Simple Lifestyle Changes That Can Help Cure SIBO

The PHD diet is more than just a diet. There are a number of recommendations in the book to improve health, nutrition status and sleep — and they will also help eradicate SIBO:

Circadian Rhythm Entrainment

Curing sleep problems is key to curing SIBO. The migrating motor complex (MMC) that cleans our gut while we sleep tends to be disrupted in those with interrupted sleep. It can actually be THE cause of SIBO-C in some, because when the small intestine is not getting cleaned out at night, it creates a perfect environment for bacterial overgrowth.

To get myself back on the path to good sleep, I walk outside every morning to get early sun, I exercise daily, wear blue-light blocking glasses after 8pm while reading on my ipad, watching TV or using the computer, and take 5 mg of melatonin 20 minutes before bedtime.

Daily Exercise
Daily exercise not only helps with circadian rhythm entrainment, it helps with motility. So I'm walking for one hour every day, followed by 30 minutes of stretching and muscle work.

Intermittent fasting

Most people stop eating around 8pm and don't eat again until breakfast. That is, they "break the fast" around 7am the next day. That's an overnight fast of about 10 hours. Intermittent fasting expands the fast to 16 hours by delaying the first meal until around noon.

By having the first meal at noon and last meal at 8pm, you create an eight-hour feeding window. Why is this important? Jaminet goes into this at length in his book The Perfect Health Diet.

Prolonging the overnight fast improves gut motility. The migrating motor complex (MMC) that cleans our gut while we sleep is disrupted in people like me who wake periodically through the night. Interrupted sleep and MMC dysfunction can actually be a cause of SIBO. When the small intestine is not getting cleaned out at night and constipation is keeping toxins from being eliminated, it creates a perfect environment for bacterial overgrowth.

By waiting until noon to have my first meal, I'm allowing additional opportunity for the MMC to kick in and do it's thing. And I don't find it difficult. After a few months following the PHP diet, I no longer experience food cravings. And like many SIBO-C sufferers, I actually feel best (less fatigue, brain fog and bloating) when I'm not eating.

I generally have two meals a day — the first at noon and the last before 8pm. As an added bonus, 8/16 fasting, as it's called, boosts the immune system by encouraging autophagy — a body cleansing mechanism that cleans out toxins and recycles damaged cell components. This is important when your small intestine is teeming with bacteria that are eating all your nutrients before you can get to them and spewing methane gas and other detritus that erode the gut barrier and lead to leaky gut that in turn causes autoimmune flares.

Eating only twice a day also simplifies the challenge many of us face of when to take various supplements, as some require meals and others require an empty stomach, per instructions on the label.

Even more importantly, it helps with circadian rhythm entrainment.

Alcohol

Though the PHD diet allows moderate alcohol intake, I'm limiting it for now, while my liver is being taxed with cleaning up endotoxins that the SIBO is spewing into my body. Once I've healed the leaky gut and stopped the joint flares and neuropathy, I do look forward to having a glass of wine again. 

Other Lifestyle Changes

I was skeptical about Squatty Potty, which you may have seen on Shark Tank, but it's so inexpensive that gave it a try and I'm glad I did. All the promo info about the right position to encourage bowel movements and letting gravity take it's course must be true because it works. In fact, it may be the most effective $20 I've spent since being diagnosed with SIBO. 

In addition to all of this, I'm taking actions to stimulate the vagus nerve — but that's a pretty complex topic that deserves it's own post so stay tuned.

References:

The Perfect Health Diet: Circadian Rhythm
The Perfect Health Diet: Intermittent Fasting
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