Antibiotic treatment shown to improve IBS symptoms only when SIBO is present

IBS is a very common gastrointestinal problem. Often patients with IBS concurrently are diagnosed with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), but not always. A recent research study showed that IBS patients that test positive for SIBO do much better when treated with the antibiotic norfloxacin as compared to IBS patients without SIBO. This study enrolled 80 patients who were tested for SIBO by gut aspirate culture (the gold standard for detecting SIBO but seldom used in comparison to hydrogen breath testing because of the invasive nature of the test). While antibiotics may not be your desired cause of treatment it is worth consideration if homeopathic remedies don’t work.

Ref: Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2016 Mar;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26731696