Your Gut Health Matters!
SIBO is confusing. You’ve heard that this condition—Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth—might be contributing to your IBS or other symptoms, but you’re not sure how to go about addressing it.
There are several different tests for SIBO out there and it’s hard to know which one is best for you. It can also be difficult to get your head around how SIBO tests work.
Includes test and practitioner results.
Your SIBO home test kit includes:
- Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) breath test, analysed by our accredited labs that use Micro GC fast chromatography | Agilent machinery.
- Expertly designed SIBO Diet Plan and mini Healthpath education program, designed to support your health journey
- Review of your test results and symptoms by a qualified practitioner
- Your bespoke test report with health plan
- Tailored supplement plan, based on your SIBO results and symptom questionnaire
About this test
Collection method: Breath
Measures: Hydrogen, Methane
Turnaround time: 7 working days
For this SIBO test, you drink a small amount of sugary solution and collect breath samples over 3 hours. The type of gas found in your breath will reveal if you have bacteria where it shouldn’t be, and what type they are. Armed with this information, you’ll receive personalised advice to help you take action.
Associated symptoms for testing
Gallstones
Acne
Fibromyalgia
Use of antacids
Multiple antibiotics
Sulphur smelling gas
Milk intolerance
Weight loss
Chronic stress
Floating stools
Dry skin
Low iron levels
Greasy stools
Abdominal pain
Sticky stools
Food poisoning
Low B12 levels
Interstitial cystitis
Fructose intolerance
Food sensitivities
Bloating
Constipation
Diarrhoea
Brain fog
How does it work?
1. Order your home test kit & get your results - Our advanced tests give you invaluable insights into your current health picture
2. Our accredited labs analyse your sample, then our experts review the results and your symptoms
3. 1 to 1 support with a practitioner to discuss your results, recommendation plan and get valuable advice on next steps
How to Prepare
As you can see, no test is perfect. Healthpath’s SIBO breath test uses lactulose because, in our practitioners’ experience, it gives a better overview.
“A breath test using glucose has value,” says Healthpath Nutritional Therapist, Fiona Lawson, “but lactulose can identify SIBO throughout the small intestine, which is more useful.”
However, the main limitation of any type of SIBO breath testing is that it can’t always distinguish between gases from the small intestine and gases from the large intestine. For this reason, SIBO breath tests are most useful when interpreted by a skilled practitioner, as they consider your symptoms in conjunction with your test data.
What’s more, SIBO breath tests can’t measure all the gases. Most people with SIBO either produce mostly hydrogen, mostly methane or mostly hydrogen sulphide (more on this below). At present, there’s no way to test for hydrogen sulphide—so receiving practitioner input is again important9.
As with many tests, you also increase your chances of receiving a reliable test result if you prepare properly.
How to prepare for a SIBO test
Diagnostic accuracy of hydrogen breath testing for SIBO can be maximised by careful patient selection for testing, proper test preparation, and standardisation of test performance and test interpretation.”
An at-home SIBO breath test is designed to make testing easy—and a good test kit should guide you through the preparatory stages. These include:
4 weeks before the test: finish taking any antibiotics. You should never stop a course of antibiotics in order to take a test—talk to your GP first.
1 week before the test: if tolerated, stop any promotility drugs and laxatives. Again, you must never stop taking drugs without first consulting your doctor.
1 day before the test: avoid all complex carbohydrates and fermentable foods. These can interfere with the test results.
12 hours before the test: fast and drink only water. Most people find it easy to do a SIBO breath test first thing in the morning, so they can fast overnight.
On the day of the test: avoid smoking and physical activity before and during the three-hour test period.
Your SIBO breath test results
Specific markers
The functional tests are hand-selected to give you unique and useful insight into your biochemistry
Additional Information:
The lab uses a gas chromatograph to measure the respiratory gas concentrations of both hydrogen and methane in client's SIBO samples.
The SIBO breath test uses a lactulose solution and measures both Hydrogen and Methane gases levels. It does not detect SIFO or Hydrogen Sulphide. However, the results may be able to give clues about Hydrogen Sulphide presence, when a flat line result is given.
Glucose and Lactulose is measured:
Glucose. This is a monosaccharide (the smallest unit of carbohydrate).
Upside: Glucose is absorbed in the upper part of the small intestine, which means it doesn’t often reach the colon (large intestine). Since colonic fermentation is unlikely to interfere with the results, a SIBO breath test using glucose will rarely give false positive results7.
Downside: The fact that glucose is absorbed in the upper part of the small intestine can also be a downside—because it may not reach the lower part of the small intestine, where SIBO is more likely to be. This can lead to false-negative results.
Lactulose. This is a non-absorbable sugar made from lactose.
Upside: As this sugar is non-absorbable, it travels all the way through the small intestine. This means it’s much less likely to give false negative results.
Downside: If the lactulose travels through the small intestine too quickly (if a person has diarrhoea, for example), it can be more prone to giving false-positive results. Despite its name, lactulose is not lactose, so is usually fine for people who are lactose-intolerant to take. However, if you have a true lactose allergy (which is rare) then you should use glucose instead.
What’s more, SIBO breath tests can’t measure all the gases. Most people with SIBO either produce mostly hydrogen, mostly methane or mostly hydrogen sulphide. At present, there’s no way to test for hydrogen sulphide.
**Lab used for testing Biovis Diagnostik, based in Germany.