When your gut is screaming, but tests say “everything's fine”
A Homeopathic Look at SIBO and a real-life case study (spoiler alert - she gets better!)
If you’ve been dealing with bloating that makes no sense, unpredictable bowels, food fear, or a gut that seems to react to everything, there’s a good chance someone has mentioned SIBO to you.
Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.
It sounds clinical, but living with it is anything but.
Most people I see with SIBO are not reckless eaters or careless with their health. They are usually the opposite. Thoughtful, sensitive, high functioning people who have been under stress for a long time. Often women. Often mothers. Often people who have pushed through exhaustion, grief, hormonal changes, or long periods of nervous system overload.
From a conventional perspective, SIBO is treated with antibiotics, antimicrobials, restrictive diets, and a lot of white knuckling. Sometimes that helps. Often it helps for a while. And then the symptoms creep back in.
That’s because SIBO is rarely just a bacterial problem.
It is usually a terrain problem.
From a Homeopathic perspective, we don’t start by asking, “How do we kill the bacteria?”
We start by asking, “Why did the gut become such a hospitable place for them in the first place?”
Motility matters.
Nervous system tone matters.
Hormones matter.
Emotional stress matters.
A history of holding it all together really matters.
When digestion slows, when the gut loses its rhythm, when the body is stuck in fight or flight, bacteria that should be further down the tract start to overstay their welcome.
Homeopathy works by supporting the whole system back toward balance, rather than waging war on one piece of it.
That means we look at the full picture.
How does bloating behave?
Is there anxiety around food or bowel movements?
Is there diarrhoea from anticipation?
Is constipation worse when stressed?
Is there a history of suppression, antibiotics, grief, or long term over responsibility?
What time of day is worst?
What makes things better, even slightly?
These details matter more than the label.
A recent case study:
