Talk:Small bowel bacterial overgrowth syndrome

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Medicine. Please visit the project page for details or ask questions at the doctor's mess.
B	This page has been rated as B-Class on the quality assessment scale
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance assessment scale

An entry from Small bowel bacterial overgrowth syndrome appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 6 September 2006.

[edit] Merge from Leaky gut syndrome

Take a look at Leaky gut syndrome because it seems to be the same issue, albeit in a much smaller, not as well referenced article. Arthurrh 10:37, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure... leaky gut syndrome appears to lie more in the realm of alternative medicine, as opposed to bacterial overgrowth, which is well described in conventional gastroenterology. -- Samir 04:49, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I think that the article makes it appear that way, but from the way the doc described it, they're pieces of the same picture. That's why I think they should be merged, because the leaky gut article is extremely POV. Arthurrh 05:31, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

As I understand, leaky gut syndrome is not an entity that exists in conventional gastroenterology (I'm just not that familiar with the alternative medicine literature, unfortunately). A PubMed search on "leaky gut syndrome" reveals nothing in conventional gastroenterology journals; the only descriptors of "leaky gut" in conventional GI reference bacterial translocation through "leaky" cell junctions, rather than overgrowth within the lumen. Some have hypothesized this for cirrhotics, and others for intestinal permeability in Crohn's (PMID 11383597, PMID 9111522) and other transmural diseases of the bowel. I think it would be best to keep bacterial overgrowth in its own article as a conventional syndrome, and keep "leaky gut syndrome" as an alternative medicine syndrome with its own article. -- Samir 05:54, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Also, your link on bacterial overgrowth and IBS is excellent. There is increasing evidence for antibiotic use in IBS with SBBO-like pathogenesis thought to play a role in symptoms. We should add this to the article proper also. -- Samir 05:58, 14 August 2007 (UTC)