August 20, 2025 • 23 mins
You’ve done the SIBO antibiotics. Maybe even two or three times.
But you’re still bloated, still stuck on five “safe” foods, and wondering…
“Why isn’t this working?”
In the final episode of this SIBO mini-series, Dr. Heather shares 3 real client stories that show that SIBO recovery is not one-size-fits-all. Each client had the same diagnosis on paper, but needed a completely different plan to actually feel better.
If you’ve been told “you’re fine” despite ongoing symptoms, or you’re burnt out from restrictive protocols that go nowhere, this episode is your reminder: there’s a better way.
You’ll learn:
✔️ Why killing bacteria isn’t enough—and what to do instead
✔️ How mineral depletion, bile flow, and scar tissue can stall healing
✔️ What true gut repair looks like after a SIBO protocol
✔️ The difference between managing symptoms and rebuilding resilience
✔️ Why your recovery plan should start with you, not the diagnosis
If these stories resonate, you’re not alone, and there is hope for healing.
Resources & Links:
🔍 Take the Free Gut Health Quiz to start identifying your root causes
📝 Apply for 1:1 support through gutTogether®
📲 Connect with Dr. Heather on Instagram
🎁 Special Giveaway:
Leave a rating and review on Apple or Spotify, screenshot it, and email it to happygut@drheatherfinley.co with [PODCAST RATING] in the subject line.
You'll be entered to win a FREE HTMA test + consult package!
(We pick a new winner every month!)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Heather Finley (00:03):
Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Heather Finley, registereddietitian and gut health
specialist.
I understand the frustration ofdealing with GI issues because
I've been there and I spent overtwo decades searching for
answers for my own gut issues ofconstipation, bloating, and
stomach pain.
I've dedicated my life tounderstanding and solving my own
(00:24):
gut issues.
And now I'm here to guide you.
On this podcast, I'll help youidentify the true root causes of
your discomfort.
So you can finally ditch yoursymptoms for good.
My goal is to empower you withthe knowledge and tools you need
so that you can love your gutand it will love you right back.
So if you're ready to learn alot, gain a deeper understanding
(00:46):
of your gut and find lastingrelief.
You are in the right place.
Welcome to the love your gutpodcast.
Welcome back to the next episodeof the Love Your Gut podcast and
the last episode in this SIBOseries.
I hope you have loved thisseries as much as I have, and
(01:07):
I'm really excited to dive intoday with some different SIBO
cases that hopefully you willresonate with.
I hope that you listen to thesestories and are able to see why.
SIBO and getting a diagnosis ofSIBO is just scratching the
surface to actual healing.
(01:27):
I'm going to share with youthree different client stories,
and all of these clients eitherthought they had SIBO or were
actually diagnosed with sibo,and the way that we approached
it for each of these clients wasactually completely different.
If you've been following along,SIBO is a symptom, not the root
cause, and that testing andtreating sibo, whether that's
(01:51):
through antibiotics or herbalantimicrobials, without
understanding your whole gutterrain.
We'll only get you so far andthat's why so many of the SIBO
clients that we work with cometo us after having treated sibo.
Three, four, sometimes five plustimes.
So I wanna close out this seriesby just giving you a little bit
(02:14):
of hope and also a little bit ofinsight in what that could
actually look like for you ifyou were to.
Really understand all the piecesof your puzzle.
So instead of more like what todo, I want to show you just what
it looks like when this worksand how your life could be
(02:35):
different and how it doesn'tactually have to be so
complicated because I know it'ssuper frustrating.
When you've tried so many thingsand you still feel bloated, you
still feel reactive, you stillfeel constipated.
Maybe you're having diarrhea andyou're stuck on five safe foods.
So like I said, we're gonna walkthrough three real client
(02:57):
stories.
All women who had SIBO on paper.
Or thought they had SIBO andneeded a completely different
treatment plan to finally feelbetter.
And so if you hear your ownstory in one of theirs, like I
said, I hope it gives you hope.
Just quick reminder, if you areready for personalized support,
(03:18):
now is the time to.
Apply for get together.
We always get really full asback to school happens and
people are preparing for theholidays.
You might still be in summermode and I'm definitely getting
out of summer mode.
We had the first week of schoollast week and things are getting
a little bit more routined in agood way over here, but we're
(03:41):
about three months out from theholiday time.
And that is when people end uppanic, calling us wanting
support because they don't wantto spend another holiday
restricting foods or beingdoubled over in pain or bloated
or whatever it might be.
So, jump on my calendar.
Let's have a discovery call.
Let's chat through your case.
Let's make sure it's a good fitto work together, chat through
(04:03):
options, and get you feelingbetter.
So let's dive in.
I wanna share with you aboutthis client.
We'll call this client the triedEverything client.
This is probably the most commoncase that we see, the clients
that come to us with a superlong history.
This specific client had treatedSIBO four times.
