Even if you can accurately diagnose bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) in the small intestine, what is the point if there is no difference in symptoms between a positive test and a negative test patient?
Gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain and bloating explain the visits of millions of doctors each year. One condition that may be considered in the “non-specific presentation” of such symptoms is SIBO, the concept of “a popular online in addition to specific clinical and research circles.” SIBO is “widely defined as an excess of bacteria in the small intestine,” and is treated with antibiotics, but “dispensing antibiotics to patients with non-type common symptoms associated with SIBO is not without risk,” which can promote the development of antibiotic resistance, the emergence of invasion, and the appearance of inhalation. C. diff – for a state that may not even be real.
Even the journals of alternative medicine admit that SIBO is overdiagnosed, creating “confusion and fear.” SIBO tests are “overuse and overly dependent. Diagnosis is quickly distributed without proper demonstration. Patients are chronic conditions that Sibo cannot be cleared, and chronic conditions that require lifelong management. “The “monsters” we now recognize as Sibo as is may just be phantoms. ”
The traditional method of diagnosis is aspiration of small intestines, where a long tube snakes through the throat to take a sample, and counts the bugs there. Is the tiny intestinal bacteria overgrowth (SIBO) test effective, as you can see at 2:10 in my video?
This method has been replaced almost entirely with breath tests. Usually, a sugar called glucose is absorbed almost completely by the small intestine, so it does not reach the colon. Therefore, the presence of bacterial fermentation of its sugar suggests that there are bacteria in the small intestine. Bacteria can detect fermentation because they produce certain gases that are absorbed into the bloodstream before they are exhaled from the lungs.
Previously, sugar lactulose was used, but the researchers switched to glucose because “lacturose breath tests do not reliably detect bacterial overgrowth.” But when glucose was finally tested, it didn’t work. The small intestinal bacteria loading was not a useful test either, as it was similar in those testing positive or negative. After all, we see that glucose can reach the colon.
The researchers labeled glucose doses with tracers and found that almost half of the positive results from glucose expiratory tests were false positives. Therefore, “patients who are mislabeled on SIBO may be prescribed multiple courses of antibiotics.”
Why do experts continue to recommend breath tests? Maybe it’s because “experts” were supported by breath testing companies, because most people were personally receiving funding from SIBO tests or antibiotic companies?
Even if SIBO is properly diagnosed, is it important? For people with digestive symptoms, the SIBO positive range is around 4% to 84%. Researchers found that “we found that there was no difference in overall symptom scores between tests that are positive for those testing negative for SIBO…” If symptoms do not correlate, if some people have bacteria grown in the small intestine, who cares?
Currently, antibiotics can make people with irritable bowel-type symptoms diagnosed with SIBO feel better. Does it prove that it is caused by the grain? No, because antibiotics can make many people feel better about SIBO. The antibiotic rifaximin is currently the most commonly used in SIBO, but “its cost can be prohibitive as it is not currently approved by the FDA for use with this indication.” (The FDA is the US Food and Drug Administration.) In fact, SIBO drugs are not approved in the US or Europe, so even good insurance can cost as much as $50 a day at out-of-pocket costs, and the course is usually two weeks.
Additionally, antibiotics may be useful in the short term, but can exacerbate the problem in the long term. “People who are given courses of antibiotics are more than three times more likely to report more intestinal symptoms four months later than controls.” So, what can we do for these types of symptoms? That’s exactly what I rely on next.
