One of the questions people ask me most often about SIBO and IBS is what I use to keep mine under control. I’ve talked about my treatment regime in previous posts, but today I’m going to go into more detail about one of my favorite supplements, Iberogast.
Using Iberogast for SIBO and IBS has been very beneficial for me the past year. I wish I had known about it sooner. For the 8 years I struggled with IBS before being formally diagnosed with SIBO, I hadn’t even heard of it!
Hopefully, this post will let others learn about Iberogast for SIBO and IBS, so you can see if it might help you.
What is Iberogast?
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Iberogast is an herbal preparation used for digestive problems. Sometimes it’s also referred to as STW 5. It’s a liquid that contains extracts of nine different herbs:
- Bitter candy tuft (Iberis amara)
- Lemon balm leaf (Melissa officinalis)
- Chamomile flower (Matricaria chamomilla)
- Caraway fruit (Carum carvi)
- Peppermint leaf (Mentha piperita)
- Liquorice root (Glycyrrhiza glabra)
- Angelica root (Angelica archangelica)
- Milk thistle fruit (Silybum marianum)
- Greater celandine herb (Chelidonium majus)
These nine herbs have positive effects on the digestive system that can help with SIBO, IBS, or other digestive problems. It’s used to help with cramping, diarrhea, bloating, gas, heartburn, and nausea.
The recommended dosage is 20 drops, three times a day, for an adult. It has a medicinal, herbal taste that isn’t horrible, but isn’t exactly tasty. You can mix it in with some water but the water will still taste a bit herbal.
What I recommend is mixing it in with some tea. I personally mix it in with my favorite ginger tea. The flavor combination actually works really well and it tastes pleasant! Ginger is a prokinetic and helps with nausea and bloating, so you get even more benefits consuming Iberogast this way.
Please be careful about Iberogast use if you have liver problems, as one of the ingredients, Celandine, can be hard on the liver.
Does Iberogast Work for SIBO and IBS?
Personally, I have found that Iberogast works really well for me.
My SIBO and IBS are a result of an autoimmune reaction to food poisoning, sometimes called post-infectious IBS or post-infectious SIBO. Some of the symptoms I still deal with frequently include nausea, gas, and bloating. I also need a prokinetic to keep my digestive muscles moving smoothly and properly. Iberogast has helped me with all of these. It does a good job of settling my stomach and helping with motility.
Maintaining intestinal motility is super important in keeping SIBO from relapsing. Without proper motility, bacteria will continue to accumulate in the small intestine and you will continue to have problems. Iberogast acts as a prokinetic, which means it assists with keeping motility normal.
As you might know if you follow this blog, I really like to see the clinical or scientific data behind treatments. There is so too much unfounded information about treating SIBO and IBS out there.
This is one of the other reasons I like Iberogast so much–it has a wealth of peer-reviewed studies to back its efficacy.
What do studies say about Iberogast for SIBO and IBS?
As you might know if you follow this blog, I really like to see the clinical or scientific data behind treatments. There is too much unfounded information about treating SIBO and IBS out there. Every day I hear people advocating for all kinds of cures for SIBO and IBS, many of which have little or no scientific basis to believe work.
No judgement in trying those, as I’ve certainly tried way more than my fair share of unsubstantiated treatments. But ultimately, the ones that I’ve found most helpful are (unsurprisingly) those backed by legitimate scientific evidence.
Happily, Iberogast has lots of studies backing it up.
One study of Iberogast found that it improved upper and lower gastrointestinal symptoms in children. Even better, in 38.6% of the children studied, their symptoms were completely relieved! This is good news for parents searching for natural ways to help with their kids’ SIBO and IBS symptoms.
Another interesting study found that Iberogast helps to regularize gastrointestinal motility, alleviates hypersensitivity, inhibits inflammation, suppresses gastric hypersecretion, and modulates the microbiota. This study looked at how actual patients in fared in clinical practice, not in a scientific study. Patients tolerated Iberogast well, even when taking other medications and with other health problems.
Yet another study of Iberogast for SIBO and IBS found that it reduced abdominal pain and IBS symptoms as opposed to patients in the control group.
There are many more studies involving Iberogast for SIBO and IBS out there. These studies are one of the reasons I feel confident recommending that people try Iberogast for SIBO and IBS
Where can you find Iberogast?
The easiest and cheapest place I’ve found to get Iberogast is Amazon, you can find it here. I haven’t seen it in stores anywhere but it might be available. I find that a bottle lasts me about a month or so.
Have you tried Iberogast and found it helpful? Let me know in the comments what your experience with it is!
Do you know it iberogast helps belching? I’ve cleared SIBO but still deal with annoying belching. On LDN for motility and relapse prevention as I have autoimmune SIBO from food poisoning as well. I have a bottle of iberogast and when I was in the thick of my SIBO I couldn’t tolerate it but now that I don’t have SIBO iberogast doesn’t give me issues. I’ve only been taking it once a day- maybe I need to do 3 times to see a difference.
That’s a good question. I haven’t specifically seen any evidence of it for that purpose. But yes, I would see if taking the recommended dosage for a few weeks helps, as long as it doesn’t bother you you’ve got nothing to lose! Congrats on clearing SIBO!
