The functional nutrition approach to healing small intestinal fungal overgrowth focuses on identifying and addressing the root causes of symptoms through diet and lifestyle changes. This whole body, root cause approach is individualized based on a comprehensive functional nutrition assessment, individual symptoms, health history, and labs aiming to restore balance to the digestive system.

What is small intestinal fungal overgrowth or SIFO?

Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth otherwise known as SIFO is an over population of fungi in the small intestine that disrupt the gut microbiome resulting in multiple GI symptoms. Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth and Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth share many overlapping symptoms since they both occur in the small intestine, one is bacterial overgrowth while the other is fungal overgrowth.

The whole body, root cause approach to Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth from a functional nutrition perspective:

Overall from a whole body, root cause approach, to heal SIFO we would look at using a therapeutical diet to first manage GI symptoms, targeted supplements, and then work to rebalance the gut using the 5R Treatment Protocol linked here. Any potential root causes are identified using the STAIN method specifically looking at stress, toxins (mold, plastics, heavy metals), adverse food reactions, infections, and nutritional imbalances.

During the initial comprehensive functional nutrition assessment, we will look at:

• Past Medical History: initial comprehensive patient questionnaire, symptom questionnaire, root causes: STAIN (stress, toxins, adverse food reactions, infections, nutritional imbalances), history of N/V/D/C, family history of GI disorders, current medications/OTC’s and supplements.
• Anthropometrics: changes in body weight, weight loss, weight gain.
• Nutrition Focused Physical Exam: dark circles under eyes, mouth sores, red, swollen, or coated tongue, skin rashes, hair thinning/hair loss, swollen joints, abdominal distention/bloating.
• Dietary and Food Habits: nutrient density in meals, caloric intake, meal pattern and timing, macronutrient balance, fiber types and sources, processed food and refined sugar intake, alcohol intake, adverse food reactions (food allergies or intolerances), FODMAPs, lactose, fructose, or sucrose intolerance, gluten sensitivity, histamine intolerance, prebiotic sources, probiotic sources, fermented foods, gut microbiome diversity.
• Conventional Labs: Comprehensive metabolic profile (CMP), CBC with differential, fasting insulin & HbA1C, complete iron profile including serum ferritin, serum 25-OH Vitamin D, and serum B12.
• Functional Labs: GI-MAP by diagnostic solutions or OAT test by mosaic diagnostics.
• Wearables Data: apple watch for exercise/HRV (heart rate variability), whoop for exercise/HRV, oura ring for sleep tracking.

A personalized functional nutrition care plan will be created for you based on the data from the initial comprehensive functional nutrition assessment that includes personalized diet therapy that is condition specific, personalized targeted supplements, as well as lifestyle changes in stress level, sleep quality, and exercise which are important for gut health.

By addressing these underlying causes — through personalized approaches like nutrition, simple lifestyle changes, and targeted supplements — functional nutrition aims to bring the body back into balance and resolve SIFO at its root.

What are common symptoms associated with Small intestinal fungal overgrowth?

Symptoms are a sign that something is off internally within one of these systems: Inflammation, Gut Dysbiosis or Gut Imbalance, Impaired Detoxification, Hormonal Imbalance, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Circadian Rhythm Disturbances, Oxidative Stress, Neuro-disruption, or Immune dysregulation. Symptoms are essentially your body crying out for help in the only way that they know how to communicate. Symptoms associated with SIFO include:

• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Bloating
• Gas
• Fatigue

What are root causes of Small Intestinal fungal overgrowth?

• Lack of a nutrient-dense diet
• Excessive antibiotic use

Conditions that can commonly co-exist alongside Small intestinal fungal overgrowth:

• Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
• IBS

How can I test for small intestinal fungal overgrowth using functional lab testing?

Using the SIBO breath test is not accurate for detecting SIFO. You may benefit from checking for potential nutrient (vitamin/mineral) deficiencies as SIFO can be a cause of nutritional imbalances due to improper absorption. You may use a GI-MAP stool test to assess gut health and imbalances.

My storefront is linked here to order functional labs, which is signed off by a nationally-licensed physician, to assess for gut health issues, hormonal imbalances, or vitamin/mineral deficiencies. If you need help creating a personalized functional nutrition care plan based on the interpretation of any of the above functional labs, you can work with us here.

Functional lab testing would be a good idea if you really wanted to hone in on the specifics of gut microbiome imbalances, hormonal imbalances, vitamin/mineral deficiencies.

Are there any therapeutic diets used in healing Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth from a root cause approach?

