The Gut trust membership pack
The pack comprised of a newsletter, introductory letter with membership card and 16 A4 sized information leaflets.
The leaflet titles are:
Diarrhoea
What is Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Investigations and Procedures
IBS in Children
Drug Treatments
Constipation
Gas Bloating and Wind
Stress and Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Diet and Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Homeopathy
Hypnotherapy
Acupuncture
Reflexology
Candida and IBS
Probiotics
Information for Partners and Carers
The leaflets were all well written and informative
The newsletter was issue number 71, some back issues are available on the website in pdf format for members to download and read.
The newsletter contained a mixture of articles, letters and a small amount of advertising. The lead story was entitled “Putting the testers to the test” and was in response to a recent Which? report that said tests were ‘often contradictory and inconsistent’.
The responses were from dietitian Claire Hanika and Dr Nick Read (The trusts medical advisor). Claire seemed to be of the view that the tests were often expensive and of little use, Dr Read who promotes ‘Yorktest’ seemed to have little to say apart from agreeing that some tests such as
‘hair analysis, kinaesthesilogy and body conductance are exercises in pseudo science with no evidence base.’
His comments on Yorktest and Cambridge Nutritional services were that their
‘methodology was scientifically valid, the technicians are trained and as far as Yorktest are concerned, qualified nutritionists are available to offer advice on dietary modification.’
he then almost seems to cast doubt on his conclusions by saying
‘The rationale and methods look good, but if they are that good why is IgG testing not available on the NHS?’
Yorktest were also given a voice in the newsletter and were asked for their response to the Which report. Their response was.
“Although the article confused allergy and intolerance, it examined the many different ways of testing for food intolerance with some methods offering less scientific grounding than others. Yorktest are keen to point out that, both First Step and FoodScan 113, are laboratory tests with clinical and published scientific credentials. Yorktest also offer full customer and nutritional support and wholeheartedly agree with Which? investigation that some less qualified tests offer little support. The YorkTest’s FoodScan service includes two telephone consultations with BANT qualified nutritionists - a key part of the YorkTest FoodScan service designed to support customers in modifying their diet.
FoodScan is the only food intolerance test endorsed by Allergy UK”
I will be detailing my experience with YorkTest in future articles when I have received my test results.
Overall the newsletter was well written and informative with a good balance between articles and readers experiences.
