Snaklog

Had hospital appointment this morning at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with Mr King, who is one of the consultants. I wasn’t kept waiting too long. Had a very informal chat about how I had been over the last few months. Told him about wheat free diet and taking daily amounts of normacol and that apart from the recent bout I hadn’t been too bad.

He suggested I have a barium enema; last one was five years ago; to give them a base line on the condition of the lining of my stomach. He told me I had IBS and diverticular disease and to carry on with the wheat free diet and to continue managing my condition as I do now.

Suggested drinking chamomile or peppermint tea when I have another attack as they both have anti spasmodic properties that are more gentle than traditional remedies such as mebeverine or spasmonal.

I finally got round to booking my first telephone consultation with YorkTest last week, a very pleasant lady called today and discussed my results. I had already dropped many of the foods from my diet and have noticed improvements over the last few weeks. One of the foods was yeast which is in a large amount of foods including vinegar, although I can have spirit or distilled vinegar.

 

Advice given was to avoid foods with a score of 1 for 3 months this included Wheat, peanuts, gluten, cows milk and buckwheat.

 

Foods with a score of 2 to be avoided for 6 months included Egg yolk and yeast

 

A score of 3 mean’t to avoid for 9 months this was just egg white.

 

After the times had passed she advised trying small quantities of each to see if there was any adverse reaction, if no reaction should try consuming normally again but only once in every 4 days.

 

I’ll see how I go an report back

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.

 

I signed up with The Gut Trust over the Christmas holiday period costs £24.00 per year. A package arrived from them today comprising an introductory letter, membership card and an information pack.

 

The introductory letter gave details of their helpline which puts you in touch with a specialist nurse experienced in dealing with IBS.

 

The information pack contains loads of information about IBS as well as a copy of their latest newsletter.

 

I’ve still got to read through all the literature but will report my thoughts later.

 

A very nice lady from YorkTest called me today to explain that they had the results of the stage one test. She asked me a couple of questions about any symptoms I had and if I had already made any dietary changes.

 

I told her I had been diagnosed with IBS and that I had already cut wheat from my diet. She explained that the part one food intolerance test had come back positive indicating a food intolerance and that I could pay a further £245 to have a FoodScan 113 done this would indicate which foods from a possible 113 I have shown an intolerance to on a scale of 1 to 4.

 

I would also be able to have a telephone consultation with a nutritionist who would be able to help me set up an elimination diet. I said I wanted to proceed with the FoodScan 113 test and would call her later with credit card details. Following payment I should receive results within 10 days.