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Dear Listmates:
I have received a flood of e-mail in response to my recent post about small
intestine bacterial overgrowth, especially symptoms of abdominal bloating and
burping. So many of you sent incredibly detailed recommendations about what has
worked for you, ranging from medications to supplements to diets. I greatly
appreciate your time, generosity and heartfelt concern. About half of the
e-mails were from people suffering from bacterial overgrowth and had been diagnosed
based on symptoms - not the long, expensive tests I go through. About half of
the responses were from people who were intrigued that they might be
suffering from the disorder and wanted me to summarize the responses. I've tried to
recap the most frequent responses in various categories to give some semblance
of order, so here goes.
1) Relationship to other disorders: everyone agreed that bacterial overgrowth
is common in people with celiac, candida, food allergies and/or leaky gut
(intestinal permeability). I have all of them so I was probably a prime candidate.
2) Probiotics: Most everyone recommended that I take probiotics in supplement
form as well as eat yogurt and kefir. This helps keep the balance between the
good bacteria and bad bacteria, and helps prevents intestinal dysbiosis. Some
people diagnosed with bacterial overgrowth had excellent results using
probiotics only, not antibiotics. Brands of probiotics most recommended were
Culturelle, Natren's Healthy Trinity, and DDS. What I had not mentioned in my
original posting is that I've taken probiotics religiously for over 30 years, so my
holistic MD and I were surprised I would have a bacterial imbalance. My
holistic MD had a stool test run on me, using Great Smokies Labs, that showed that
my bifidus levels were fine but there were no traces of lactobacillus. His
theory is that the huge amount of bad bacteria are feeding on the probiotics, so
I''m just feeding the bad bacteria at this point. He thinks I need to
temporarly lay off the probiotics, eradicate the bad bacteria , then repopulate my
intestines with probiotics. However, since I'm on antibiotic therapy for this, I
take probiotics to recover from the antibiotics. He said another option is for
me to get the probiotics into my intestines via rectal suppository, but to
avoid oral probiotics until the bad bacteria are dead. I still think there must
be a better way to overwhelm the bad bacteria with good ones. I recently
started trying the probiotic pearls by Enzymatic Therapy that are enteric-coated to
survive the stomach's acidity.
3) Antibiotics: For the respondents who are being treated for bacterial
overgrowth, almost all have used Cipro. One has used Neomycin. So far I've been on
Neomycin and Doxycyline, and Cipro is the next one prescribed by my mainstream
GI. My holistic did a Great Smokies Lab test showing one pathogen in me which
is specifically sensitive to Cipro, so I'm hoping Cipro will be the right
choice for me. There was consensus that bacterial overgrowth is very hard to
eradicate and does return. Most people had been on and off antibiotics for years,
although some people said that antibiotics helped them greatly.
4) Diet: Here's why I got the greatest number of responses. The consensus was
that I must adhere to either a zero-carb or low-carb diet and starve the bad
bacteria. Especially vital to stay away from processed sugar. People
recommended the following diets in addition to staying gluten-free: Atkins, Warrior
Diet, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet at www.scdiet.org, or just going on a
healthy whole foods, non-starch diet. Several people recommended the book, Breaking
the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall (related to the specific carbohydrate
diet).
5) Fermented foods: In addition to yogurt and kefir, many people recommended
fermented foods such as raw sauerkraut and kimchi. I had recently added
organic sauerkraut into my diet that I buy at the health food store because several
alternative medicine doctors recommend it for ulcers and other intestinal
woes. For those of you who subscribe to the Dr. David Williams newsletter as I do,
he's a big proponent of home-cooked fermented foods. One person recommended a
cookbook with good recipes for fermented foods entitled Nourishing Traditions
by Sally Fallon.
6) Low hydochloric acid (HCL): several people told me that bacterial
overgrowth and candida can occur when there is not enough hydrochloric acid in the
stomach. I have also read this in many alternative medicine books and newsletters
and had been drinking natural apple cider vinegar in water with meals from
time to time, to see if that helped. If that worked, I was planning to step up
to HCL supplements.HCL supplements recommended included brands of Bio-Gest by
Thorne, KAL, Highline. Several people recommended the book "Why Stomach Acid is
Good for You" by Jonathon Wright, MD. His website is www.tahoma-clinic.com.
I subscribe to his newsletter so I know he's a big proponent of the idea that
even people with reflux may have low HCL. But, obviously, talk to your doctors
before adding HCL supplements especially if you have GERD!
7) Oils: One person uses only natural non-hydrogenated palm oil, coconute oil
and olive oil in cooking. The two tropical oils are supposed to supress the
growth of candida and bad bacteria.
8) Laboratories: For those of us who have holistic health practitioners, the
two labs used for digestive, leaky gut, candida, parasite and other tests are
Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratories at www.gsdl.com and Great Plains
Laboratory at www.greatplainslaboratory.com. By the way, I noticed Great Smokies now
offers an at-home test for bacterial overgrowth. You can read about it by
going to the website and looking under tests. I have no idea how much it costs but
it intrigues me to be tested this way rather than sit at a medical center for
nearly 4 hours each time.
9) Other natural food/supplement approaches: One person uses enteric-coated
peppermint oil capsules, which I've been using for about two months. I had been
reading that it helped many people with irritable bowel symptoms and even my
holistic MD said it couldn't hurt although it wasn't specifically tested for
celiac or bacterial overgrowth. You must use the enteric-coated oil capsules,
not just peppermint tea. One person recommended putting the herbs oregano,
thyme and rosemary on food to control bacteria per the Blood Type books.
10) Other approaches: A few people recommended colon hydrotherapy as part of
an overall program. One person also recommended colon hydrotherapy, liver
detoxification and rectal implants of acidophilus as part of an overall program,
but only under the supervision of a knowledgeable health practitioner. I agree
- I became far sicker from liver detoxification, even under the supervision of
a holistic MD and other practitioners, because the process totally
overwhelmed my body's ability to detoxify. One person also addressed my symptom of
burping. He said when the urge to burp comes along, try not to burp. That way, I
will not swallow excess air which only increases the burping urge.
11) Bacterial overgrowth vs. lactose intolerance test: several people asked
what the difference is between the bacterial overgrowth test and a lactose
intolerance test. I've never been tested for lactose intolerance, but I know that
both tests measure hydrogen and methane. I assume the difference is the liquid
that you drink before the test. For bacterial overgrowth, it is lactulose - a
sugar alcohol. For lactose intolerance, I assume you drink lactose.
Thank you for allowing me to take up so much room with this posting. Some
respondents and I got into other discussions about our regimens for candida and
leaky gut. But since this is already so long, I am not posting those. If anyone
has questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me or begin a posting about
those topics.
Blessings and good health to all of you for your great responses!
Jill Easton
San Diego, CA
*Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the CELIAC List*
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