SIBO happens when colon bacteria migrate into the small intestine, where they ferment food too early and produce excess gas. This causes bloating, acid reflux, and nutrient deficiencies in B12, vitamin D, and iron. The bacteria also trigger anxiety, brain fog, and joint pain.
What is SIBO? Small intestine bacterial overgrowth. So SIBO is basically when bacteria back up. So now they're in the wrong place. So normally our small intestine does not have much bacteria. The job of the small intestine is to absorb nutrients from your food. The trillions of bacteria, they're located in the colon. That's where your primary microbiome is. But if something causes those bacteria to back up into your small intestine where they're not supposed to be, They start fermenting your food too early. So every time you eat, you get this miserable gas and bloating, and it can alter your bowel habits. Hence, now it resembles IBS, and maybe you've been labeled with IBS. It can also cause acid reflux and nausea. It gives you that feeling of what we call early satiety, where you can't really eat that much 'cause you've got all this pressure in your abdomen.
Yeah.
And it can even interfere with your nutrient absorption. So then you get deficiencies in B12 and vitamin D and iron. And SIBO can even have effects outside the GI tract. So people with SIBO get really anxious, they get brain fog, fatigue, joint pain, and so much more.
So what's happening? For someone who has SIBO.
In this human model, these little stickers are the bacteria in your colon. Imagine what would happen if we take these bacteria and we move them to your small intestine where they're not supposed to be. Oh my goodness, this is going to cause so much havoc to your digestion.
It looks like she's putting little, uh, like explosions all over your small intestines.
Those bacteria, they start fermenting your food in the wrong place. And they interfere with your digestion of food.
And there's no— there's not supposed to be bacteria in the small intestine because while the food is traveling through the small intestine, the intestines are trying to suck nutrients out? Exactly. And how does the bacteria block the ability of the small intestine to do that? Because being a non-medical person, And not having studied this, I think in my brain, well, wouldn't the bacteria help in some way? Like, we're eating— we're supposed to eat probiotics, prebiotics, all this stuff, like enzymes.
Like, why wouldn't it help? Why is it creating gas? Okay, so I love that question. These bacteria— and this is the part I think a lot of people don't understand— what they do is they start eating up some critical enzymes. of being broken down and properly absorbed into your body. Yep. Now it's just sitting there in your small intestine, and the bacteria ferment it into gas.
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