Hi Sue.. your comment was a long time ago, so I don't know if you'll see, but I'm wondering about SIBO with you. I know I sound like a SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) proponent here, but while of course it's not everyone's problem, since I've learned so much about it, I think it is greatly under-diagnosed and treated when I read people's stories. Yours would be a classic presentation, as a theory that makes sense is that it starts (not always) with some kind of food poisoning or gastric infection and that leads to bacteria later colonizing the small intestine.

Bloating after eating is a classic SIBO symptom. The tricky thing I've found is finding a GI doc who understands it and knows how to diagnose, and treat it properly. I was lucky to have a diagnosis from Mayo, but I don't think they believe it is a legitimate problem (that is the impression I got). I had to research myself, and found a protocol from Dr. Mark Pimental at Cedars Sinai, who has done a lot of research on this. (I have the newest protocol from a patient who interviewed him 🙂 ), if you or anyone is interested. I have a local nurse practitioner who will prescribe my meds. If this is not successful , I'm going to Johns Hopkins, where they have GI docs who specialize in SIBO. That is the only place I've found in America, although there must be isolated Dr.s somewhere.

With SIBO, much of the advice you typically get is opposite of what you want to do. i.e. probiotics, and pre-biotics like Kombucha. You DON'T want to put any more bacteria in your GI tract, i.e small intestine. I think (this is my personal opinion based on research) , and is controversial among people who study this, but while probiotics were a nice idea it backfired, and probably makes a lot of people sicker, definitely people with SIBO. You want all these bacteria in your COLON. Unfortunately, by 'eating' them, they likely get wiped out in your stomach or small intestine before every making it there. AND, if they don't they end up taking residence in your small intestine, where you don't want them. They start feeding on your kombucha and carbs and making gasses, i.e bloating.

I'd investigate that. Be careful about naturopaths. They've kind of latched on to SIBO. Some probably know what they are doing, some don't. I think that's why it gets a bad rap with the medical community.

SIBO needs to be treated with specific antibiotics, depending on the type of bacteria you have, although based on your symptoms, you could assume a specific type and try. It also involves taking a prokinetic (wich seems counterintuitive if you have diarrhea, and also eating in a certain way.. HOW you eat, is probably more important than WHAT you eat. If the FODMAP diet isn't helping, I'd just stop that, it's so restrictive. There is a SIBO diet which is less restrictive, it won't cure it, but some people find it helps, at least avoiding things that the bacteria like, but you can't easily digest - i.e. fiber and all the things we are 'told' are good for us 🙂

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