBO. You can imagine prescribing these SSRI drugs is really just a band-aid for depression. They're a very deeply flawed class of drugs to begin with, right Sometimes causing suicide, particularly in teenagers, and often lack efficacy. Well, one of the drivers of depression is endotoxemia. We know this with confidence because there now have been about half a dozen studies, remarkably, in which non-depressed people were given intravenous injections of that endotoxin and they became clinically depressed within hours, with MRI brain scan evidence of all the signs of depression. So we now know with confidence Endotoxemia major driver of depression, panic attacks. Likewise people who suffer from panic who are prescribed benzodiazepines and other drugs. This is also a reflection of SIBO and endotoxemia. So you can imagine a sedative drug is not the solution. It might be a temporary band-aid, but addressing the source of the panic, that is SIBO and endotoxemia, is a more rational long-term solution.
William Davis, MD:How about endometriosis? A condition in which women have tissue, uterine tissue, enter the peritoneal cavity, that is, the abdominal cavity or the pelvic cavity, and it causes a lot of pain. These ladies go through repeated surgeries that are often unsuccessful. It's very debilitating and it's now known that a major driver is SIBO and endotoxemia. So you can still go through surgery. It wouldn't be better to address the cause or at least the trigger for recurrences SIBO and endotoxemia so you can still go through surgery. It wouldn't be better to address the cause or at least the trigger for recurrences C-bone endotoxemia? How about a disruption of your menstrual cycles, either irregularity or excessive emotionality, or excessive bleeding and cramps. These are likewise Obviously menstrual cycles are not caused by C-bone endotoxemia, but the excessive pain, bleeding etc. Can be caused by seabone endotoxemia. So we don't do away with menstrual cycles, of course, but we can at least reduce the troublesome symptoms that accompany menstrual cycles.
William Davis, MD:Prostate disease very interesting. Prostate disease is proven to be a disease of loss of beneficial microbes like lactobacillus crespatus. Probably that's preliminary the invasion of other microbes, interestingly oral microbes like porphyromonus or fusibacterium, urinary microbes, gastrointestinal microbes, skin microbes like cutobacterium. So I call the prostate the grand central station of the microbiome because it seems like all the microbiomes of other body parts seem to transact through the prostate gland. But one of the major players in prostate disease, whether it's prostatitis, benign prostatic hypertrophy, bph or even prostate cancer, a big factor is SIBO and endotoxemia. So very important. So while you can go through all the things they do procedures, drugs for prostate disease you want to make sure you also address the SIBO and endotoxemia. That is a very important driver of prostate disease.
William Davis, MD:Fatty liver you know, the venous system that drains the gastrointestinal tract is called the portal venous system. So when the veins drain the small and large intestines into the portal vein. It goes directly straight to the liver. So the liver is the recipient of a flood of endotoxin, much more so than the systemic circulation, because systemic circulation comes from after being filtered by the liver, but the portal circulation is filled with endotoxin and your poor liver takes a beating. So it's one of the major drivers.
William Davis, MD:There are other factors also diet, of course, the. It seemed like conversations about hepatic or liver de novo lipogenesis, the conversion, the liver's capacity to convert carbohydrates carbohydrates like amylopectin A of wheat and grains, as well as sugars to triglycerides. De novo lipogenesis, creation of new fats, triglycerides, some of which stay in the liver and cause fatty liver. But the process of portal venous endotoxemia amplifies the entire effect dramatically. So diet's important in reducing fatty liver See my other conversations about that whole topic but also addressing SIBO and thereby portal venous endotoxemia.
William Davis, MD:How about grand mal seizures? These are often a big problem, some children who can have intractable seizures and they can actually have brain damage from having 5, 8, 10 grand mal seizures per day. One of the treatments, of course, is a ketogenic diet. But why does that work? It's not quite clear why it works, but it's likely that one of the ways it works is by reducing bacterial diversity in the gastrointestinal tract and thereby reducing both the presence of SIBO invading fecal microbes in the small intestine as well as the colon and reducing endotoxemia.
William Davis, MD:Now, the SIBO and endotoxemia are not the cause of the seizures. They are like atrial fibrillation they're the trigger for recurrences of the seizures. So when somebody goes on, a ketogenic diet has an impact on the gastrointestinal microbiome, by the way, not all beneficial. There are some adverse effects that also develop, such as the overproliferation of acromantia, acromantia muciniphila, mucus lover. Acromantia has the peculiar capacity, when deprived of fibers, as often happens in these diets, to turn to human mucus, and that's a very destructive process. But one of the effects is a reduction in fecal microbes, a reduction in bacterial diversity, thereby a reduction in endotoxemia and thereby part of the reason why there's a reduction in recurrent grand mal seizures when you stop consuming fibers.