(04:23):
She had worked with severalpractitioners.
Her GI doctor, as well asanother dietician, she had
worked with a naturopath kind ofmore in the functional space and
felt like she was just on thismerry-go-round that she could
not get off of.
She had taken antibiotics, shehad done low fodmap.
She had done several otherelimination diets, AIP low
(04:47):
oxalate, biphasic, you name it.
She had tried it, but she hadseveral things that would happen
to her.
First when she treated sibo.
She felt better while she was onthe antibiotics, and then the
second she got off, she feltworse.
Even worse than before shestarted, and then she took the
(05:08):
antibiotics again.
Proceeded to do that four times,and as she got close to the
fourth time that she was on theantibiotics, she didn't notice a
single thing.
She was more constipated, morebloated, and more terrified to
eat more than just a few foods.
She told me in our first.
(05:29):
Discussion that we had.
I feel like I'm never gonna getbetter because I'm actually just
getting worse.
So here's what I told her.
I'm like, we actually see this alot.
So not that this is the clubthat you wanna be a part of,
but.
Here we are.
And there is a way for you tofeel better, and I imagine that
(05:49):
part of the reason that you'refeeling worse is because your
body is really depleted.
It's a lot of work for your bodyto try to push out infections
like sibo H Pylori, whatever youhave.
It's a lot of work, andespecially if you're really
stressed about it.
You're restricting foods.
Your diet is really limited froma mineral perspective.
(06:11):
You're also gonna get reallydepleted.
And if you've been around herefor any amount of time, you know
how important minerals are.
They're the foundation for everymetabolic process in your body,
including digestion and energy.
So.
We actually started by runningan HTMA test on her and what
stood out on her testing.
(06:33):
So she did an HTMA and a GI map.
What stood out wasn't herbacteria.
Sure there were bacteria that weneeded to address, but I wasn't
that concerned about it.
It was her minerals.
Her body was completely burnedout.
When we looked at her adrenalratios, when we looked at her
sodium and potassium, she wascompletely burned out.
(06:55):
They were completely in thetank, and that is part of the
reason why she was barely havingbowel movements, maybe one every
three to four days.
We hit pause on pretty muchanything related to gut bacteria
and we took a step back andzoomed out and here's the deal.
(07:15):
If you're not pooping, youcannot clear anything.
You can't detox.
You can't get rid of sibo.
You can't, your body cannotheal.
You can't ask your body to dothe hard work of clearing
bacteria if your exit rootsaren't open.
I don't know a better way to saythat.
So instead of another round ofantimicrobials, her plan looked
(07:36):
a little bit like this.
We supported her motilitybecause we had to get her bowels
moving and contracting.
We focused on foundationallysupporting her minerals.
This for her looked like acustom mineral blend.
Sounds fancier than it is, butit's a really great way that we
can support our clients.
(07:57):
Once we have HTMA testing, wecan custom blend a mineral
powder for them.
Like I said, it sounds fancierthan it is, but it actually ends
up being way more affordablethan buying a random.
Electrolyte drink or buying thismineral drink.
And it's something that isexactly what that person needs
based on their test results.
(08:17):
So she started on that.
We also introduced a lot ofnervous system regulation
because she had this belief thatshe was never gonna get better
and that food was scary, thather symptoms were scary.
Eating out was scary, and shewas the mom with the symptoms.
So we had to do a lot ofrewiring around that, how food
(08:37):
is not scary, how eating outdoes not have to be scary, how
her body could heal, how ourbodies were designed to heal,
and that was a big part of herprocess.
Then later on we supported.
Her beneficial flora and thebacteria in her gut.
We added in spore basedprobiotics, some gentle gut
(08:59):
support.
We didn't do any major killing.
And so I, what I want you tohear from this is once we got
her testing, her testingactually didn't look at all like
sibo.
Although she had positivelytested for SIBO in the past,
that's why the antibioticsweren't working anymore.
She probably had cleared theSIBO maybe the first time, but
(09:22):
she had a lot of other stuffgoing on, and whether she still
had SIBO or not, I don't knowbecause she hadn't done another
breath test.
But from a large intestinestandpoint.
It didn't totally look likethat, and we were able to help
her get better, which is great.
Slowly, everything startedchanging.
(09:44):
She started pooping daily.
Her energy came back.
She felt safe to eat again.
Adding foods back in.
And this is 75% of what we seein practice.
It's not that the treatment thatyou're doing is failing, it's
that your body is too depletedto heal and it's that maybe it's
not the treatment that you need,which is where some additional
(10:06):
testing can be helpful.
I think SIBO testing, there canbe a time and a place for sure.
And I have other episodes onthat.
If you wanna go back to partone, two, or three of this
series, I'd chat more aboutthat.
But what we were able to do withthis other testing was look at
why her body wasn't respondingto it and create a plan there.
(10:28):
So that's.
It's case number one.
That's a really, really commonscenario that we see.
