Shivan Sarna - Healing SIBO: Fix the Real Cause of IBS, Bloating, and Weight Issues in 21 Days

I was in the bathroom sweating. It was close to three oclock. Id just finished lunch with my boss at a really fabulous restaurant, and I had to go to the ladies room. I hope you dont know what I mean when I say I really had to go, but if youre reading this book, you probably do.

In fact, Ive actually heard worse tales from the ladies room. One of my friends cant drive for more than twenty minutes without having to use the bathroom, which severely limits the routes she is able to take. There are also families who havent seen relatives in years because theyre afraid to be on a plane without instant access to the facilities.

In that instance, I was in the bathroom that day for at least twenty minutes. This was before cell phones, and I knew that my boss and our waiter must have been wondering what had happened to me.

When I finally got out of there the waiter looked worried, and my poor boss, a polite man in his forties, asked me if I was all right. What could I say? I just mumbled something about being sorry and said body functions and shrugged my shoulders. Truthfully, I was completely mortified and just wished I could disappear. My goal that day had been to ask for a raise, but clearly that wasnt happening. He settled the bill and we left. It was awkward, to say the least, and all these years later, I still remember it.

I call my experience as a person with SIBO the journey of a lifetime because I remember having symptoms starting as far back as the age of foureven though I certainly had no idea what was causing them.

Back then, our family had pizza for dinner every Friday night, and most of those nights I threw up after dinner. My magnificent mother was taking care of three young daughters; she was tired, and she just wanted something that was good and fast for dinner at the end of a busy week. She knew that I wasnt really sick; I wasnt getting stomach flu every Friday evening. And she would have been horrified if anyone thought she was being a bad mother. In fact, I actually loved pizza night. I liked it enough going down that I was willing to tolerate throwing it upand it didnt happen every single time. Still, it should have been more of a warning sign than either of us realized.

My father, however, was from India and well-versed in the principles of Ayurvedic medicine, the ancient healing science of India, which include building and maintaining a healthy metabolic system (the conversion of food into fuel for your body) through good digestion and excretion. According to Ayurveda, regular, healthy bowel movements are a major indicator of good digestion and, therefore, overall health. So, when he noticed that I wasnt going every day, he mentioned it to my mother, who began to question me about the quantity and quality of my poops. Even at that early age, I already felt this was none of my moms business. Although I now understand that my parents were concerned about my chronic constipation, as a five- or six-year-old, I resented being questioned about my bathroom habits and having to sit on the toilet for what seemed to me inordinate lengths of time day in and day out. That is actually one of my earliest memories.