William Davis, MD:Another issue breast cancer and other cancers. Sibo and endotoxemia are proven to be major drivers because of several reasons. One it inflames the breast tissue, the endotoxemia does, and there's a distortion of estrogen metabolism. There's an increase in estrogen to higher levels than normal, and that is a driver of breast cancer. So while you can do all kinds of things to prevent breast cancer. One of the things you want to make sure you do is to address the SIBO and endotoxemia. This, of course, also addresses risk for other forms of cancer. Also, how about vitamin B12 deficiency? For your absorption of vitamin B12, it requires a participation of the stomach and of the ileum, the distal portion of the small intestine. Well, in SIBO, those two locations stomach and ileum are populated by invading fecal microbes and they are very good at blocking absorption of nutrients or production of factors that encourage their absorption. And so B12 deficiency tends to be a very good sign that you have SIBO and endotoxemia involving the stomach and the ilium.
William Davis, MD:Now there are many other signs and symptoms of SIBO that we could talk about Neurodegenerative conditions, autoimmune conditions, sleep apnea, numerous Virtually all the conditions you're familiar with in modern people are either caused by or worsened by this process of SIBO and endotoxin. So key, recognize this. How do you get rid of it? Well, talk to a gastroenterologist. Most will say well, I don't. Even I don't do that. I had gastroenterologists say things like well, I don't, I can't be bothered. I send them back to their primary care doctor to manage it. The primary care doctor almost never has anything, knows anything about SIBO and endotoxemia, so you're left in the dark. If the doctor, if your gastroenterologist or primary care doctor is among the rare practitioners who does know something about SIBO, they might say well, here, take this prescription for Xifaxan, an antibiotic. It's expensive, it's got side effects. It does work about 55 to 60% of the time. It's not foolproof. It can help. There's almost no mention, though, in that conversation about how you got it, how to prevent recurrences, how to begin the process of rebuilding a healthy gastrointestinal microbiome. All that's just left. You're left hanging.
William Davis, MD:What we've been doing instead is restoring microbes you've lost, but especially microbial species that colonize the small intestine that's where SIBO occurs right and have the capacity to produce what are called bacteriocins natural antibiotics effective in killing the invading fecal microbial species of SIBO. I call that. We ferment it. We use my method of prolonged fermentation 36 hours to allow at least the bacteria to double 12 times. Bacteria don't have sex right, they just double themselves. So double 12 times, and we typically get in the neighborhood of 300 billion microbes for a half cup or 120 milliliters serving, consume half cup per day. That has proven surprisingly effective, and because we're using three microbial species that most people have lost Lactobacillus rhodori, that you may be familiar with, lactobacillus gasseri those two are great producers, colonize a small intestine and great producers of bactericids, effective mostly to the classification of bacteria known as gram-negatives, which is a specific type of cell wall they have.
William Davis, MD:But also we add bacillus subtilis and that adds the capacity to kill gram-positive species, different kind of microbes like enterococcus, streptococcus and staphylococcus.
William Davis, MD:So that combination, those three lactobacillus rhodori, lactobacillus gasseri, bacillus subtilis, co-fermented or individually fermented your choice to high counts over 36 hours, that has been unexpectedly and miraculously effective in normalizing breath hydrogen gas or, if you're not measuring hydrogen gas, in normalizing many of the signs and symptoms of SIBO. For instance, if you were previously intolerant to legumes or FODMAPs or eggs or whatever, the vast majority of people, typically after four weeks of consumption of the SIBO yogurt, are now tolerant. Typically after four weeks of consumption of placebo yogurt are now tolerant. Or if you have some phenomenon like a skin rash or some kind of pain or depression, more often than not you'll feel those conditions receding when you do this.
William Davis, MD:If you don't know what I'm talking about, please see my recipe. There's a recipe in my Super Gut book. There's also a recipe in my williamdavismdcom blog and, of course, my membership website, drdavisinfinitehealthcom, where you can join conversations. We talk about these kinds of things, but the key here is to understand what we're doing is restoring beneficial keystone microbes that colonize the small intestine and produce bactericides, and you can do this from the comfort of your own kitchen.
