Heal your Digestion Without a Restrictive Diet
Years ago, I was given a diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). It turned out to be untreatable with conventional medicine. I was later told after a special test that the root cause of my IBS was Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), and that my IBS symptoms would resolve if we treated the SIBO by killing the overgrown bacteria in my gut. I was given antibiotics which didn’t help at all. Then, I was given herbs used like antibiotics to kill the bacteria. These helped a little bit, but didn’t do enough. The next thing we tried was a liquid diet of “medical food” consisting of a predigested food powder that was intended to starve the bacteria. For two weeks, all I could have to eat was this drink. It wasn’t just the bacteria that was starving - I felt like I was too. After it was over, my digestion felt a lot better, but it didn’t end there. I was placed on a very restrictive diet for a number of months in order to prevent the bacteria from growing back in my gut. During this time period, I had to make all of my own food from scratch. I couldn’t eat out at restaurants with friends or order take-out. Dating became embarrassing. The diet seriously impacted my social life and stressed me out. I felt like my daily life had been stolen away from me. Then, to make matters worse, my IBS symptoms relapsed months later while I was still on the diet. I was so frustrated that I had sacrificed all of that time and effort only to have it amount to nothing.
Diet should be the last place to turn when treating functional digestive problems
One of the many benefits of using traditional natural medicine is that is is typically less invasive than conventional medicine. While diets aren’t physically invasive in the way that surgical procedures are, they can sometimes be one of the most psychologically invasive tools in the world of natural medicine, however. Now, I fully support eating copious fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and using high-quality fat and protein sources in order to support overall wellness. Where I draw the line is when long-term therapeutic diets become so restrictive that they take over an individual’s life. There are some therapeutic diets, such as the low FODMAPS diet, that can be very powerful when used in cases of Inflammatory Bowel Disease flares, but this only needs to be a short-term diet to be helpful. The same diet, among others, is also sometimes used in the treatment of SIBO over a long period of time. These diets are so restrictive that individuals must bring lists to the grocery store to make sure they are only eating a very limited selection of certain fruits, vegetables, protein sources, and spices. But, IBS and SIBO aren’t caused by eating garlic, apples, asparagus, and yogurt, so why should the treatment be to restrict you from eating these foundational, healthy foods? Eating should be a celebration of what it means to be alive and a way to spend time with loved ones. When eating becomes a source of anxiety, it’s time to reevaluate why we are eating this way.
The Diet-Free Approach
While I was in medical school, I learned there was a professor who disagreed with the above approach to SIBO and IBS. He used to often repeat the following analogy: if you had a kitchen with leftover food just sitting about and flies everywhere, there are two options—1) You could spray the flies with bug spray and call it a day. The flies would die, but with the food still sitting out they will just come back again. 2) You could throw the food away and clean the kitchen. The flies will leave. I realized that all this time I had just been going after the flies, and that there was more to the whole picture. In my case, the leftover food attracting the flies wasn’t what I was eating—it was the internal terrain of my body. The SIBO that I had been treating wasn’t the cause of my IBS - it was just another symptom of what was really going on. I mentored with this professor and studied Neuroendocrine Immunology. This is a field that seeks to understand how the nervous and endocrine systems interact with the immune system. I started working with herbal formulas that were geared more toward things like relaxing my nervous system and calming my anxiety, improving my response to stress, and turning my fatigue around. I was amazed to see how much of a change I was able to feel without having to ingest anything that was intended to kill bacteria. Even though I had a lab test that showed me there were overgrown bacteria in my gut, I was able to turn my health around without focusing on that.
Now, I practice medicine from this perspective. Traditional herbal medicine has been treating digestive problems for at least thousands of years, if not more. The idea that overgrown bacteria is the cause of them is a recent idea that has become a trend. In due time, it is likely this idea will eventually fall out of fashion.
If you, or someone you know, have been having a hard time treating your digestive issues or struggling with eating limited foods, reach out and let’s talk about other options.
