‘To boldly go where no man has gone before.’ Exploring the gas clouds of inner space with the IBS voyager.
Fantastic Voyage is a 1966 American science fiction film, starring Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch and Donald Pleasance as the crew of the submarine/spaceship, Proteus, that is able to shrink to … Continue reading
Any progress on constipation? Working it out with a pencil.
Of all aspects of bowel function, constipation must be the one that has shown least progress and most confusion. It goes with the territory. Although constipation can occur in … Continue reading
From High Fibre to Nutritional and Microbial Diversity: Back to the Future
Some time in the early nineteen eighties, I had the privilege of attending a lecture by Dennis Burkitt on the fibre hypothesis. Burkitt had worked for many years as a … Continue reading
Trumping: just another bad smell.
This month, The New Scientist reported that when it comes to trumping, macho, muscle building protein generates the most noxious smell. Farts, as journalist Alice Klein explains, are mostly … Continue reading
The Placebo Effect: Exploiting the art of healing.
The vespers for the dead began with the phrase, ‘Placebo domino in regione vivorum’ (I shall please the Lord in the land of the living). In the 12th century, these … Continue reading
Stool Gazing: A Definitive Guide.
In the nineteen sixties before the age of scans and blood tests for everything, medical students were drilled on in the arts of history taking and clinical examination. Xrays and … Continue reading
Can similar changes in the microbiome lead to both IBS and colon cancer?
I subscribe to ‘The Conversation’ and usually scan through its contents every morning. This post by Bradley Meehan, PhD researcher in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, University … Continue reading
Dietary fibre; is it time to reconsider?
There was a time, and not so long ago, when lack of dietary fibre was considered to be cause of most ailments of modern civilisation. Dennis Burkitt (remember him?) had, … Continue reading
The Sensitive Gut 