Are you bothered by abdominal bloating, gas, flatulence, belching or an irritable bowel (constipation alternating with diarrhea, or maybe predominantly one or the other)? You may have a condition called “small intestine bacterial overgrowth,” or SIBO, a relatively newly recognized form of intestinal dysbiosis. You may already know about one kind of intestinal dysbiosis, where candida and/or other bad bugs get the upper hand over the good bugs in your intestines. SIBO is another kind of intestinal dysbiosis found only in the small intestine—that twenty-foot long convoluted tube curled up in your abdomen that leads from stomach to colon. When bacteria and other microorganisms that usually live in the small intestine, with beneficial or at least neutral effects, proliferate abnormally (“overgrow”), a pathological situation develops. This leads to the kind of symptoms mentioned above, as well as to nausea, leaky gut, malabsorption and deficiencies in certain n…

. . . it boosts your insulin-producing cells  Almost 10% of our population today is diabetic, and if some big changes aren't made, up to one-third of the population is projected to be diabetic by the year 2050. Medical expenses among people with diagnosed diabetes are 2.3 times higher than they would have been without this illness, and diabetes costs the US almost $200 billion a year. But preventing diabetes is really quite easy. A good diet, managing your weight, and exercise are the basics. And one more thing: adequate vitamin D. A recent study found that vitamin D boosts the beta cells -- cells that make insulin, which helps to prevent diabetes. In another study, the same researchers found that those with a vitamin D status of 25ng/ml had a 43% lower risk of developing type II diabetes than those with less than 14ng/ml. Other studies have linked vitamin D deficiency with impaired insulin production and increased insulin resistance.  Vitamin D is one of those molecules th…