Let's contrast that with acompletely different case.
Someone whose main roadblockwasn't minerals, it wasn't
motility, but it was actuallyfat digestion and bile flow.
So this is the gallbladder case.
(10:48):
This client came to us feelinglike everything she ate made her
bloat.
Which is why she had this beliefthat she still had sibo and why
she might need to treat her SIBOagain.
But the reality was she had nogallbladder.
She had had her gallbladder out,I think like 10 years prior to
working with us, but no one hadever really helped her
(11:11):
understand what that meant orwhy that mattered.
Every time she ate fat, she feltterrible.
She felt like she was burpingconstantly.
Her stools were really sticky.
Her stools were greasy.
She couldn't tolerateprobiotics.
She could not tolerate fermentedfoods.
And when we ran some testing onher, what we found is she had
(11:33):
really high scr, which showsundigested fat in her stool, and
really low elastase, which showsreally poor pancreatic enzyme
output.
So basically she wasn'tdigesting her food well at all,
and especially fat.
And that's the problem becausebile flow is very essential for
(11:54):
more than just digestion.
I always tell the practitionersin my practitioner program that
bile is seriously the real.
MVP of digestion.
Because it's antimicrobial, itstimulates motility.
It's kind of the detergent thatyour gut needs to stay clean and
clear.
And so when you've had yourgallbladder removed, you still
(12:14):
have bile flow, but you don'tget this like surge of bile like
you would if you had agallbladder.
If you have sticky stool burpingafter high fat meals, this
really applies to you.
Whether you have a gallbladderor not, you can still have
gallbladder issues with orwithout a gallbladder.
So for this client, her planreally focused on supporting
(12:35):
bile flow.
By looking upstream and seeingwhy was her bile flow stuck?
Obviously getting hergallbladder out was a big piece
of that, but she had low stomachacid.
She also had an h pyloriinfection, which was likely
suppressing stomach acid.
So this was making the bile flowpiece worse because we need
(12:57):
stomach acid to stimulate bileflow, and h pylori suppresses
stomach acid.
So we supported her stomachacid.
We supported bile flow with.
Bitters and Toine and just somegentle digestive support.
We had to rebuild her stomachacid by getting rid of the h
pylori infection and then givingit the tools that it needed to
(13:18):
create stomach acid and thenreintroducing enzymes and and
fat in small digestible amounts.
So.
Using targeted enzymes to helpher body break food down.
Eventually getting off of thoseenzymes and focusing more on
nutrients that can stimulatethat.
But temporarily, we use someenzymes to help with symptom
(13:42):
relief, which sometimes that'swhat you have to do if you're
miserable.
Let's give your body the tool itneeds to feel better so you can
make progress, and then you canslowly.
Fill in the gaps and come off ofsome of those things.
And the main thing wasstrengthening.
Strengthening her upper GIfunction, starting with chewing
and salivation.
(14:02):
Digestion really starts in yourmouth and helping to improve
that north to south pathway sothat when she was eating, the
whole system was communicatingwith each other.
Her bile was flowing anddigesting and cleansing the
digestive tract.
If you don't have enough bile,it creates an environment for
(14:24):
bacterial overgrowth.
So when she was finally finishedup, she could finally eat fats
without pain.
Her bloating was gone.
She was able to add smallamounts of fermented food and
eventually tolerated.
Some prebiotic rich meals.
So many people with SIBO have abile flow issue, and if your
(14:45):
upper digestion isn't working,your gut becomes a perfect
environment for overgrowth.
It's very common that we seeclients who have SIBO 3, 4, 5
years after getting theirgallbladders out.
They're usually told you don'tneed to change your diet.
You don't need to take anything.
Everything will work just fine.
(15:06):
And then a couple years later,the bill comes due and so.
It's just something to be awareof.
If you have had your gallbladderout and you're having symptoms,
there are ways to address it andthere's ways to not be miserable
and not have symptoms.
So let me share one more story.
Someone whose test resultsdidn't even show sibo, but she
felt like she had it everysingle day.
(15:28):
And this is common as well.
Her doctor just treated her forit without even testing.
For it.
So if you relate to this, youmight have the story of, all my
tests are normal, but I haveconstant gas, constant bloating.
I have brain fog, I have moodswings, fatigue, I can't eat
(15:48):
without discomfort.
This client came to us reallyfrustrated and said, you know,
I've done the SIBO test, I'vedone the stool test.
Everything says I'm fine.
I do not feel fine, and as wereally dug into her history, the
missing piece became prettyclear.
Number one, she had multipleC-sections.
(16:09):
And you might be thinking, whydoes that matter?
I'll get to that in a second.
She had a history of past traumaand she had zero support for her
nervous system and her scartissue from the C-section.
So we had to work with otherproviders to help her as a
result of this.
She did have some things on.
(16:31):
Our stool testing that showed upthat we needed to address, and
we did of course, but this wasvery much a team effort.
