Today, I'm going to talk about the best strategies that you need to start fixing your IBS or SIBO
symptoms. So stay tuned. If you're a returning viewer, welcome back. I'm super glad to see
you. And if you're new here, welcome for the first time. My name's Amanda Malachesky. I'm a certified
functional nutrition health coach and a digestive and allergy detective. For weekly videos on how
to find your personalized action plan for IBS and SIBO symptoms, please consider subscribing.
Be sure to hit that bell to be notified when I post a new video every single week. If you've just
learned that you have IBS or SIBO, or you suspect that you have IBS or SIBO, this video is for you.
As we all know, IBS is an umbrella term for GI symptoms that we don't know what the underlying
cause is. Dealing with it and treating it can be a process of trial and error, which can be
super frustrating and time consuming. Every single day, I'm supporting clients with IBS symptoms like
bloating and constipation and diarrhea inside my online program, which is called The Calm Digestion
Method. I help them find their personalized plan for calm digestion. I've noticed that a lot of
people with gut symptoms can get really lost down the internet rabbit hole trying to find
the right solutions for them, but often they hit on things that aren't actually right for them.
Today, I want to hook you up with the key strategies that will help you get started in the
right direction and make the most rapid progress you can with your symptoms. Let's get started.
The number one top tip that you need to get started fixing your IBS and SIBO,
and listen up closely folks because this is going to save you a lot of time and money,
is to approach your gut healing with a comprehensive strategy rather than a random
scattershot approach. Something I've noticed a lot of people with IBS symptoms do is they get started
doing a tremendous amount of research to try and understand what's happening and what they can do
about it, which is certainly a really good thing. But then they misguidedly apply that information,
or maybe the person presenting didn't give enough context to help it be really truly useful,
or they simply apply the list of actions that they've come up with in their research without
any kind of comprehensive strategy. My first piece of advice to you is to apply a consistent strategy
approach no matter what specific technique or intervention that you're trying. That strategy
looks like this. You want to have a clear idea of what you're applying and why. In other words,
what do you expect that change to do for you? And if you're successful, what does that mean about
your underlying causes of your symptoms or signs? I know that this sounds a little bit heady,
but I can't stress enough how important this is. For example, if you're going to try something like
probiotics, which a lot of people understandably try to use to address their gut symptoms,
you're likely hoping that they're going to help recondition your gut microbiome and this is going
to lead to a reduction in symptoms. If your symptoms improve from using the probiotics,
this tells you that your gut indeed did need some amount of beneficial bacteria, or that those
beneficial bugs are helping crowd out bad bacteria and other microorganisms
that may have been contributing to symptoms. On the other hand, if your symptoms got worse
from using probiotics, this usually suggests that maybe you have some kind of histamine intolerance
or you're intolerant to an additive that might have been added to the probiotic supplements like
prebiotic, or sometimes this can also signify that you have SIBO. The strategy here is to understand
exactly what probiotics are meant to do and also to observe and understand what your body's
response tells you. In other words, you want to plan your actions based on what you think will
address your root causes and then use your body's response to plan your next steps after that.
This is what helps you get closer and closer over time to the truth about your underlying
causes. Now, the next key piece of advice I want to give you about fixing your IBS and SIBO is that
you need to pay attention to the necessary order of operations. Your research has helped you find
this long list of possible actions that might help make your gut symptoms better, and this
includes things like supplements, like probiotics and enzymes or diet changes or behavior changes.
There are many schools that thought about this question, but I want to share my perspective
on this from the functional medicine, functional nutrition perspective, and also
from the naturopathic medicine perspective. This is also based on what I've seen actually
work for my clients. Step number one is to dig into addressing your stress first.
This can look like a lot of different ways, but the bottom line is, if your nervous system is
stressed out, this is going to have a really heavy impact on your digestive system. A stressed out
digestive system literally stops or slows down its digestive work, and this means that it can't get
to healing if it's not properly digesting. This isn't to suggest that your gut problem is all in
your head, because I do not believe that. But what I do know is that we have to have a foundation of
stress relief to support your natural digestive processes. There's not really a way around this.
