Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth Syndrome and IBS with Constipation

From what I have read, it's very hard to get rid of bacterial overgrowth and you do need to take antiobitics for a while. No, it's not a lifetime thing, but I have seen, for certain types of bad bacteria, recommendations of up to 6 months (that's pretty extreme, if you think about it!). But that's for like antibiotic-resistant c. difficile, so you shouldn't need anything that extreme.

Are you also taking probiotics? By taking them during and after the antibiotic treatment, you can help get your gut repopulated with good bacteria. Your colon is a lot like a street with houses on it: bacteria live in the houses. Now, like any neighborhood, there are only some many lots where you can build houses. Once the neighboorhood is full up, bacteria have to pass on down the road (and out of your system). Antibiotics evicts everybody from their houses en mass. If you can introduce probiotics to your system while you have a lot of houses sitting vacant, you can rebuild your intestinal neighbohood with mostly good neighbors. If you don't help reintroduce them, though, any bad bacteria that survived the antibiotics can very quickly multiply and take residence back up in all of those empty houses.

A number of doctors have found that people recover better when they do a 1-2 punch with the antibiotics and then the probiotics.

If you take the probiotics while you are on the antibiotics, it tends to lessen the severity of the diarrhea that most people get while on antibiotics. That's pretty much the only reason why people take them both together. Yes, the antibiotics will kill off the newly-introduced good bacteria, but they can at least work a little and help you out for the short time they're in there. I have to take probiotics while on antibiotics to try and stem that diarrhea problem (works pretty well, too). Because probiotics give me terrible gas, I always take my dose right before bed so that I'll sleep through the worst of it.

It's a good advice about taking probiotics, as antibiotics along with pathogenic bacteria kill normal intestinal flora. Xifaxan is a very good antibiotic for SIBO, as it works only in intestinal tract, and is not absorbed into your blood stream. However, if you hardly can afford it you can talk to you doctor about other antibiotics. Antibiotics that are used for SIBO include fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin), tetracycline, amoxicillin with clavulanic acid, second generation cephalosporins.

Hi All,

Here's an interesting article I came across which relates SIBO and IBS.

http://www.medicinenet.com/small_intestinal_bacterial_overgrowth/page5.htm

Where can one take the breath test? Does one need a referral? Please advise.

forgot to mention that i was waiting for people to come up to me and ask me when i was due because i look 4 month pregnant.  Very frustrating!