She was working with a visceralmanipulation therapist to help
with the scar tissue.
She was doing pelvic floor PT toaddress the adhesions and get
everything working back togetheragain.
(16:52):
We really supported her nervoussystem from both a food
standpoint of my body can digestfood, my body can tolerate food.
I'm not gonna always be bloated.
Working on kind of the mindsetbeliefs there.
Vagus nerve support.
And she also was working with atherapist on her history of
trauma, which was so.
Brave of her to finally getsupport for that.
(17:16):
We needed to support her gutlining.
She was severely depleted from agut immune standpoint, which
makes sense with multipleC-sections.
History of trauma.
There's actual research thatshows that negative thought
patterns and trauma directly.
Decreases your secretary, IGA,which is your gut immune system.
(17:37):
Your gut immune system is kindof like the bouncer at the bar
in your gut and decides to keepthe riffraff out.
And so if your secretary, IGA isreally depleted.
Then it has a hard timeprotecting you.
So we really had to focus onsupporting her secretary, IGA,
supporting and rebuilding herminerals reintroducing some
(18:01):
nervous system support aroundmeals.
Her life was just reallychaotic, really stressed all the
time.
And after six months, she wasseriously a different person.
Even though her SIBO test hadbeen negative, she still had a
lot of the symptoms, the painfulbloating.
The food intolerances, theconstipation, all of that.
(18:23):
And the reason was obviously thethings that I mentioned, but as
a result of those things beingunaddressed, her gut terrain
needed a lot of repair and a lotof support.
So similar to the first casewhere we didn't really need to
do a lot of quote unquotekilling, we didn't need to.
And go on antimicrobials oranything super strong.
(18:45):
But her gut neededimmunoglobulins and it needed
minerals and it needed stomachacid support and it needed
motility support.
And that's what get mi getsmissed all the time when we
don't take a full look at thepicture.
So let's zoom.
All three of these clients cameto us with some version of, I've
done everything and I feelawful.
(19:07):
And what made the difference forall three of them was they
stopped asking, what otherprotocol can I do?
Or what antimicrobials do I needto take?
Or maybe I need to.
Switch up the antibiotics andstarted asking What's not
working in my body that allowedthis to happen in the first
place.
(19:28):
We had to zoom out and take alook at from birth till now.
What were all of the triggeringevents?
What was the domino effect thatgot us here?
What do the day-to-day patternsin our symptoms look like?
That tell us a lot about whyyou're having symptoms.
What also do the patterns inpast treatments tell us about
(19:48):
your symptoms.
So, although the recovery plansreally looked totally different,
it's because their root causeswere different.
But what they had in common waswe had to support their north to
south.
Digestive process.
We had to understand all thekinks in the plan and what
wasn't working, and not justfocus on the small intestine.
(20:10):
We supported their gut terrain.
We had to make sure that theyhad beneficial microbes, that
they were eating prebiotics tosupport their gut, that they had
the minerals they needed, theyhad the enzymes they needed,
they had.
The secretary IGA and gut immunebarrier that they needed and we
rebuilt a lot withoutrestricting further, we're not
(20:30):
weed whacking foods out of theirdiet.
We're actually adding foods backin as we're supporting their
body's ability to be able todigest food and tolerate it.
So hear me when I say this.
True gut healing really happenswhen you rebuild capacity and
you don't just focus on managingsymptoms.
(20:50):
You can do low FODMAP andprobably find some symptom
relief.
But for how long?
When is that going to go away?
You can take these bloat pillsthat some influencer tells you
to take.
You can take antibiotics forsibo, but you're never gonna
fully.
Heal if you don't understand whyand you don't truly rebuild your
(21:13):
digestive capacity from start tofinish.
So if this is you, you've doneprotocols, you've tried
supplements, and nothing'sreally changed and you've never
had somebody fully understandyour case and fully understand.
The whole process, you're notbroken, you're just missing the
right roadmap for your body.
(21:34):
So I hope that this series hasbeen informative and helpful.
I know I've chatted with severalof you already on discovery
calls and you're like, I'velearned so much about sibo.
Why is my doctor not sharingthis?
And the reason is because SIBOis.
Kind of a new-ish in in thecontext of the medical world.
(21:55):
It's a new-ish thing and there'sstill obviously stuff that we
learn all the time about sibo,but your GI doctor is trained to
diagnose.
What you have, diagnose you withsibo.
Say you have IBS, whatever, notnecessarily spend the time to
help you figure out all thepieces of the puzzle.
So that's the first step.
(22:16):
The second step is going beyondthat and understanding why,
which is exactly what we do.
So once again, jump on mycalendar if you're ready to get
one-on-one support.
If you're ready to finally feelbetter.
And then lastly, before we wrap,remember about the giveaway.
