The Prebiotic Fiber Test

Transcript:

Let’s discuss something I call the Prebiotic Fiber Test.

This is a more advanced conversation, that I begin in the Undoctored book (Undoctored — Why Health Care Has Failed You And How You Can Become Smarter Than Your Doctor), and pursue even further in the Undoctored Inner Circle website, where we talk about this issue, and how to deal with it effectively.

I wanted to get you alert, to the possibility that you might have this problem. We’re seeing more and more this, as more and more people engage in the Wheat Belly lifestyle. The Wheat Belly lifestyle is very effective for regaining health, and it can unmask this problem that took years to develop. It didn’t develop last tuesday, or last month, even last year probably. It probably developed over many years of consuming grains and sugars, and other factors that cultivate unhealthy bowel flora.

What small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is; we all have micro-organisms in our colon, way down in the far end of our intestinal tract. Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth means that organisms have ascended, all the way up the 20-some feet of your small intestine, all the way up into the duodenum and stomach. You essentially have your entire gastrointestinal tract infected with abnormal micro-organisms — even if you’ve done everything right — on the Wheat Belly lifestyle, Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox, Wheat Belly Total Health — you’ve done everything…

…that is, you’ve eliminated all wheat and grains. You limit your net carbs to 15 grams or less per meal. You’ve restored vitamin D, Omega 3 fatty acids, magnesium and iodine, and achieved favorable thyroid status. You’ve taken a high-potency multi-species probiotic. Then you introduced the prebiotic fiber, to feed healthy bowel flora. If you that, you cultivate healthy species, etc.

But some people take the prebiotic fiber — the prebiotic fibers don’t select the healthy species, you have to have the healthy species, to grow and proliferate — but if you have very bad dysbiosis, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, those prebiotic fibers will feed both good and bad. What happens, is that people will have gas (excessive gas), bloating, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

The tell-tale sign you have this, the most powerful tell-tale sign, is if you have those symptoms within the first hour. So think of it, you take a prebiotic fiber, that’s meant to nourish micro-organisms in your colon. That means it has to traverse (the fiber you eat), the esophagus, the stomach, the duodenum, the 20-some feet of jejunum and ileum, and finally gets to the colon. Well, that takes many hours — 8, 10, 12 or more hours to get there. If you have a response within, say, 20 minutes, or 30 minutes, certainly within the first hour, it means that the organisms are a lot higher up than the colon, right? Because they can’t get to the colon in an hour. That’s a really powerful sign, that you have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

The Wheat Belly basic program, Total Health or 10-Day Grain Detox, can address this for some people, just by taking the high-potency probiotics, and eliminating all the wheat and grains, etc., that alone will solve this for some people. But many people, it will not. It’s process that required years to develop, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, will require additional effort. I want you to understand that this peculiar effect of prebiotic fibers, this apparent intolerance, this discomfort, gas, diarrhea, that develops within the first hour of a prebiotic fiber, is very highly suggestive that you have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

If this happens to you, you want to:
1. verify this, and then
2. address it.
Now that’s a much more elaborate conversation. It’s among the more complex of the things we do in the Undoctored program, the continuation of the Wheat Belly program. You’ll find that in the Undoctored book, and Undoctored Inner Circle website. This discussion is meant to alert you to that possibility.

What if you just let it be. Can you just let it go, and forget about it? No, because it leads to long-term problems such as diverticular disease, diverticulitis, and colon cancer risk, and metabolic distortions, like higher blood sugar, higher blood insulin, weight gain, higher triglycerides, higher cholesterol values, higher blood pressure, emotional disturbances like anxiety, and disruptions of sleep. In other words, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is a very, very important issue to address. It can allow conditions like fibromyalgia, or psoriasis, or other auto-immune conditions to persist. It can even cause or contribute to those conditions, even if you’ve done everything else right.

Getting this condition addressed is very important. Recognize that this peculiar effect of prebiotic fibers that occurs very early is a highly suggestive test that you can use to alert yourself, or your healthcare provider, that you have this issue that must be addressed for full health recovery.