Headaches, bloating, diarrhea with L. reuteri

As more and more people restore the microbe lost by the majority of modern people, Lactobacillus reuteri, more are experiencing symptoms at the start. These include gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms such as bloating, abdominal discomfort, or diarrhea; emotional symptoms such as anxiety, depression, or anger; disruption of sleep with nightmares or fragmentation of sleep.

These unpleasant symptoms are due to bacterial die-off. This tells you that you begin with severe small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO, meaning that the 24-feet of your small intestines are filled with trillions of fecal microbial species that have ascended up from the colon sometime in your past. It might have occurred after a course of antibiotics you took 10 years earlier for an upper respiratory infection. Or it could have resulted from a diet of processed and ultra-processed food in past. There are numerous other factors that allow this process to develop.

Introduce L. reuteri into this fecal mess and, due to this microbe’s unique ability to colonize the small intestine and produce bacteriocins, natural antibiotics that kill fecal microbes, fecal microbes die and release their toxic compounds, causing GI symptoms. Some of these toxins also enter the bloodstream—“endotoxemia“—where they export effects to other parts of the body such as the brain, causing you to experience effects like anxiety. It means that L. reuteri is having a beneficial effect, reducing the populations of invading fecal microbes that do not belong in the small intestine. Thankfully, this die-off effect rarely lasts more than a few days at most.

But if you find that the die-off process is intolerable, there are steps you can take to minimize these feelings. Consider:

• If you are taking L. reuteri as Gut to Glow, reduce the daily dosage to 1 or 2 capsules per day, building back up to the full 4-capsules per day dose over time as tolerated.
   
• If you are taking L. reuteri as MyReuteri™, open the capsule and pour half or less into some food such as kefir or other foods (cold only, not hot) and consume the food, reassemble the capsule and save for future. Increase the amount over time as tolerated.
   
• If you are making L. reuteri yogurt using my method of prolonged fermentation in the presence of prebiotic fibers, then reduce portion size from ½-cup to a couple of tablespoons, then build up your intake over time to the full ½-cup per day intake.
   
• Take activated charcoal, e.g., 1000 mg in capsule form, whenever such symptoms appear. The charcoal binds the endotoxin and reduces die-off symptoms within a few minutes. Take only when symptoms develop, as activated charcoal also binds beneficial nutrients, making them unavailable for absorption. (Do not use Bentonite clay for this purpose, as it contains toxic quantities of lead.)

Recognize that this is a necessary process in order to reduce the trillions of invading fecal microbes that have taken up residence in your small intestine. Reversing SIBO yields huge benefits on your health, benefits that include allowing weight loss to proceed, reduce blood sugar and blood pressure, reduces risk for cardiovascular disease and dementia, reduces risk for numerous cancers, reduces feelings like depression and anxiety, among many other benefits. SIBO is now epidemic, the largest epidemic in the history of our species on this planet.

Also, be aware of my recipe for SIBO Yogurt in which we add additional microbes that, like L. reuteri, colonize the small intestine and produce bacteriocins. SIBO Yogurt has performed far beyond my expectations with 4-weeks of consumption (longer in severe cases of SIBO) normalizing SIBO in around 90% of people engaged in this strategy (as evidenced by normalization of breath hydrogen gas by the AIRE device.) The species in SIBO Yogurt also provide a powerful start in rebuilding a disrupted GI microbiome, as they are keystone or foundational species that encourage the proliferation of other beneficial microbes.

Compare this to the track record of the prescription antibiotic, rifaximin, that reverses SIBO in 55-60% of people but does not start the process of rebuilding a disrupted microbiome.

The original IHB post is currently found on the: ⎆Infinite Health Blog, but accessing it there can require an unnecessary separate blog membership. The copy of it above is complete, and has been re-curated and enhanced for the Inner Circle membership.