11/21/2025
🌿 What Is SIFO?
SIFO stands for Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth — meaning yeast or fungal organisms (most commonly Candida) have overgrown in the small intestine, where they don’t belong.
This overgrowth disrupts digestion, creates inflammation, and triggers a long list of symptoms like bloating, nausea, food sensitivities, brain fog, and sugar cravings.
🦠How Is SIFO Different From SIBO?
These two are often confused, but they’re completely different organisms:
SIBO = bacterial overgrowth
SIFO = fungal/yeast overgrowth
They can look identical symptom-wise — which is why so many people treat SIBO, feel better temporarily, and then crash right back into the same symptoms.
Even more confusing:
SIBO and SIFO often occur together, because once the gut environment becomes imbalanced, both bacteria and yeast can take advantage.
✨ Why Foundations Matter (More Than Protocols)
Here’s the part most people (and even many practitioners) miss:
You can treat SIBO.
You can treat SIFO.
But if the foundations that caused the overgrowth aren’t fixed, it always comes back.
Foundations include things like:
1. Detox pathways (liver congestion, poor bile flow, sluggish Phase 1/2/3 detox)
2. Nutrient deficiencies (especially B vitamins, minerals, amino acids)
3. Low stomach acid (which allows both bacteria + yeast to survive)
4. Poor motility (slow migrating motor complex = food + microbes sitting too long)
5. Weak immune function
6. Blood sugar instability
7. Stress and nervous system dysregulation
8. Dysbiosis in the colon
9. Food quality + inflammatory load
Without these foundations:
1. Fungal overgrowth grows back
2. Bacterial overgrowth grows back
3. Symptoms become chronic
4. “Protocols” stop working
5. People jump from one cleanse to the next with no real progress
The terrain matters more than the microbe.
Fix the environment → then treat the overgrowth → then rebuild…
That’s how you get lasting results. 🌿
