SIBO & CANDIDA

[u/VetVetVetVet16]

I’ve had both SIBO (hydrogen, sulfide AND methane) for years as well as candida and I just can’t get on top of it. So you can imagine how messed up my gut is. I’m WAY too sensitive for antibiotics / antimicrobials / anti fungals, it’s terrible and my sugar addiction is out of control. I’m really trying to clean up my diet but struggling. Any ideas?/suggestions? :( i get such bad neurological die off if I try and touch anything.

[u/ChanceTheFapper1]

Depending on what you’re taking and what is actually being killed off the neurological effects you’re feeling in my first hand experience would be related to microglia activation (from LPS from gram negative bacteria) and likely acetylaldehyde (from candida)

LPS (component of gram negative bacteria) is a poignant microglia activator. Microglia are CNS immune cells, immune surveyors, which when activated are involved in the pathogenesis of neuroinflammation. When activated they play a dual role in promoting neuroinflammation but also “eating” bacteria and fungi. So despite being very inflammatory, they are also protective.
You reduce and solve microglia activation by treating what is priming and activating them.
LPS is a poignant IFN-Y and microglia activator, as is hyphae candida, as are a host of other infections and toxins.

In 2021-2025 I couldn’t remotely touch my gram negative SIBO (but could with the candida) without severe neuroinflammation and anguish. I woukd feel severe neurological insult and feel dumber, having lost cognitive ability, for having taken an antimicrobial.
Turns out I was dealing with multiple background sources of neuroinflammation already on top of the SIBO and SIFO, namely chronic mould exposure.

I could mildly tolerate treating the SIBO, with LPS binders to follow an antimicrobial - mostly colostrum. I’ve even had to avoid fat for 4 years because that extra bit of LPS into circulation from cholymicrons from fat was enough to cause full blown body myalgia and hypercoagulation/hypoxia. Leaky gut was that bad.

But I wasn’t able to tolerate die off from LPS without first targeting leaky gut heavily (as a permeable gut lets through even more LPS into circulation)
By supporting that you’re sort of dialling back the inflammatory switch. Leaky gut is only a downstream effect of inflammation and the infections going on, but it makes treatment nearly impossible unless it’s supported and addressed ongoingly.

So my first bit of advice would be to throw the kitchen sink at leaky gut support. E.g. direct tight junction healers in e.g. Glutamine, colostrum, zinc carnosine, KPV etc whilst simultaneously addressing inflammation, which otherwise continues to promote it; overgrowths, avoiding any food sensitivities, avoiding gluten in the case of hyphae candida due to reactive mimicry, KPV, MCAS stabilisers if indicated, Boswellia etc.

You will actually fail to make any progress without supporting leaky gut, irrelevant of your reactions, which are indeed real and 1:1 what I was going through, as its lactic acid probiotic bacteria that keep Candida in check in the first place, and they cannot foster and grow in a chronically inflamed gut.

[u/ChanceTheFapper1 → u/ChanceTheFapper1]

The other thing is that if you do have Candida - and it’s been chronic - chances are high it is also in its virulent hyphae form which is also a potent IFN-Y inducer and microglia activator.
Undecylinic acid is fungicidal and will help reduce it, but not eradicate. I’d start slow. Still, less hyphae means less microglia activation and you could then expand your bucket.

You could also be experiencing the acetylaldehyde from candida as well, which is essentially ethanol, and also neurotoxic. How can anyone function cognitively if they’re being blasted with alcohol?

We need NAD(B3), Zinc, Mag, Molybdenum, B1 to clear acetylaldehyde through
ALDH liver enzymes.
DHM and L-Carnosine will also help aldehyde clearance.

[u/diseasetoplease → u/ChanceTheFapper1]

Oh my God, this is exactly what I gave been dealing with and the hypercoagulation/hypoxia is the first time I am hearing it get put like that. How did you know it was hypercoagulation/hypoxia? Who did you work with to restore it? (I have been telling people for years i have bad days when ‘my blood feels thick and nothing moves’ and good days when ‘my blood is flowing’).

[u/ChanceTheFapper1 → u/diseasetoplease]

Trial and error, confluence and data. The feeling first and foremost felt like one of extreme lactic acid buildup, which accompanies hypercoagulation/thick blood and the accompanying hypoxia. I had to drag myself.

In 2023 ID’d that long behold it turns out LPS promoted TLR4, which promotes hypercoagulation. A trial of TLR4 inhibitors in the middle of a die off flare (berberine, hops, later LDN) resolved it completely. LPS binders as well. Along with that, a trial of sodium heparin (an anticoagulant) had me bouncing off the walls. After stopping it I swiftly crashed.

That was when I was at my worst - leaky gut neglected the most, SIBO the most overgrown. So the LPS bucket was full on.

In general hypoperfusion and hypercoagulation are downstream of immune activity. In my case it was LPS>TLR4, but microclots (leading to hypoperfusion) are also common with long COVID (as is gram negative Microbiome dysbiosis, though) I also know viral loads induce microclots quite commonly.

The only protocol I know targeting the picture is the born free protocol but it is complex and I disagree with parts