I stopped taking antimicrobials at the beginning of May to get ready for my last SIBO test on May 15th when I was down in Portland. That test was still positive but very low and when I met with Dr. Keller on the 18th we decided to just quit chasing after those last few points for a while. Instead I decided to work on motility, trying to heal my gut lining, trying to get my good bacteria repopulated in my colon plus give my liver some time to recover from the assault it was under with that last 6 weeks of treatment.
It has now been three months, the longest I’ve gone without actively treating SIBO in the last two years and I feel really good. Overall I have no symptoms at all most days and even on the days I have some symptoms they are very mild and late in the day. My poops are back to normal and constipation is not an issue at all these days, I go very regularly several times a day. I’m eating a pretty full AIP diet these days with some eggs thrown in there too and a few seeds and selective nuts occasionally. I can now handle lots of sweet potatoes and plantains, things that would have killed me a year ago. Better yet, I can eat chocolate and homemade Paleo ice cream!
What am I taking these days? Just digestive enzymes, motility agents and vitamins really along with probiotics and fermented foods. At each meal I do:
- 20 drops Iberogast
- 1 Digestzyme capsule
- 1 Nutrient 950 vitamin capsule
- 1 200mg Alpha Lipoic Acid capsule
Before breakfast I take 1 scoop of Custom Probiotics 11-Strain Probiotic Powder. I started out with an infant scoop and very slowly ramped up to the adult scoop I use now.
At lunch I’m add 2 Endozine capsules until my supply runs out, these are to help heal the gut lining.
At bedtime I take:
- 3 MotilPro capsules
- 4.5mg LDN
- 250mg of Triple Mag
- 20 drops of Iberogast
That is it pill wise. Still a lot of capsules daily but most of it is to try and help heal the rest of my system and keep things moving, I’m not killing anything. I will stop the Endozine when my last bottle runs out and I may try to do without the digestive enzymes for a bit to see if my system has figured that out on its own yet. I’m still not sure if the ALA is doing anything for my numb feet or not, I stopped them for a bit and my feet seemed to start to get a bit worse so I started them up again.
On top of this I eat some type of fermented food daily. I usually do a helping of homemade kraut or kimchi with lunch or dinner each day and have some kombucha every other day or so. I still need to try to add back in coconut yogurt or kefir to see what that does. I’m convinced that the probiotics and ferments combined have had a big impact in making me feel better. I’m hoping that my colon bacteria have improved and will retest them in September just to see what is going on in there with the microbiome.
Weight is still a bit on the low side but I’ve got a 20.5 BMI which is right in the hunter-gatherer range, I’m active as heck and I’m faster and have more endurance than ever before when it comes to running and hiking so I’m not concerned. Come fall I’ll start doing weight work again and trying to up my calories more to see if I can gain some muscle mass.