Finding SIBO
What is SIBO you ask? Well, it took me a long time to find out. But now I know why my digestive system has been out of whack since I had my cancerous appendix removed in February 2017 and a subsequent right hemicolectomy 16 days later. (A right hemicolectomy is the term for an operation that removes the beginning of the large intestine: which consists of the cecum and the appendix, the small finger-like projection on the bottom of the cecum). A general picture of the digestive system shows the appendix hanging down from the cecum:
Not long after I recovered from my surgery, I began getting mild acid indigestion. I kept a food diary and discovered soy products were part of the problem. So I stopped drinking soy milk, and eating tofu and protein bars made with soy. That worked for a while; then the acid indigestion came back. So I stopped taking fish oil pills, which can--surprisingly--cause acid indigestion in some people. That didn't help much, so I decided to start taking my vitamins after eating breakfast, instead of at night. No change. Then I gave up coffee. I gave up wine and beer. I gave up chocolate. I put myself on a high alkaline/low acid diet. Nothing helped.
I got to the point where I was taking Tums before going to bed every night, waking up multiple times with acid indigestion, taking more Tums, and paying the price of all this indigestion and lack of sleep the next day. I turned to the internet and found a help group consisting of people like me who had digestion problems after having a intestinal surgery, especially a right hemicolectomy. Bingo. All these people had tried a lot of different diets that were not
always successful and most were still searching for a cure. I further discovered that when my surgeon removed my cecum and appendix, he also removed a one-way valve that separates the large and small intestines. It's called the ileocecal valve.
In a complete digestive system, food travels one way: from mouth to stomach to small intestine to large intestine and then out of the body. The direction of this process is controlled by peristalsis (the muscular
contraction of the esophageal and intestinal walls), sphincters and
valves. Basically, digestion consists of mechanical breakdown (chewing), and chemical and enzymatic breakdown (acids in the stomach; bile and enzymes in the small intestine). Most of the nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestine and only a small number of specific bacteria inhabit it. The digested food then travels through the one-way ileocecal valve to the cecum, which absorbs water, vitamins and electrolytes, then into the colon where a large number of bacteria break down waste products and produce vitamin K.
From studying the digestive process, I learned that missing an ileocecal valve is not a good thing. Without this valve, bacteria from my large intestine can back up into the small intestine, colonize there and wreak havoc. I finally found SIBO: Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.
I went to my primary doctor and he put me on antibiotics, which helped for a while. But the acid ingestion came back with a vengeance. I needed a permanent fix. So I tried different diets until I finally happened upon a miracle: a diet that switched me from absolute misery to symptom-free. It's called the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) and is outlined in the book "Breaking the Vicious Cycle. Here is a link: http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/home/
This book was written for people with large intestine problems, but it works for me. On this diet, I'm starving the bacteria that traveled up from my large intestine by cutting out foods that contain easy-to-digest carbohydrates. For example, flours, sugars and refined grains. I also gave up bread and gluten. The very day I started this diet, my symptoms disappeared. Not only did I find SIBO, I discovered how to lose it!