A therapeutic elimination diet is the go-to for symptom relief while also re-balancing the gut microbiome. Looking at it from the STAIN framework — Stress, Toxins, Adverse Food Reactions, Infections, and Nutritional Imbalances — we aim to identify the root causes and design a personalized nutrition care plan based on your unique biochemical individuality. Biochemical individuality is the concept that each of us has a different nutrition blueprint to achieve optimal wellness. We each have our own, unique genetic expression and that is shown in a personalized nutrition care plan made just for you.

A diet that aims to first manage GI symptoms, reduce inflammation, reduce fungal fuel based on their food reactions, and reduce immune system burden. These are short-term therapeutic diets that are not meant for you to stay on the rest of your life. We are aiming to first heal and repair the gut, slowly re-introduce new foods, identify any trigger foods, and then work to rebalance the gut using the 5R Treatment Protocol linked here.

Tip: Keep a food journal so that pre and post meals you can become more in tune with your body and see how certain meals make you feel. Continuously check in with yourself to see how you are feeling, this is the type of subjective information that only you can know for yourself and make sure to share this information with the dietitian that you are working with!

Ask yourself: How do I feel after eating this specific meal? *insert symptom here* It’s helpful to have a dietitian that is able to look at your food journals so that they can decipher what specific ingredient or a combination of ingredients that may be causing these symptoms. Having a food journal is also helpful to look for any potential food reactions that may be related to SIFO.

Are there any supplements, Probiotic strains, botanicals, or herbal Antimicrobials that are helpful in healing small intestinal fungal overgrowth?

Targeted supplements, alongside a therapeutic diet using a food as medicine approach, are often used for gut microbiome support and healing. Remember supplements are there to “supplement” or to help the main treatment which is using a food as medicine approach to healing.

Make sure to order from a high quality and third party tested brand instead of purchasing from Amazon where practically anyone can sell anything without any rigorous testing. To make it easier for you, you may order from my supplement dispensary below through Fullscript’s catalog where each brand and product meets strict top quality standards. You can learn more about third party testing here.

My supplement dispensary is linked here (with a 30% off discount!) and you do not need to be a client to place an order.

What are some diet and lifestyle tips that can help me during the process of healing small intestinal fungal overgrowth?

Look at sleep, diet, exercise, and stress management.

Here are some helpful tips for you to begin the process of healing SIFO:

• Chewing food thoroughly and mindfully.
• Intermittent fasting potentially (only if cortisol levels are already balanced otherwise IF is a stressor and will elevate cortisol)
• Pre-meal deep breathing to encourage MMC (migrating motor complex) function.
• Having proper mealtimes where you are sitting down (not standing up!) and making sure to properly and mindfully chew your food. By carving out a special time to eat, you are telling your body to relax into the parasympathetic state (rest and digest state) which is essential for optimal digestion. Allow your body to slow down, make sure that you are in a seated position, rest, remove any distractions, and simply enjoy your meals for better digestion.
• Adequate hydration: adding a couple drops of apple cider vinegar or digestive bitters into your water bottle and drinking before meals (not during meals which will mess with stomach acid production) to increase stomach acid production.
• Proper sleep: having a good sleep routine will help with getting a good nights rest leading to better gut health.
• Using a tongue scraper in the morning before or after you brush your teeth.
• Try eating with your hands in order to eat less portion sizes, to get more in touch with the texture of your food, and to eat more mindfully and slower. The skin microbiome on your fingers will positively affect your gut microbiome. (make sure that you have clean hands and use your right hand preferably)
• Using a bidet

Gentle reminder: Don’t stress yourself with an all or nothing mentality where you feel like you have to implement everything on this list all at once. Sometimes in order to reach the end goal, you need to take baby steps at first and build these habits bit by bit.

How can I heal small intestinal fungal overgrowth with the help of a functional nutrition dietitian?

Each person is unique and this is recognized in a personalized functional nutrition assessment and intervention plan that engages and empowers the patient in this process to restore optimal function, manage symptoms and promote overall health and well-being.

Functional nutrition addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. We look at it from a root-cause perspective and create a focus on prevention through nutrition, therapeutic diets, targeted supplementation, exercise, interpretation of conventional and/or functional lab testing, botanicals, detoxification protocols, and stress management tools.

Overall from a whole body, root cause approach, to heal SIFO we would look at using a therapeutical diet to manage GI symptoms, targeted supplements, and then work to rebalance the gut using the 5R Treatment Protocol linked here.

By addressing these underlying causes — through personalized approaches like evidence-based nutrition, simple lifestyle changes, and targeted supplements — functional nutrition aims to bring the body back into balance and resolve SIFO at its root.