Welcome to Dr. Rousho Radio, providing practical and science-based solutions to feeling your best.

To stay up to date on the latest topics, as well as all of our prior episodes, make sure to subscribe in your podcast player.

For weekly updates, visit Dr. Russo.com. That's d r-R-R-U-S-C-I-O.com.

The following discussion is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or

treat any disease. Please do not apply any of this information

without first speaking with your doctor. Now, let's head to the show. Hey everyone, let's discuss

CBO or small intestinal bacterial growth and what this means to your health and a few things that are

simple and natural. You can do to improve it. Cibo, as the name implies,

indicates there is an inappropriately elevated level of bacteria in the small intestine.

There should be roughly 50,000 units of bacteria in the small intestine. And when this overgrowth

occurs, we shift from what should be a commensal or

symbiotic relationship with these bacteria to one that's more detrimental or pathogenic.

The fact that this occurs in the small intestine is noteworthy and important because remember

that the small intestine is 22 feet in length, whereas the large intestine is only

five feet in length. In fact, the surface of the small intestine is so absorbative that it's about

2,500 square feet about the size of a tennis court of absorption capacity.

And this is why 95% of calories and nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine.

Now, as we have this membrane that is absorbing these nutrients and these calories,

we also need to have policing of the traffic through. This is why 70% of your immune system is actually in the small intestine. And it's these tie-ins to

absorption of nutrients and the immune system, therefore inflammation, which is how SIBO or other similar imbalances

in the small intestine can lead to such a seemingly broad and maybe even unrelated array

of symptoms. And if we do kind of a top-down scan, we can run through some of these.

...