02/09/2025
Olive Leaf Tea Successful in SIBO Treatment - Hot off the Press!
As many patients (and clinicians) can attest, successful eradication of SIBO can sometimes be a challenge - whether this is with pharmaceutical options or natural medicines, like herbs and probiotics. So as a clinician, I’m always on the hunt to add more well-researched, efficacious tools into my SIBO treatment toolbox. Cue this olive leaf study….
49 patients with SIBO (as defined by a positive glucose breath test) were enrolled into this trial. Just over half the subjects (25) were randomly allocated to the olive leaf tea group and the other half to a no-treatment control group. Patients with hydrogen, methane (IMO), and mixed SIBO were enrolled – 40.8% were hydrogen producers, 34.7% methane, and 24.5% mixed.
For 2 months, patients in the tea group drank 2 cups of olive leaf tea daily. Each cup contained 1.7g of dried powdered olive leaves (~2 tsp) brewed in 250ml hot water for 7-10 mins. It is worth noting that they did not do any dietary changes. Breath tests, gut symptom assessment, and metabolic parameters were assessed at the beginning of the trial and then again after 2 months.
After 2 months, 88% of subjects in the olive leaf tea group were no longer positive for SIBO on breath testing vs 4.2% in the control group (P