So leave a rating and review forthe podcast, screenshot it,
(22:38):
email it to Happygut@drheatherfinley.co with the
subject line podcast rating, andyou will be entered to win a
free HTMA test.
So the mineral test plus aconsult with our team totally
free.
We pick a winner every singlemonth.
So go ahead and enter if youhaven't already.
But thanks so much for listeningto this miniseries.
(22:59):
If you loved it or if you havesuggestions for another series,
maybe like a candida series orwhatever you think would be
interesting, please reach outand let me know.
Um, I would love to plan somefun series coming up.
So if it gave you a new lens,um, hopefully a lot of clarity
and.
(23:20):
The biggest thing.
Hopefully it gave you a wholelot of hope.
So thanks for joining and I'llcatch you on the next episode of
the Love Your Podcast.
Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Heather Finley, registereddietitian and gut health
specialist.
I understand the frustration ofdealing with GI issues because
I've been there and I spent overtwo decades searching for
answers for my own gut issues ofconstipation, bloating, and
stomach pain.
I've dedicated my life tounderstanding and solving my own
(00:24):
gut issues.
And now I'm here to guide you.
On this podcast, I'll help youidentify the true root causes of
your discomfort.
So you can finally ditch yoursymptoms for good.
My goal is to empower you withthe knowledge and tools you need
so that you can love your gutand it will love you right back.
So if you're ready to learn alot, gain a deeper understanding
(00:46):
of your gut and find lastingrelief.
You are in the right place.
Welcome to the love your gutpodcast.
Welcome back to the next episodeof the Love Your Gut podcast and
the last episode in this SIBOseries.
I hope you have loved thisseries as much as I have, and
(01:07):
I'm really excited to dive intoday with some different SIBO
cases that hopefully you willresonate with.
I hope that you listen to thesestories and are able to see why.
SIBO and getting a diagnosis ofSIBO is just scratching the
surface to actual healing.
(01:27):
I'm going to share with youthree different client stories,
and all of these clients eitherthought they had SIBO or were
actually diagnosed with sibo,and the way that we approached
it for each of these clients wasactually completely different.
If you've been following along,SIBO is a symptom, not the root
cause, and that testing andtreating sibo, whether that's
(01:51):
through antibiotics or herbalantimicrobials, without
understanding your whole gutterrain.
We'll only get you so far andthat's why so many of the SIBO
clients that we work with cometo us after having treated sibo.
Three, four, sometimes five plustimes.
So I wanna close out this seriesby just giving you a little bit
(02:14):
of hope and also a little bit ofinsight in what that could
actually look like for you ifyou were to.
Really understand all the piecesof your puzzle.
So instead of more like what todo, I want to show you just what
it looks like when this worksand how your life could be
(02:35):
different and how it doesn'tactually have to be so
complicated because I know it'ssuper frustrating.
When you've tried so many thingsand you still feel bloated, you
still feel reactive, you stillfeel constipated.
Maybe you're having diarrhea andyou're stuck on five safe foods.
So like I said, we're gonna walkthrough three real client
(02:57):
stories.
All women who had SIBO on paper.
Or thought they had SIBO andneeded a completely different
treatment plan to finally feelbetter.
And so if you hear your ownstory in one of theirs, like I
said, I hope it gives you hope.
Just quick reminder, if you areready for personalized support,
(03:18):
now is the time to.
Apply for get together.
We always get really full asback to school happens and
people are preparing for theholidays.
You might still be in summermode and I'm definitely getting
out of summer mode.
We had the first week of schoollast week and things are getting
a little bit more routined in agood way over here, but we're
(03:41):
about three months out from theholiday time.
And that is when people end uppanic, calling us wanting
support because they don't wantto spend another holiday
restricting foods or beingdoubled over in pain or bloated
or whatever it might be.
So, jump on my calendar.
Let's have a discovery call.
Let's chat through your case.
Let's make sure it's a good fitto work together, chat through
(04:03):
options, and get you feelingbetter.
So let's dive in.
I wanna share with you aboutthis client.
We'll call this client the triedEverything client.
This is probably the most commoncase that we see, the clients
that come to us with a superlong history.
This specific client had treatedSIBO four times.
(04:23):
She had worked with severalpractitioners.
Her GI doctor, as well asanother dietician, she had
worked with a naturopath kind ofmore in the functional space and
felt like she was just on thismerry-go-round that she could
not get off of.
She had taken antibiotics, shehad done low fodmap.
She had done several otherelimination diets, AIP low
(04:47):
oxalate, biphasic, you name it.
She had tried it, but she hadseveral things that would happen
to her.
First when she treated sibo.
She felt better while she was onthe antibiotics, and then the
second she got off, she feltworse.
Even worse than before shestarted, and then she took the
(05:08):
antibiotics again.
Proceeded to do that four times,and as she got close to the
fourth time that she was on theantibiotics, she didn't notice a
single thing.
She was more constipated, morebloated, and more terrified to
eat more than just a few foods.
