SIBO + dysbiosis
Bacteria in the wrong segment fermenting carbs the moment you eat. The bloat is the gas. Wrong bugs, wrong ratios after antibiotics, the pill, gastro, stress.
+ Symptom 04
Digestion · Bloat · Immune
Your gut runs more than your gut.
You wake with a flat stomach. By 6pm you're undoing the button. The list of foods you 'react to' keeps growing. You've cut gluten, dairy, FODMAPs. Still bloated. Or you catch every cold the office gets, you're sick longer than everyone else, you've been told you have Hashimoto's or a lupus marker and the next sentence was 'we'll watch it.'
It's the same engine. 70% of the immune system lives in the gut. Chronic bloating, an expanding food list, autoimmune flags, recurring infections. All share a small set of upstream drivers (motility, microbiome, acid, barrier, vagal tone). We test the upstream system, not the symptom.
The Picture
If this is you,
it might sound like this.
Read these the way you'd read a letter from someone who already knows. If three or more land hard, you're in the right place.
- I'm flat in the morning and pregnant by 6pm.
- The list of foods I 'react to' keeps growing.
- I'm constipated for days, then it all releases at once.
- Burping, reflux, fullness after a few bites.
- I catch every cold the office gets, and I'm sick longer.
- I have an autoimmune diagnosis but no plan.
- Joint aches, low-grade fevers, recurring UTIs or thrush.
- My skin and mood track my gut.
+ Key Drivers
What's actually going on.
An expanding list of trigger foods or recurring infections almost always means the gut underneath is broken, not that the foods or the bugs are the enemy. The drivers are testable, and they account for most chronic gut and immune presentations together.
Low stomach acid + enzyme insufficiency
The cascade starts at the top. Without acid, nothing further down works properly. Reflux is often low acid, not high.
Slow motility
The migrating motor complex is meant to sweep the small intestine between meals. When it doesn't, food sits and ferments. Constipation is often the headline.
Gut barrier dysfunction (leaky gut)
70% of the immune system lives in the gut. Loss of barrier = chronic immune activation, autoimmune flags, food reactivity, skin inflammation.
Histamine intolerance
Often a downstream of dysbiosis. Explains the wandering food list and the random reactions to wine, leftovers, fermented foods.
Stress + vagal tone collapse
Vagal tone collapses under chronic stress. Without it, digestion stalls before food even hits the stomach, and immune discrimination drops too.
+ Key Tests
How we see the gut.
Cutting more foods narrows your life. 'We'll watch it' isn't a plan for autoimmune flags. Testing finds the real driver so the foods can come back in and the immune load can come down.
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GI-MAP · Stool DNA panelDNA-level read of every major pathogen, opportunistic bug, beneficial flora, gut barrier markers, secretory IgA, inflammation, parasites and digestion markers.
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SIBO · Breath testHydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulphide. Identifies which gas, which segment, which protocol. SIBO doesn't respond to generic gut work.
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OAT · Organic acidsYeast and bacterial metabolites in urine, plus mitochondrial and neurotransmitter markers. Picks up candida and bacterial overgrowth GI-MAP can miss.
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Bloods + autoimmune sweepFull thyroid (incl. antibodies), ANA, ENA, H. pylori antibody, coeliac screen, full iron, B12 (active), folate, vitamin D, inflammation (CRP, ESR), full immune panel.
+ Foundational Must-Haves
What you can start today.
Six daily moves that, alone, often resolve mild-to-moderate bloating inside 2-3 weeks and lower the immune load. The floor before any deeper testing or autoimmune protocol.
- Stop drinking with meals. Water dilutes stomach acid. Sip 30 minutes before, again 30 minutes after, not during.
- Chew until liquid. Most people swallow at chew 6-8. Aim for 20+. This single step fixes a lot of mild bloat and reflux.
- A 12-hour overnight fast. Lets the migrating motor complex sweep the small intestine clean. The most underrated motility intervention.
- Walk 10 minutes after dinner. Engages the vagus nerve, restarts motility, drops the post-dinner bloat. Same move helps blood sugar.
- A daily bowel movement. Magnesium citrate, kiwi fruit, ground flax. Whatever it takes. Non-negotiable for gut, immune and hormone clearance.
- Vitamin D3 + K2 to blood levels of 100-150 nmol/L. The single highest-leverage nutrient for autoimmune, gut barrier and immune resilience. The 'normal' GP range (50+) is well below optimal.
+ The Process with How It Heals
We test the upstream system.
Cutting more foods narrows your life and doesn't fix the cause. 'We'll watch it' on an autoimmune diagnosis isn't a plan. Both presentations share root causes (gut barrier, motility, microbiome, vagal tone, stress chemistry, vitamin D) and treating the upstream picture lowers the load on both sides at once.
Most clients are eating a meaningfully wider diet inside 3 months once the upstream picture is restored. Antibody trends typically improve and flares reduce inside 4-6 months. We work alongside your specialist, not against them.
+ From the women in front of us
What changed.
Selected from clients who started here (chronically bloated with growing food lists, recurring infections, autoimmune flags with no plan) and worked through the 22-week reset.
I'm eating things I haven't been able to in years. The food wasn't the problem.
K.L. · 34 · Toowong
My TPO antibodies dropped from 800 to 120 in six months. My GP said it 'doesn't usually work like that.'
T.G. · 38 · New Farm