Gettyimages.com/African American woman covering her mouth while feeling nausea during breakfast at home.
If you’ve been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome recently, you may have gone home feeling partially relieved that it wasn’t something more serious, and than instantly frustrated. When you look IBS up, the Internet seems to simply repeat back to you all the things you told your doctor. You have occasional bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation, and discomfort after meals. Uh yeah…that’s what you told your doctor. So you were just diagnosed with, essentially, a fancy name for something that just collects all your symptoms into three words: irritable bowel syndrome. But you aren’t told why you have it. Some people point to dairy or gluten intolerance. Some think it’s meat consumption. But there’s one condition that isn’t known much about, that often manifests itself in IBS symptoms: small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or SIBO. This is essentially defined as the presence of excessive bacteria in your gut that can cause symptoms. Here are signs you have SIBO.
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Your symptoms act up after Mexican food
That’s because Mexican food contains things like chili peppers, cilantro, green bell peppers, and onion—all things that those with SIBO cannot tolerate. These cause inflammation in the intestines of those with SIBO.