She told me in our first.
(05:29):
Discussion that we had.
I feel like I'm never gonna getbetter because I'm actually just
getting worse.
So here's what I told her.
I'm like, we actually see this alot.
So not that this is the clubthat you wanna be a part of,
but.
Here we are.
And there is a way for you tofeel better, and I imagine that
(05:49):
part of the reason that you'refeeling worse is because your
body is really depleted.
It's a lot of work for your bodyto try to push out infections
like sibo H Pylori, whatever youhave.
It's a lot of work, andespecially if you're really
stressed about it.
You're restricting foods.
Your diet is really limited froma mineral perspective.
(06:11):
You're also gonna get reallydepleted.
And if you've been around herefor any amount of time, you know
how important minerals are.
They're the foundation for everymetabolic process in your body,
including digestion and energy.
So.
We actually started by runningan HTMA test on her and what
stood out on her testing.
(06:33):
So she did an HTMA and a GI map.
What stood out wasn't herbacteria.
Sure there were bacteria that weneeded to address, but I wasn't
that concerned about it.
It was her minerals.
Her body was completely burnedout.
When we looked at her adrenalratios, when we looked at her
sodium and potassium, she wascompletely burned out.
(06:55):
They were completely in thetank, and that is part of the
reason why she was barely havingbowel movements, maybe one every
three to four days.
We hit pause on pretty muchanything related to gut bacteria
and we took a step back andzoomed out and here's the deal.
(07:15):
If you're not pooping, youcannot clear anything.
You can't detox.
You can't get rid of sibo.
You can't, your body cannotheal.
You can't ask your body to dothe hard work of clearing
bacteria if your exit rootsaren't open.
I don't know a better way to saythat.
So instead of another round ofantimicrobials, her plan looked
(07:36):
a little bit like this.
We supported her motilitybecause we had to get her bowels
moving and contracting.
We focused on foundationallysupporting her minerals.
This for her looked like acustom mineral blend.
Sounds fancier than it is, butit's a really great way that we
can support our clients.
(07:57):
Once we have HTMA testing, wecan custom blend a mineral
powder for them.
Like I said, it sounds fancierthan it is, but it actually ends
up being way more affordablethan buying a random.
Electrolyte drink or buying thismineral drink.
And it's something that isexactly what that person needs
based on their test results.
(08:17):
So she started on that.
We also introduced a lot ofnervous system regulation
because she had this belief thatshe was never gonna get better
and that food was scary, thather symptoms were scary.
Eating out was scary, and shewas the mom with the symptoms.
So we had to do a lot ofrewiring around that, how food
(08:37):
is not scary, how eating outdoes not have to be scary, how
her body could heal, how ourbodies were designed to heal,
and that was a big part of herprocess.
Then later on we supported.
Her beneficial flora and thebacteria in her gut.
We added in spore basedprobiotics, some gentle gut
(08:59):
support.
We didn't do any major killing.
And so I, what I want you tohear from this is once we got
her testing, her testingactually didn't look at all like
sibo.
Although she had positivelytested for SIBO in the past,
that's why the antibioticsweren't working anymore.
She probably had cleared theSIBO maybe the first time, but
(09:22):
she had a lot of other stuffgoing on, and whether she still
had SIBO or not, I don't knowbecause she hadn't done another
breath test.
But from a large intestinestandpoint.
It didn't totally look likethat, and we were able to help
her get better, which is great.
Slowly, everything startedchanging.
(09:44):
She started pooping daily.
Her energy came back.
She felt safe to eat again.
Adding foods back in.
And this is 75% of what we seein practice.
It's not that the treatment thatyou're doing is failing, it's
that your body is too depletedto heal and it's that maybe it's
not the treatment that you need,which is where some additional
(10:06):
testing can be helpful.
I think SIBO testing, there canbe a time and a place for sure.
And I have other episodes onthat.
If you wanna go back to partone, two, or three of this
series, I'd chat more aboutthat.
But what we were able to do withthis other testing was look at
why her body wasn't respondingto it and create a plan there.
(10:28):
So that's.
It's case number one.
That's a really, really commonscenario that we see.
Let's contrast that with acompletely different case.
Someone whose main roadblockwasn't minerals, it wasn't
motility, but it was actuallyfat digestion and bile flow.
So this is the gallbladder case.
(10:48):
This client came to us feelinglike everything she ate made her
bloat.
Which is why she had this beliefthat she still had sibo and why
she might need to treat her SIBOagain.
But the reality was she had nogallbladder.
She had had her gallbladder out,I think like 10 years prior to
working with us, but no one hadever really helped her
(11:11):
understand what that meant orwhy that mattered.
Every time she ate fat, she feltterrible.
She felt like she was burpingconstantly.
Her stools were really sticky.
Her stools were greasy.
She couldn't tolerateprobiotics.
She could not tolerate fermentedfoods.
