How Myra got rid of bloating with SIBO

I’ve had client success stories that were pretty straight forward. But Myra’s story is more unusual. Myra got rid of her SIBO symptoms without getting rid of SIBO.

That’s because the symptoms she assumed were due to SIBO were caused by a gut infection that went under the radar for the 15 years she suffered with symptoms.

The problem

Myra suffered from horrible bloating and IBS symptoms with alternating diarrhea and constipation. And many food intolerances.

“I looked like I was pregnant. I needed to stay near a bathroom after eating. I did not want to live the rest of my life like this” recalls Myra.

She tried all kinds of diets with no success. Gluten-free, dairy-free and even the low FODMAP diet did not help 100 percent. The only thing that helped in the short term was fasting, but the symptoms returned when she started eating again.

After a while, all foods seem to bother her. As a retired nurse, she saw multiple doctors until she finally got the diagnosed of hydrogen and methane SIBO.

After 5 rounds of antibiotics there was no change to her symptoms or SIBO levels. After being offered her 6th round of antibiotics, she found me. 

The solution

Myra’s GI Map revealed an h. pylori overgrowth and a minor parasite. Her previous h. Pylori tests at her doctor’s office were negative, but she trusted me and did the protocol anyway. 

H. pylori is a common bacterial overgrowth in the stomach that can lower stomach acid. The low stomach acid lowers the body’s protection and encourages pathogenic overgrowth. False negatives on h. pylori tests are not unusual. I see it all the time.

Three quarters of the way into her h. pylori protocol Myra realized her symptoms were gone. And she could tolerated many more foods without reaction. 

It is not commonly known that h. pylori can also cause bloating. And it can make SIBO worse.

“After my first protocol for h. pylori I was 90 percent better. It changed my life. Finally, I could go out to lunch with friends. I was no longer afraid to eat.” said Myra.

The protocol Myra did with me was natural, with little detrimental effect on her biome. Her GI Map showed that she desperately needed biome support after 5 rounds of antibiotics. Luckily she was able to eat beans again, which helped with repopulating her beneficial bacteria. I also gave her a SIBO-safe prebiotic fiber.

Constipation gone

After supplementing with the SIBO-safe prebiotic fiber her constipation vanished. That fiber can also lower methane overgrowth.

Myra also noticed also that she could have small portions of high FODMAP foods without setting off symptom, but if she overdid it the bloat came back.

This made sense since we had not even addressed her SIBO yet.

After addressing h. pylori, we turned to the parasite and did a short protocol.

After that we retested for SIBO.

She was still positive for methane but it was much lower and her hydrogen was gone. This was before even addressing the SIBO. The parasite protocol did contain neem which may have lowered her hydrogen-producing bacteria.  

A hard pill to swallow

It was a hard pill for a nurse to swallow that getting rid of h. pylori was more effective at stopping her symptoms than antibiotics.

But she is thrilled that her suffering was over.

What we learned

I often talk about the downstream effects of h. Pylori and this is a great example of how it can effect the small or large intestine. For Myra it caused SIBO, a parasite and light bacterial overgrowth in the large intestine.

While trained in Western medicine, Myra decided to go with her gut feeling and seek alternative solutions.

“Not only did they offer me a 6th round of antibiotics, but they wanted me to take antibiotics for the first week of each month for maintenance. I realized, they did not have any other solutions. The Neomycin antibiotic was very harsh and always hurt my stomach. I knew I had to find another way.” said Myra

I am very glad Myra took a leap of faith with functional medicine.

If you want more details about Myra’s h. Pylori protocol, I share how I approach h. pylori naturally with clients in this guide. It includes foods to include, avoid and two protocol options. Myra did this one.

Myra never had reflux or other common signs of h. Pylori, her symptom were other gut infections.

We are now starting to work on lowering Myra’s methane with herbs. Afterwards we will put her on a prokinetic to keep her motility moving.

We can’t all be Myra but her story is encouraging

Myra is not my typical client. She’s not naturally anxious or perfectionistic. This may be why the protocol was so effective on the first try.

Some people need several rounds to feel a difference along with working on stress, trauma and nervous system regulation. Stress and anxiety always slows progress in my experience.

I hope you got some hope or inspiration from Myra’s story. The moral of this story is that sometimes you need to find the root cause of the root cause. And even after 15 years of suffering and trying multiple diet and medications, there is still a way.

If you want to be my success story I’m currently taking new clients.