SIBO: The Great Masquerader

If you have been following my discussions in this Defiant Health podcast or in my blog, DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com, or my Super Gut book, you know that I have been arguing that there is an epidemic of SIBO going on in the U.S., an epidemic involving every 1 in 2 people. It is an epidemic responsible for an astounding amount of health struggles. 

The more we all come to understand small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO, the more you have to appreciate all the varied ways this situation can show itself. First of all, for those of you unfamiliar, what is SIBO? SIBO refers to the situation in which modern people, due to exposure to multiple courses of antibiotics and other disruptive factors, have lost hundreds of beneficial bacterial species in our colons. These beneficial species were responsible for suppressing the proliferation of unhealthy microbial species, mostly fecal microbial species such as E. coli, Salmonella, and Citrobacter. The loss of beneficial microbes allows unhealthy fecal species to proliferate, then ascend up from the colon where they originated and into the 24-feet of small intestine. The small intestine is poorly-equipped to deal with this invasion of fecal microbes. The small intestine is, by design, permeable, since that is where the bulk of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are absorbed. But trillions of fecal microbes in the small intestine, microbes that live for only a few hours, live and die and release their toxic components that can gain access to the bloodstream. One of the primary toxic components is called endotoxin. When endotoxin enters the bloodstream, that’s called “endotoxemia” and endotoxemia is now recognized to be the primary way in which gastrointestinal microbes are able to exert effects tin every organ of the body. It means that SIBO and thereby endotoxemia can be experienced as a wide variety of health problems and diseases. 

So, in this episode of Defiant Health, let’s discuss whether this is a situation that applies to you or to someone close to you and what steps you can take to undo these harmful effects.

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Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed