Must read for anyone with IBS
I've had IBS for something like 23 years. I assumed it's something I'll just have to live with the rest of my life, until recently I came across the work of Dr. Mark Pimental. Dr. Pimentel has devoted his life's work to attempt to defeat IBS, and he has come up with some interesting discoveries.
I would strongly urge you to read this article here:
https://chriskresser.com/a-new-understanding-of-sibo-and-ibs-with-mark-pimentel/
Basically he says that IBS is caused by SIBO. SIBO is caused by a case of food poisoning.
There is a blood test that can determine whether you actually have IBS with 98% certainty. It's a blood test for the biomarkers anti-cdtB and anti-vinculun. Your gastroenterologist likely has never heard of these markers, but if you push hard enough you should be able to get them to run this test for you. In addition, you need to take a SIBO breath test. The blood and the breath test complement one another and are how you determine your treatment plan. The information dictating the treatment plan can be found in the link above. You should strongly urge your doctor to read that article as well.
Search Youtube, there are quite a few videos of Dr. Pimentel discussing different aspects of IBS. I recently learned that I was triggering IBS events every day because I was using artificial sweeteners like stevia. There is tons of good information in these videos...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrJbsfAe0xI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p315cSqTfEM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ean8Rc0AKTM
There are plenty more.
Hope this gives you a good start in the right direction. Good luck.
Thanks for sharing this information,
! We have several articles on the topic of SIBO, and one of our writers actually talks about how she's no longer experience symptoms after being treated for SIBO. Here's the article: https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/living/symptoms-gone/. While each person's IBS experience is different and not all people respond the same way to various treatments, I'm really glad to hear you're experiencing symptom relief! Thanks again for sharing. - Chris, IrritableBowelSyndrome.net Team I think you didn't look into any of the resources I mentioned there because they explicitly say that there are a few different types and that each type has it's own dedicated treatment plan.
Of course if you don't do the tests you won't know which type you have and treating randomly will produce random results.
IBS-D and IBS-mixed are treated with rifaxamin.
IBS-C is treated with lovastatin. Some cases on IBS-C may not be triggered by SIBO and instead are due to SIFO (small intestine fungal overgrowth). These people may actually get worse if they were to take rifaxamin.
Rifaxamin isn't a cure because the bacteria continue to come back at some point. A small % need rifaxamin one time and don't need re-treatment. Most cases require re-treatment as well as a follow up with a drug like Zelnorm to promote increase of gut motility.
It's all in there, you can find answers to just about any question.
hello I took rifaxamin 6 days, I felt much better, but after 1 month I come back with diarrhea,
do i always have to take rifaxamin?
Dr. Pimental's notion that SIBO occurs in the majority of IBS patients has been laid to rest. Why?
The lactulose and glucose hydrogen/methane breath tests have been shown to be unreliable. They don't measure SIBO as Dr. Pimental claimed a few years ago - they measure things like carbohydrate malabsorption which is common in individuals with IBS
This recent 2020 publication which is but one of many puts yet another nail in the coffin of the SIBO<->IBS relationship
Evidence of altered mucoa-associated and fecal microbiota composition in patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome
"The prevalence of SIBO was similar between IBS patients and HS [Healthy Subjects]. This study demonstrates that alterations in the bacterial composition of the sigmoid colon of IBS patients were linked to symptoms and immune activation. While breath tests refected the mucosa-associated bacterial composition, there was no evidence for high prevalence of SIBO or small intestinal bacterial alterations in IBS."
