Welcome to my blog “Causes Of A High Baseline In SIBO Breath Testing”.
You might also like to read:
- What Is SIBO?
- Methane SIBO: Not always a bad thing?
- Methane SIBO Great Test: Is It Being Misunderstood
- SIBO: What Causes It?
- Hydrogen Sulfide: The good, the bad and the misunderstood
Watch my interview with Dr. Jacobi, AKA “The SIBO Doctor”:
What Is Methane?
It is a type of gas produced by an organism in the human gut called methanogens. Elevated levels of methane in SIBO breath testing has been associated with constipation in the research. It is now referred to as intestinal methanogen overgrowth.
Methane is an end product of microbial fermentation in the human gastrointestinal tract. This gas is solely produced by an archaeal subpopulation of the human microbiome. Increased methane production has been associated with abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, IBD, or other conditions. Twenty percent of the (healthy) Western populations innately exhale substantially higher amounts (>5 ppm) of this gas.
Causes Of A High Baseline In SIBO Breath Testing
We assessed the breath methane content, the gastrointestinal microbiome, its function and metabolome, and dietary intake of one-hundred healthy young adults. On the basis of the amount of methane emitted, participants were grouped into HM emitters (CH4 breath content 5–75 ppm) and low emitters (CH4 < 5 ppm).
The microbiomes of HM emitters were characterized by a 1000-fold increase in Methanobrevibacter smithii. This archaeon co-occurred with a bacterial community specialized on dietary fibre degradation, which included members of Ruminococcaceae and Christensenellaceae. As confirmed by metagenomics and metabolomics, the biology of HM producers was further characterized by increased formate and acetate levels in the gut. These metabolites were strongly correlated with dietary habits, such as vitamin, fat and fibre intake, and microbiome function, altogether driving archaeal methanogenesis.
Conclusions:
So what causes a high baseline in SIBO Breath Test? A baseline emission in breath mirrors a complex situation of the human physiology, including vitamin B12 shortage and increased formate levels in the GIT. Higher formate levels were earlier, and independently from methane breath analyses, correlated with positive foetal development, T cell activation, a lean phenotype, and cardiovascular function. Thus, the correlation of HM emission and formate concentration warrants future research. Moreover, as we revealed the impact of dietary fibre, vitamin and fat uptake on methanogenic activity, dietary modulations (e.g. vitamin B12 supplementation) could be used for the mitigation of methane-associated disorders, such as constipation
Resources
- Reduced B12 uptake and increased gastrointestinal formate are associated with archaeome-mediated breath methane emission in humans (click here)
Alex is a certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (IFMCP) and has a MSc in Personalised Nutrition. He is also a breathwork facilitator with a background in personal training and massage therapy. He also runs The Resiliency Program - a 24 week program aimed at building physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual resilience.