And when we ran some testing onher, what we found is she had
(11:33):
really high scr, which showsundigested fat in her stool, and
really low elastase, which showsreally poor pancreatic enzyme
output.
So basically she wasn'tdigesting her food well at all,
and especially fat.
And that's the problem becausebile flow is very essential for
(11:54):
more than just digestion.
I always tell the practitionersin my practitioner program that
bile is seriously the real.
MVP of digestion.
Because it's antimicrobial, itstimulates motility.
It's kind of the detergent thatyour gut needs to stay clean and
clear.
And so when you've had yourgallbladder removed, you still
(12:14):
have bile flow, but you don'tget this like surge of bile like
you would if you had agallbladder.
If you have sticky stool burpingafter high fat meals, this
really applies to you.
Whether you have a gallbladderor not, you can still have
gallbladder issues with orwithout a gallbladder.
So for this client, her planreally focused on supporting
(12:35):
bile flow.
By looking upstream and seeingwhy was her bile flow stuck?
Obviously getting hergallbladder out was a big piece
of that, but she had low stomachacid.
She also had an h pyloriinfection, which was likely
suppressing stomach acid.
So this was making the bile flowpiece worse because we need
(12:57):
stomach acid to stimulate bileflow, and h pylori suppresses
stomach acid.
So we supported her stomachacid.
We supported bile flow with.
Bitters and Toine and just somegentle digestive support.
We had to rebuild her stomachacid by getting rid of the h
pylori infection and then givingit the tools that it needed to
(13:18):
create stomach acid and thenreintroducing enzymes and and
fat in small digestible amounts.
So.
Using targeted enzymes to helpher body break food down.
Eventually getting off of thoseenzymes and focusing more on
nutrients that can stimulatethat.
But temporarily, we use someenzymes to help with symptom
(13:42):
relief, which sometimes that'swhat you have to do if you're
miserable.
Let's give your body the tool itneeds to feel better so you can
make progress, and then you canslowly.
Fill in the gaps and come off ofsome of those things.
And the main thing wasstrengthening.
Strengthening her upper GIfunction, starting with chewing
and salivation.
(14:02):
Digestion really starts in yourmouth and helping to improve
that north to south pathway sothat when she was eating, the
whole system was communicatingwith each other.
Her bile was flowing anddigesting and cleansing the
digestive tract.
If you don't have enough bile,it creates an environment for
(14:24):
bacterial overgrowth.
So when she was finally finishedup, she could finally eat fats
without pain.
Her bloating was gone.
She was able to add smallamounts of fermented food and
eventually tolerated.
Some prebiotic rich meals.
So many people with SIBO have abile flow issue, and if your
(14:45):
upper digestion isn't working,your gut becomes a perfect
environment for overgrowth.
It's very common that we seeclients who have SIBO 3, 4, 5
years after getting theirgallbladders out.
They're usually told you don'tneed to change your diet.
You don't need to take anything.
Everything will work just fine.
(15:06):
And then a couple years later,the bill comes due and so.
It's just something to be awareof.
If you have had your gallbladderout and you're having symptoms,
there are ways to address it andthere's ways to not be miserable
and not have symptoms.
So let me share one more story.
Someone whose test resultsdidn't even show sibo, but she
felt like she had it everysingle day.
(15:28):
And this is common as well.
Her doctor just treated her forit without even testing.
For it.
So if you relate to this, youmight have the story of, all my
tests are normal, but I haveconstant gas, constant bloating.
I have brain fog, I have moodswings, fatigue, I can't eat
(15:48):
without discomfort.
This client came to us reallyfrustrated and said, you know,
I've done the SIBO test, I'vedone the stool test.
Everything says I'm fine.
I do not feel fine, and as wereally dug into her history, the
missing piece became prettyclear.
Number one, she had multipleC-sections.
(16:09):
And you might be thinking, whydoes that matter?
I'll get to that in a second.
She had a history of past traumaand she had zero support for her
nervous system and her scartissue from the C-section.
So we had to work with otherproviders to help her as a
result of this.
She did have some things on.
(16:31):
Our stool testing that showed upthat we needed to address, and
we did of course, but this wasvery much a team effort.
She was working with a visceralmanipulation therapist to help
with the scar tissue.
She was doing pelvic floor PT toaddress the adhesions and get
everything working back togetheragain.
(16:52):
We really supported her nervoussystem from both a food
standpoint of my body can digestfood, my body can tolerate food.
I'm not gonna always be bloated.
Working on kind of the mindsetbeliefs there.
Vagus nerve support.
And she also was working with atherapist on her history of
trauma, which was so.
Brave of her to finally getsupport for that.
(17:16):
We needed to support her gutlining.
She was severely depleted from agut immune standpoint, which
makes sense with multipleC-sections.
History of trauma.
There's actual research thatshows that negative thought
patterns and trauma directly.
Decreases your secretary, IGA,which is your gut immune system.