I struggled with SIBO for 7 years and tried everything. Dr. Siebecker was actually my doctor for a while and she and her protege, Dr. Megan Taylor, prescribed many treatments and diets. I would usually see some improvement then the symptoms returned. Almost everything except for meat, eggs, and cheese made me sick. That is not a healthy diet. Finally, in spring of 2018 I did another elemental diet and then started using Iberogast twice a day. My symptoms have almost completely disappeared and I can now eat almost anything without discomfort. A change of schedule a month or so ago caused me to forget my morning dose for a couple of weeks and SIBO symptoms started to return. Resuming it made the symptoms disappear again.
That suggests that the root cause of the SIBO is probably still there. Medical knowledge about SIBO is changing daily, but what I was told when I started taking motility agents (Iberogast is not the first one I’ve tried) was that keeping the food moving through the small intestine was critical to allowing the intestine to heal. I am hopeful that healing will take place, but if it never does, I can live with the Iberogast for the rest of my life if necessary. I just hope it keeps working.
Brian did you have hydrogen sibo or hydrogen & methane?
I struggle with GI symptoms and believe I may have SIBO. I am looking into the right treatment for me, meanwhile I saw your post about Iberogast. Unfortunately, the ingredients are of concern for me, especially the licorice root, as I have researched it several times (it is often included in GI herbal treatments) and it is clearly NOT recommended for people with autoimmune disease as it stimulates the immune system and that is not what you want. Just wondering if you can recommend other natural motility options? Thank you
Hi Christie, thanks for reading! As for non-prescription motility options, I’ve heard of some people taking MotilPro, which I don’t know anything about or what ingredients it has. I also personally use ginger. I drink it as a tea, but I know some people take ginger capsules. I’m not sure what other options there are besides those unfortunately. Let me know what you find or end up trying!
I’ve been having sibo and other digestive issues since 2008, and even ended up in ER last week due to the pain I was having in my stomach and ileocecal valve (that felt like it was going to explode). I know that the pain I was experiencing was due to my high fiber diet and a lot of oats which were irritating the valve, so it’s back to a zero carb diet of mostly meat for me. The only thing that was helping with my motility problems until last week was taking a teaspoon of himalayan salt mixed with 1 litre of water 1st thing in the morning on an empty stomach. It has been 5 days since taking Iberogast 3 times a day (20 drops in water each time, 15 minutes before meals as recommended on the packet in the Czech Republic), and since then, almost no more stomach pain, massively reduced discomfort of the ileocecal valve and pretty much eating at regular intervals again which was a real problem for me before mostly due to nausea or lack of hunger. I’ll definitely be using Iberogast for a long time if my issues keep lessening in such a dramatic way.
Hi Jean-Pierre:
Are you still using Iberogast? I also experience pain around my ileocecal valve. I would like to try iberogast. Thanks for your input!
Yes – in fact my prescription of low dose erythromycin ran out a few weeks ago and I have yet to get it refilled, so right now I’m taking is iberogast!! Good luck, I hope it helps you! Let me know how it goes.
I tried Iberogast last week. It is definitely a wonderful option to keep sibo under control. Unfortunately, as side effects, i had headaches and a pervasive sensation of thirst no matter how much water I drunk. . I have to find out other prokinetic! Thanks Emily for sharing this wonderful information!
Hi James, thank you for the kind words! That is so strange with the thirst – I have never heard of that happening! Unfortunately it seems that many of these things require so much trial and error to find what works. Best of luck,
Emily
Hi, I have SIBO and tried this today. Part of my SIBO symptoms is anxiety and this definitely flared this. Within 10 minutes I felt sick and anxious. Perhaps its also a kill supplement as when i upset the balance of my gut flora i get the anxious symptoms. Does this resonate with you?
I haven’t had that experience or heard of that happening, but the gut and the brain are very connected, so it could be linked somehow. Or could just be anxiety from trying something new. Have you tried it again since then?
This sounds like something to try. I’ve had two rounds of antibiotics, which didn’t resolve my sibo. But I’ve since read that I should’ve maybe been prescribed an anti-kinetic. Still awaiting test results but I think I have slow motility, most probably due to pressure from fibroids on my colon. My question about iberogast is, it contains peppermint oil. That’s not meant to be great for the GERD/lpr that sibo can produce. Does the peppermint affect you?
Or anyone here?
I think you might mean a prokinetic, not an antikinetic! I took a pharmaceutical one for about a year (erythromycin) in addition to Iberogast which I think helped. I haven’t had any problem with peppermint, I drink peppermint tea too, but I have never had acid reflux problems. Peppermint is soothing on the stomach (if you don’t have acid problems). I think whatever the amount in Iberogast is, is probably very small. And in combination with the other herbs it might not bother you. Could be something to try! Good luck and let us know how it goes if you do try it!
what if i tried prokinetic for 2 months, and then sibo came back after it? my intestines dont want to be normal speed. they are slow without prokinetic 🙁
My understanding is that many people take a prokinetic indefinitely. Certainly longer than 2 months at least.
Thanks for this article. I was just reading on verywell health that iberogast can also lower stomach acid- which worries me- because I have been told I have low stomach acid. Would it be wise to choose alternative digestive bitters/ prokinetics?