Editorial Policy

Who writes the guides

Articles on Bacterial Overgrowth are published by the Bacterial Overgrowth Editorial Team. Guides are not bylined to an individual because each one is a research synthesis: it summarizes what published sources say about a topic rather than giving one person's clinical opinion.

How the guides are researched

Each guide is researched and drafted with the help of AI tools, then checked against the sources it cites. No physician or other clinician reviews the articles before publication.

• Primary sources first. Medical claims rest on peer-reviewed studies (on PubMed and PubMed Central), clinical guidelines, official drug labels (DailyMed, US National Library of Medicine), NIH fact sheets and other institutional sources such as university, regulatory and trial-registry pages. A test maker's own documentation is used only to explain how its test is read. Commercial blogs, supplement retailers and forums are not used as sources.
• Every number is checked. Study sizes, percentages and doses are checked against the abstract or full text of the cited source. Claims a source does not support are corrected or removed.
• Studies are described, not just cited. The text gives each study's year, design, size and population (for example, "a 2018 randomized trial of 34 people with IBS") and notes limits such as small size, no control group, laboratory or animal data, or a conflict of interest. Where we found no evidence for a popular claim, we say so.
• Practitioner advice is labeled. Some practical advice, such as meal spacing or managing "die-off", comes from SIBO practitioners rather than clinical trials. The text attributes it to "SIBO practitioners" so it is not mistaken for tested evidence.
• Safety information comes from the label. Warnings and interactions for medicines are taken from the official prescribing information.
• Every factual claim is cited. Numbered superscripts link to the full source in the Works Cited & Scientific References list at the end of each article. An automated check confirms that every listed source is cited and that citation and internal links work.
• Plain language comes first. Technical terms are explained in the text and in our glossary.

Even primary research can be small, early or contradictory. Where a point matters to your health, read the study it rests on and discuss it with your clinician.

What the guides are not

The guides are educational. They are not written by your doctor, they do not know your history, and they cannot diagnose or treat you. Do not start, stop, or change a medication, supplement, or restrictive diet based on this site alone. Our interactive tools follow published criteria but are also not a diagnosis. See the full medical disclaimer.

Dates and updates

Every article shows the date it was first published. When an article's content is revised, it also shows an Updated date. Medical understanding of SIBO is still changing, especially around breath-test interpretation and hydrogen sulfide, so newer research may supersede parts of older articles.

Corrections

If you find a factual error, a broken source link, or a claim that a cited source does not support, please email [email protected] with the page address and what needs fixing. Confirmed errors are corrected and the article's Updated date is changed.