(17:37):
Your gut immune system is kindof like the bouncer at the bar
in your gut and decides to keepthe riffraff out.
And so if your secretary, IGA isreally depleted.
Then it has a hard timeprotecting you.
So we really had to focus onsupporting her secretary, IGA,
supporting and rebuilding herminerals reintroducing some
(18:01):
nervous system support aroundmeals.
Her life was just reallychaotic, really stressed all the
time.
And after six months, she wasseriously a different person.
Even though her SIBO test hadbeen negative, she still had a
lot of the symptoms, the painfulbloating.
The food intolerances, theconstipation, all of that.
(18:23):
And the reason was obviously thethings that I mentioned, but as
a result of those things beingunaddressed, her gut terrain
needed a lot of repair and a lotof support.
So similar to the first casewhere we didn't really need to
do a lot of quote unquotekilling, we didn't need to.
And go on antimicrobials oranything super strong.
(18:45):
But her gut neededimmunoglobulins and it needed
minerals and it needed stomachacid support and it needed
motility support.
And that's what get mi getsmissed all the time when we
don't take a full look at thepicture.
So let's zoom.
All three of these clients cameto us with some version of, I've
done everything and I feelawful.
(19:07):
And what made the difference forall three of them was they
stopped asking, what otherprotocol can I do?
Or what antimicrobials do I needto take?
Or maybe I need to.
Switch up the antibiotics andstarted asking What's not
working in my body that allowedthis to happen in the first
place.
(19:28):
We had to zoom out and take alook at from birth till now.
What were all of the triggeringevents?
What was the domino effect thatgot us here?
What do the day-to-day patternsin our symptoms look like?
That tell us a lot about whyyou're having symptoms.
What also do the patterns inpast treatments tell us about
(19:48):
your symptoms.
So, although the recovery plansreally looked totally different,
it's because their root causeswere different.
But what they had in common waswe had to support their north to
south.
Digestive process.
We had to understand all thekinks in the plan and what
wasn't working, and not justfocus on the small intestine.
(20:10):
We supported their gut terrain.
We had to make sure that theyhad beneficial microbes, that
they were eating prebiotics tosupport their gut, that they had
the minerals they needed, theyhad the enzymes they needed,
they had.
The secretary IGA and gut immunebarrier that they needed and we
rebuilt a lot withoutrestricting further, we're not
(20:30):
weed whacking foods out of theirdiet.
We're actually adding foods backin as we're supporting their
body's ability to be able todigest food and tolerate it.
So hear me when I say this.
True gut healing really happenswhen you rebuild capacity and
you don't just focus on managingsymptoms.
(20:50):
You can do low FODMAP andprobably find some symptom
relief.
But for how long?
When is that going to go away?
You can take these bloat pillsthat some influencer tells you
to take.
You can take antibiotics forsibo, but you're never gonna
fully.
Heal if you don't understand whyand you don't truly rebuild your
(21:13):
digestive capacity from start tofinish.
So if this is you, you've doneprotocols, you've tried
supplements, and nothing'sreally changed and you've never
had somebody fully understandyour case and fully understand.
The whole process, you're notbroken, you're just missing the
right roadmap for your body.
(21:34):
So I hope that this series hasbeen informative and helpful.
I know I've chatted with severalof you already on discovery
calls and you're like, I'velearned so much about sibo.
Why is my doctor not sharingthis?
And the reason is because SIBOis.
Kind of a new-ish in in thecontext of the medical world.
(21:55):
It's a new-ish thing and there'sstill obviously stuff that we
learn all the time about sibo,but your GI doctor is trained to
diagnose.
What you have, diagnose you withsibo.
Say you have IBS, whatever, notnecessarily spend the time to
help you figure out all thepieces of the puzzle.
So that's the first step.
(22:16):
The second step is going beyondthat and understanding why,
which is exactly what we do.
So once again, jump on mycalendar if you're ready to get
one-on-one support.
If you're ready to finally feelbetter.
And then lastly, before we wrap,remember about the giveaway.
So leave a rating and review forthe podcast, screenshot it,
(22:38):
email it to Happygut@drheatherfinley.co with the
subject line podcast rating, andyou will be entered to win a
free HTMA test.
So the mineral test plus aconsult with our team totally
free.
We pick a winner every singlemonth.
So go ahead and enter if youhaven't already.
But thanks so much for listeningto this miniseries.
(22:59):
If you loved it or if you havesuggestions for another series,
maybe like a candida series orwhatever you think would be
interesting, please reach outand let me know.
Um, I would love to plan somefun series coming up.
So if it gave you a new lens,um, hopefully a lot of clarity
and.
(23:20):
The biggest thing.
Hopefully it gave you a wholelot of hope.
So thanks for joining and I'llcatch you on the next episode of
the Love Your Podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a thought-provoking, opinionated, and topic-driven journey through the top sports stories of the day.