Lyme disease is an overlooked underlying cause of IBS & SIBO and Dr. Tom Messinger addresses this fascinating connection in his interview on the IBS & SIBO SOS Summit, happening September 3-10, 2018.
Summit host, Shivan Sarna, found out about this connection when she told Dr. Messinger that her feet really hurt. He responded with this:
You know, the spirochetes from Lyme do like the feet
Who knew!?
He also shared that an acute presentation of Lyme disease can manifest with GI symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea:
a common underlying cause of SIBO is what’s considered either a GI flu or food poisoning. Most times, clinically, you can’t tease out which of those two scenarios happened. The person just has the same symptoms—nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping.
However, there is research—and that’s published research—showing that one of the ways an acute presentation of Lyme disease can manifest is that those GI symptoms—nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.
So, a person that has that, and then years down the road is diagnosed with SIBO, it’s traced back to that as probably the onset, and thinking, “Well, it’s probably a GI flu,” you don’t get worked up for it, or it was a food poisoning, but it could’ve actually been a tick bite, Lyme disease, that caused that. And it was written off as it was just a GI flu. So an acute presentation, Borrelia can cause those symptoms that may lead down the road to SIBO.
And there is more:
- We know that Borrelia does live in the intestinal lining cells
- Borrelia has an affinity for nervous system tissue and that’s why there’s a lot of neurological symptoms in Lyme. But as we know, the GI system has a lot of nervous system tissue in it. It’s felt that Borrelia has an impact on the migrating motor complex and definitely has a profound impact on motility. It could either make motility hyperactive or hypoactive (diarrhea or constipation).
- Borrelia has a great affinity for that and usually will impact the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is your main parasympathetic nerve in your body that helps to regulate all of your digestive function—hydrochloric acid secretion, pancreatic enzyme secretion, motility.
He reminds us to not discount the possibility of Lyme disease based on the following belief:
Well, I don’t live in the northeast. I don’t hike. I’ve never had a tick bite with a bulls eye rash. So there’s no way I could have Lyme disease
Dr. Messinger goes on to talk about the incidence of Lyme, how it can be transmitted, how it affects many body systems (digestion, neurological, hormones etc.), the challenges with Lyme testing, treatment and how overall toxicity may be playing a role in symptom severity.
I have chronic SIBO myself and I’m a speaker on the summit too. I cover how GABA reduces the visceral pain of IBS & SIBO, eases anxiety and helps with insomnia, plus some other protocols for easing the pain when the dreaded belly bloat occurs and you can’t sleep.
I’m also in the process of testing for Lyme disease. I wonder if this is one of the underlying causes of my SIBO? You’ll be sure to hear from me once I find out more.
Summit host, Shivan, asks the excellent questions YOU would ask if you were in the room with these experts. She draws on her own experience with painful digestive issues and years of failed treatments (alternative and conventional) to be YOUR champion for improved health…
…and she’s here to share her knowledge with you!
Join us at The IBS & SIBO SOS Summit to learn more about:
- Identifying the root cause of your digestive struggles
- Saving money from wasted doctor visits and ineffective treatments
- Identifying which foods cause your flares
- Naturopathic and conventional principles important to gut healing
- Strategies for food reintroduction
- Treatments, protocols and diets for IBS and/or SIBO
- And more!
The IBS & SIBO SOS Summit is online and complimentary from September 3-10, 2018!
I’ll see you online at this educational summit when you register here today
It’s imperative to find a quality lab for an accurate Lyme test. I tested negative twice for Lyme (once on Western blot, I don’t remember the second test but will look for it).
The third time I tested high positive for acute Lyme, with Armin
Labs in Germany (mailed a blood sample to them). I think the lab Igenex is also good, and there are one or two other labs in the US that are good. Look for an EliSpot test. Western blot is worthless.
I could have sought treatment for Lyme YEARS earlier were it not for the doctors who gave me worthless & expensive Lyme tests and then ridiculed me for asking for the testing when they came back supposedly negative (which was false). 15 years of being horribly sick.
Now I am about 80 percent well, strictly due to diet changes – no grains, no dairy, no sugar, all organic – and mostly alternative/herbal/frequency medicine treatments. Antibiotics only made things worse for me.
I used one effective allopathic treatment for the all-over nerve pain (my nerves felt like hot molten lava filled with broken glass, an all over burning electrical pain). What healed this was the antifungal Diflucan, 200mg in IV solution, given as IV twice a week (spaced three days apart) for three weeks. IVs one through five did nothing. On IV number six of the third week I walked out pain free for the first time in 15 years. I cried because I could not remember when I didn’t hurt all over, it was a miracle.
That pain has not returned, though if I eat ANY white sugar in an amount more than just a few bites, that tingling returns as a warning of what I used to feel like. So, I can eat a bite of quality European chocolate once in awhile, but mostly I avoid sugar entirely. Fruit is ok but again small amounts only.
Hope this helps someone.
Interesting story about the anti-fungal. I wonder whether you had a candida infection as well. I have found that treatments with PEMF machines really help quiet nerve pain. Also, taking turmeric helps take down pain. Many say cannabis does this as well. Good to hear you’re doing better.
Re the latest testing, I think the IGeneX lab is doing Immunoblot testing for IgM and IgG antibodies for Lyme and getting better results than even their pretty good Western Blot tests got.
Trisha
Glad to hear you’re doing better and thanks for sharing about your testing experiences and anti-fungal treatment.
Regarding the comment about having sore feet, I’d like to add that the co-infection, bartonella, is known for causing sore feet, more so than Lyme, whose bacteria can go anywhere in the body. Whenever anyone mentions this symptom, I suggest they check on a list of symptoms for bartonella and see whether they match them. People often get co-infections with Lyme, like babesia, bartonella and ehrlichia. Testing is not perfect for this co-infection nor any or the infections, frankly, so we often get treated clinically, by history and symptoms. Ask for Lyme-literate doctor referrals at www lymenet org in the Seeking A Doctor section.
Robin
Thanks for sharing this about the co-infection bartonella and how it is known for causing sore feet. I’m sure you’re familiar with Connie Strasheim’s work and books on Lyme disease – in this blog of hers she describes the symptoms of 6 major Lyme related infections, including bartonella http://conniestrasheim.org/blog/2017/3/6/a-deep-look-at-the-symptoms-of-six-major-lyme-related-infections