What’s next for IBS?
On Saturday afternoon at the King’s Hall, Ilkley, Professor Jim Al-Khalili, presenter of The Life Scientific on Radio 4, took us on a voyage into the future. ‘What scientific innovations … 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
Beano revisited: could enzyme treatment ever replace the low FODMAP diet?
In 1783, Benjamin Franklin wrote ‘it is universally well known, that in digesting our common food, there is created or produced in the bowels of human creatures, a great quantity … 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
So hypnotherapy is as effective as a low FODMAP diet for IBS. What does that mean?
I was interested to read this post from Dr Simone Peters from Monash University, which confirmed that gut-directed hypnotherapy is effective in 70 to 80% of people with IBS. Dr … Continue reading
De Profundis: Gluten, FODMAPS, Probiotics and Anguish from the Bowel.
The Royal Victoria Hotel in Sheffield, with its imposing red brick facade and the faded grandeur of its interior has not changed much since Oscar Wilde stayed there over a hundred … Continue reading
Low FODMAP diet; symptom relief at the expense of the microbiome?
While scanning the journals recently, I came across a review by Peter Gibson making the case for the low FODMAP diet as a first line treatment for IBS. He … Continue reading
‘The pain and the bloating come on as soon as I’ve eaten and then the diarrhoea starts.’
So is this food intolerance? As pointed out in a recent post by Jaci Barrett from the Monash Group, entitled The Timing of Symptoms, the symptoms of food intolerance caused … 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
The Low FODMAP diet. Ten years on.
In medicine, every new treatment tends to go through a cycle. First there is the breakthrough, the honeymoon phase, where it is miraculous, the answer to everything. Then comes the … Continue reading
The Sensitive Gut 