Take the time to create some habits and structure in your life to foster
relaxation. This will pay dividends for your digestive health. I promise. Step number two
is to either support your basic digestive function with some behaviors and supplements or to work on
your diet and figuring out which specific foods are triggers of your symptoms.
You'll want to do both of these, but you can kind of interchange which one you do first. This might
look like choosing something like a low FODMAP Diet or a paleo diet or a low histamine diet
or whatever seems appropriate for your situation or supporting your basic digestive function with
things like betaine hydrochloric acid, digestive enzymes, probiotics, and things like this.
This can also include adjusting your habits around eating, so reducing liquids before, during, and
after meals or sitting down to eat and being calm and relaxed while you eat. In any event, you work
to find the most basic digestive supports that can help improve your symptoms so that you can support
your body's natural digestive function. Every success that you have here increases your chances
of overall success in addressing and fixing your underlying root causes of your digestive symptoms.
Now, step three is to really dive in and address the underlying causes of your digestive symptoms.
This can include things like SIBO testing, stool testing,
treatment protocols for whatever you find on that testing, and perhaps other kinds of more
conventional evaluations with your regular doctor or your gastroenterologist and whatever treatments
they may recommend. Most people want to skip right to this part because it seems like the
source of the problem. And in general, it really is. But if you haven't addressed these other
foundational pieces, it can be difficult for your body to have all of the resources
it needs to really address the root causes. For example, let's say that you have SIBO,
but you also have foods that you're eating that are increasing those gas levels regularly each
time you eat those foods. If you continue to eat those foods, you are going to have a much
more difficult time successfully treating SIBO, because every time you eat that food,
you're giving the bacteria the food that it wants and that just enables it to keep surviving.
On the other hand, if you're exactly clear which specific foods are causing the problem
for you and you avoid them, you don't keep feeding the bacteria and this makes it
easier for you to succeed in addressing those bacteria and getting rid of them.
Sticking to this basic three part order of operations will help you have a lot more success
with your IBS and SIBO treatment strategies. Number one, deal with stress. Number two,
support your basic digestive function with either supplementation or diet changes. And then three,
diving into root cause resolution by addressing specific underlying infections or other causes.
The third key strategy that I want to make sure to talk with you about is truly committing to
listening to your body above all other things. It sounds cliche, but this is super important. If you
commit to listening closely to what helps your body feel better and what makes your body feel
worse, it's very difficult for you to go wrong. I only say this because I hear from a lot of
people who end up on very restrictive and difficult to maintain diets, for example,
for a very long time, even though it's not even helping with their symptoms,
because somebody said, "Oh, to deal with candida, you have to be on the candida diet," for example,
or they might be sticking with a very expensive supplement for a super long time, even though
there's not really any clear benefit to them of sticking with that. The way to avoid this pitfall
is to approach every new thing that you're trying is a short-term experiment to initially assess,
does this thing help me feel better or not? If it doesn't, you don't need to continue.
If it does help, then you move on to trying the next thing that you think might be helpful for
you. I'm curious to know if you've approached your IBS with a random strategy. If so, type
yes in the comments or leave me a comment telling me otherwise. I hope that these tips have helped
clarify how you can get the most out of your IBS dietary and lifestyle changes and treatments
by being strategic for success. Now, I do want to take a minute to let you know that if you've been
feeling confused about how to apply the various IBS information you've been learning about online,
this is exactly what I help my clients with inside my Calm Digestion Method online program.
If this is something you've been needing some extra help and support with, I want
to invite you to download my free guide called The Roadmap To Gut Recovery. Inside this guide is the
exact strategy that I teach my clients inside my program to help them find their personalized plan
for calm digestion. If you want to grab a free copy of that guide, you can get it by going to
confluencenutrition.com/roadmap. I've got that link on the screen here,
and I will also leave a link for that below this video in the description box.
All right. Let me know if this video was helpful for you by clicking like and leaving me a comment.
You might want to check out the video, my IBS supplement advice for IBS patients,
next. I have a link for that here on the screen, and I will see you next time.