Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth

So here's the question.

46% of Parkinson's patients have SIBO.

49% of them have Alzheimer's.

We know that a critical element to these neurodegenerative diseases is dysautonomia.

That said, is it a conceivable linkage from Lyme through the vagus nerve into neurodegenerative disease?

So yes, 100%, I believe.

And I would say if we take the example of SIBO, you know, so most people think that it is just because of an overgrowth of the bacteria, right? So like there's bacteria where it doesn't belong in the small intestine, right? When I started to notice that so many of my patients that had chronic vector-borne disease also had SIBO, I, for a very long time, actually thought it was because of the immune dysfunction and the immune system not being able to control the overgrowth of that bacteria.

And I do still believe that that plays a role.

Vitamin A one of the more common ones are going to be vision changes any sort of vision changes but especially if you're driving at night and everything starts looking like this that's called night blindness and it could be that you're not absorbing vitamin A you're deficient because you just don't have enough bile.

Another common problem that's becoming more and more prevalent is called SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

And here's the problem.

We're supposed to have a lot of bacteria in our digestive tract but not equally distributed throughout.

It wasn't a food.

It was the leaky gut, the H. pylori and the imbalance gut bacteria that was creating those issues for me, like SIBO essentially.

So then it goes into commensal keystone bacteria.

And a lot of mine were out of normal range, like on the high and low end and just all over the place.

But in addition, there are some lifestyle changes that I would probably really recommend, and this includes, I think we talked about this on another episode, and this is exercise.

People don't believe this, but actually [laughs] there's a number of studies that show how exercise and physical activity Really alters your gut microbiome, and it decreases some of the more unhealthy bacteria, things like Clostridium, um, is one of them, and some of the other enterobacteriaceae that tend to be, that tend to cause more dysbiosis and even, you know, SIBO.

And it increases the bacteria that we really want, like lactobacillus, bifidobacteria, something called faecalibacterium, ac- um, akkermansia, which there's a lot of data on akkermansia, but you really want to produce your own, uh, akkermansia, not necessarily take it in, and exercise will do that.

But with all this said, I think the most important thing that you can do is avoid disrupting your microbiome.

All right, and welcome back.

If you have methane SIBO or more accurately called intestinal methanogen overgrowth or emo, you've probably spent a lot of time trying to figure out what you're supposed to eat.

And unfortunately, the more you research it, the more confusing it can get because we have FODMAPs and we know that FODMAPs ferment.

Fiber, though, can also increase fermentation in bulk.

You might need to modify your diet quite a bit for a period of time, especially if you're dealing with significant constipation and bloating and distention and sensitivity to fermentable foods.

But needing more dietary restriction while you're highly symptomatic is very different from needing to stay on an extremely restricted diet indefinitely.

And we have some really interesting new research from 2025 and 2026 that helps us understand this a little better, including newer research on diet and methane production and the relationship between methane and slow intestinal transit, and even new research on the elemental diet, specifically in people with SIBO and EMO.

So today, I want to help you understand what we actually know about the methane SIBO diet, what we don't know, and how I think about eating with emo in practice.

not looking at the person as a human and looking at almost the data and the test results and treating the person like they're a textbook page.

So what I mean by that is like, we have a lot of complex people with chronic methane SIBO.

They might have mold toxicity.

They might be showing signs of low stomach acid.

Like there's just lots to the puzzle pieces, including like significant nutrient gaps, even low minerals.

I like to think about, again, how available is this body to receive? How slow do I need to go in introducing new inputs? Because a body that's been living in a state where maybe it hasn't felt safe for a long time and has had chronic symptoms, especially people in that camp of, I don't know if you deal with clients with like histamine and MCAS, but especially those in that camp, I would say any new input can sometimes be recognized as dangerous or unsafe and the body will be in that like highly reactive to anything state so I think functional medicine goes wrong by just like shoveling a bunch of new supplements or like a handful of herbals to go on a SIBO protocol because we're like there's SIBO present here we have to clear it without thinking how do I build resiliency first how do I resource this person whether it's resourcing with certain nutrients but also resourcing with eating enough resourcing with tools that help them calm, say, states of anxiety or work with nonjudgmental awareness if that's something that can apply to, you know, someone who's in more of a hypervigilant state who feels panicky about a lot of their symptoms and what they're experiencing in their body.

Yeah.

Yeah, true.

It's very rare for a dermatologist, I don't know any dermatologists who are ordering those tests, but what I like to share with people is that A lot of these tests can be gotten on your own.

You know, if you have, say, rosacea, you can order your own small intestinal bowel overgrowth SIBO test.

There are various companies.

There's one down the street here in South Florida called Life Extension Foundation that makes a lot of supplements, but they also have lab services, and you can just order your own kit.

So acne, you know, we sort of poo-poo it as sort of a teenage disease and, you know, but it often runs with these sort of gut and metabolic issues that often go hand in hand.

And, you know, it's good to be aware of these things.

And as I mentioned with the SIBO test, you can get a fasting insulin on your own as well.

It's often a big step for people to walk into a lab and to order their own blood test, especially when sometimes your doctor doesn't cooperate necessarily, but everyone listening is capable of understanding a few of these numbers and how they interact with your diet and Just as an example, a fasting insulin probably is, you know, $15 to $25.

It used to be a more positive relationship, but since modern practices have really started depleting stomach acid, now that's an environment ripe for some sort of opportunistic pathogen to take root and control your body.

Like candida, you mentioned C. diff, SIBO, like all of these things that everybody's talking about as being the cause of all these diseases, like it starts with stomach acid.

Yeah, I think, you know, it's really and ironically, when you go back and I don't know if you want to hit this now or you want to keep talking about the alkaline water.

But interestingly enough, the medication that we're going to talk about that every doctor puts on, puts their patient on in the hospital, that very drug.