Why does small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) keep coming back?

SIBO comes back because you need to fix the underlying imbalance that caused it in the first place.

There are so many people out there who struggle with ongoing SIBO, because their primary approach is to eradicate the bacterial overgrowth, and not deal with the thing that caused it in the first place.

Dr. Jacobi does a great job of breaking the causes of SIBO into four categories:
  1. Digestive deficits can happen when you don’t produce enough digestive enzymes or bile, which have antibacterial properties. When we have appropriate amounts of them, it's what we call an endogenous defence mechanism against SIBO.
  2. Medications can cause SIBO. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) suppress stomach acidity and have been shown to increase the risk of SIBO.
  3. Motility issues caused by bouts of food poisoning, underactive thyroids or chronic stress.
  4. Adhesions and scar tissue that has developed after abdominal surgery can lead to impaired flow

What you should do to keep SIBO away long term depends on what the cause of the SIBO is. We believe in the innate ability of the human body to heal.

We underestimate the role of stress in disease. Unless we're dealing with the stress in our lives, whether it's psychological, physical, physiological, emotional or spiritual, then often SIBO will come back.