Diarrhea… abdominal pain… gas… bloating…
If these symptoms have been dogging you for far too long, and won’t go away no matter what you try, it’s possible you may have the wrong diagnosis.
Two of the most commonly misdiagnosed conditions – celiac disease and SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) – can both cause these persistent, troublesome symptoms. Because their effects can be so similar, SIBO and celiac can be mistaken for each other.
To make matters worse/more confusing, you could be dealing with both. That’s especially likely if dietary changes – like getting rid of gluten – didn’t make your symptoms go away.
When you finally have the right diagnosis, you’ll be able to treat your symptoms more effectively. And luckily, there’s a natural way to relieve at least some of those symptoms no matter which condition you have…
What Is SIBO?
Your digestive system contains trillions of bacteria, and most of them live in your large intestine. The small intestine also contains bacteria, but around 10,000 times less than the large intestines.
Sometimes, bacteria from the large intestines make their way into the small intestines. They settle there, and start to multiply. That causes SIBO – small intestinal bacterial overgrowth – more bacteria than your small intestine can handle.
SIBO can cause very uncomfortable digestive symptoms… and it doesn’t stop there. Over time, the harmful bacteria in your small intestine can start to attack it, causing damage to its inner lining.
SIBO can also affect the way your small intestine processes food, leading to severe nutrient deficiencies. That’s one way SIBO can start to negatively impact your entire body.
What Is Celiac Disease?
Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition, meaning your immune system attacks your own body by mistake. In the case of celiac disease, gluten – the primary protein in wheat and some other grains – is the trigger that causes the autoimmune response.
Every time your body senses gluten, even just a crumb, your immune system attacks and damages the villi in your small intestine. Villi are tiny finger-like bumps that line your small intestine. You need them to help your body absorb more nutrients from food and deliver them into your bloodstream.
Over time, this damage can make it harder for your body to pull nutrients out of food. So you could be eating a super healthy diet and still have nutrient deficiencies. In fact, at least 87% of celiac patients suffer from malnourishment because of those deficiencies.
Celiac disease affects your digestive system first, causing symptoms any time gluten sneaks into your food. People with celiac disease often experience constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, and abdominal pain. But they can also suffer from a wide-range of whole body health problems, from osteoporosis to brain fog to joint pain.
Two Conditions With Very Similar Symptoms
Both celiac disease and SIBO bring on severe gastrointestinal discomfort. Both can cause symptoms throughout your whole body. And both can cause damage to the villi lining the small intestine. That makes it very difficult for most doctors to diagnose either of these conditions properly.
To add insult to injury, the symptoms of both celiac disease and SIBO have much common with a number of other diseases. That’s why it can take such a long time to get the right diagnosis… and start the right treatment
Diagnosing Celiac disease usually starts with blood tests, then moves on to endoscopy – a medical procedure that lets the doctor look at the lining of your small intestine.
SIBO is typically diagnosed through a breath test, sometimes followed up with endoscopy.
But diagnosis gets extra complicated when you have both SIBO and celiac disease. And that’s especially likely if your celiac attacks won’t calm down even after you’ve gone gluten-free.
The SIBO-Celiac Connection
You can have SIBO and celiac disease at the same time, which makes getting a proper diagnosis and treatment even trickier. Research shows that people with celiac face a higher risk of SIBO.
And people with nonresponsive celiac disease – meaning it doesn’t get better when you stop eating gluten – are up to 30% more likely to also have SIBO.
Scientists don’t know for sure why people with celiac disease often get SIBO, too. But there’s a strong possibility that it has to do with intestinal motility.
“Motility” refers to the way food moves through your digestive system – especially when it comes to speed. Here’s how motility impacts celiac and SIBO:
- People who have celiac disease often have slow motility in their small intestines.
- Slow motility keeps food in the small intestine for longer periods of time.
- Extra time gives the bacteria in the small intestine more access to food than they’d normally have.
- Extra food gives bacteria the power to grow and multiply much more quickly… and that can lead to overgrowth… to SIBO.
Not surprisingly, people with SIBO are nearly six times more likely to have slow motility in their small intestines.
On top of that, celiac disease can cause severe intestinal inflammation. Gluten triggers the autoimmune response, which sets off a cascade of hard-to-control inflammation.
Intestinal inflammation interferes with your healthy bacterial balance in the gut microbiome. It harms probiotic bacteria while allowing pathogenic bacteria to run rampant. Those pathogens attack the gut lining, doing everything they can to escape into the bloodstream. Once there, they can make their way into the small intestine… setting the stage for SIBO.
Addressing the Challenges of Celiac and SIBO
Whether you have celiac disease, SIBO, or both, one thing is certain:
Your digestive tract has taken some damage. That means it’s in desperate need of repair.
On top of that, you need help dealing with bacterial imbalances.
Celiac disease can cause dysbiosis in the gut, a condition where harmful bacteria outnumber beneficial bacteria. And if you have SIBO, by definition you’re dealing with a bacterial imbalance in your small intestine.
Restoring proper balance to both the small and large intestines calls for probiotics. But you have to be very careful when choosing probiotics.
When you’re dealing with SIBO, you already have bacterial overgrowth. So you don’t want to add to the problem by adding more bacteria into the mix – and that includes probiotic bacteria. That’s why a lot of doctors will tell you to avoid probiotics when you have SIBO.
But avoiding probiotics altogether won’t fix the problem. In order to address the challenges of celiac disease and SIBO, you need more beneficial bacteria (probiotics) in your gut.
Soothe Celiac Disease without Aggravating SIBO
A probiotic that can help with celiac disease and SIBO needs to be very special.
- It has to bypass the small intestine
- It must survive digestion and get to the large intestines alive
- It has to outcompete and eliminate pathogens in the large intestine
- It must allow a wide variety of beneficial bacteria to flourish
Only one family of probiotics can achieve all of those goals: spore probiotics.
Spore probiotics have protective shells that allow them to overcome even the harshest environments. They can withstand stomach acid, digestive enzymes, and extreme temperatures. That’s how they easily survive digestion and travel all the way to your gut alive and ready to work.
Once spore probiotics get to the large intestine, they come out of their shells. They quickly set up camp, and begin to wipe out bad bacteria. They encourage other probiotic bacteria to grow and multiply, restoring healthy balance in your gut microbiome.
A healthy gut microbiome makes it much easier for your body to deal with both celiac disease and SIBO.
Keep Your Gut Microbiome Healthy with Just Thrive
Just Thrive spore probiotics help maintain healthy bacterial balance in your gut microbiome.
Just Thrive Probiotic contains four extensively studied spore strains that support healthy immune system function and a healthy inflammatory response.
The four clinically proven, spore-based probiotics in Just Thrive Probiotic include:
- Bacillus subtilis HU58 produces natural compounds that help eliminate pathogenic bacteria
- Bacillus indicus HU36 produces highly bioavailable antioxidants (including beta-carotene, lycopene, and CoQ10) that help control free radicals
- Bacillus coagulans drives the growth beneficial bacteria in the gut and helps them thrive
- Bacillus clausii can resist damage from common antibiotics, keeping a presence of beneficial bacteria in the gut even during antibiotic treatment
