Faecal Calprotectin: a simple stool test to rule out colitis?
This is not so much a test for IBS but a test for not-IBS. Faecal Calprotectin (FC) is a marker released from white blood cells (leukocytes) that are exuded … Continue reading
Does you doctor always know best or can you sort something out between you?
Doctors are men who prescribe medicines, of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing. Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) … 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
At last; a positive test for IBS?
You’ve heard it all before. IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion. If you have ongoing symptoms of bowel irritability; abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhoea or frustrated defaecation, then your doctor should … Continue reading
It may be shocking, but does your doctor understand your IBS?
Sam Bearfoot, who blogs and broadcasts on UK Health Radio as The Digestion Detective, wrote last week to say how much she enjoyed The IBS Network’s 25th Anniversary Event, ‘IBS, … Continue reading
IBS: let’s change the model.
The practice of medicine still operates on a model that was developed early in the last century. First establish the diagnosis, then identify the cause and finally apply the treatment. … Continue reading
IBS. What’s in a Name?
When The Queen successfully discovered the name of the manipulative goblin, Rumplestiltskin, she was instantly relieved of her promise to give him her first born child. Naming a thing gives … Continue reading
My doctor never listens; he tells me it’s just IBS ……
My doctor never listens to me. He tells me it’s just IBS. There is nothing seriously wrong and I must learn to live with it. The tablets he prescribes never … Continue reading
Should all roads lead from Rome?
The Rome Committee for the categorisation of functional gastrointestinal disorders, including The Irritable Bowel Syndrome, was founded in 1990 to develop appropriate criteria for the diagnosis of all the different … Continue reading
The Sensitive Gut 