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How do you know the difference between SIBO and dysbiosis?

Dr. Amy Nett: SIBO versus dysbiosis. I think you mean clinically how to know the difference. SIBO is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, so there we’re talking about an overgrowth in the small intestine, and dysbiosis, we’re generally talking about an imbalance of the colonic microbiome. We can’t differentiate based on symptoms alone, and that’s why we do the testing that I just mentioned, regarding the initial tests that we do. That’s why we include a SIBO breath test and also include stool testing. That’s really how we differentiate between SIBO and dysbiosis. And again, patients may be asymptomatic and still have SIBO or dysbiosis, or at least not have GI symptoms. If you’re referring to how do we know the difference between SIBO and dysbiosis on the organic acids test, again, as we mentioned, you generally can’t use the organic acids test to differentiate between SIBO and dysbiosis. The organic acids test, again, can help give us a big-picture overview. Is there something going on in the gut? Is there somewhere that we want to look a little bit further? It may help to suggest that we need to do GI treatment, but it can’t really definitively diagnose SIBO versus dysbiosis. To differentiate, you have to do a breath test and stool testing.

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