ibs TESTING: the complete guide
ibs test: who, why & what should you test
Getting an IBS diagnosis or understanding if or why you have IBS can be frustrating and challenging both for you and your GP. It can leave you with more questions than solutions. IBS defined as a ‘lifelong’ problem by the NHS, often taking a huge toll on the lifestyles and body-image and women.
At Functional Medicine Clinic, we don’t feel satisfied with simply accepting IBS as a lifelong problem however, and have spend thousands of hours researching, helping and sourcing some of the best tests in Europe to get more answers for our IBS women.
Whilst there is is no diagnostic test for IBS from a medical perspective, by understanding more about what imbalance is underlying your IBS symptoms, can help you map out how you need to adjust your diet, lifestyle and supplementation.
Recently, science around gut health and the gut microbiome has been racing ahead, gaining a better understanding of a range of digestive imbalances for those with IBS or IBS-type symptoms.
In this article, you’ll learn how to test for IBS using at-home Gut Health tests, helping you reduce your symptoms and be clearer about the causes, to manage your diet and bloating with more ease.
Index:
How do you test for IBS
Symptoms of IBS - key to diagnosis?
IBS Testing - Measuring Dysfunction
How do we test for IBS?
IBS test options
What most people tend to do wrong when IBS testing
Do we really need test - can’t we go by symptoms?
Where to get Help to re-gain a calm, flat tummy
If you want to learn more
HOW DO YOU TEST FOR IBS?
Since there is no medical test to help your GP diagnose IBS, we help you explore alternative Gut Health Test options available to you, so you can begin taking steps to start enjoying food again without restriction and stress. No more hiding bloating behind baggy tops.
We care about the root-cause of your digestive health, which also happens to play an important role in a whole range of issues such as easier weight, loss, mental wellness and minimising inflammation.
Is there a blood test for IBS?
In short, no. If serious digestive diseases or infections have been ruled out by your GP (such as coeliac, IBD, H.Pylori) you may be left with an IBS diagnosis (which is usually more of a functional problem).
SYMPTOMS OF IBS: What are they & do they hold the key to diagnosis?
Diagnosing IBS
NHS currently define IBS symptoms as:
Bloating, cramping, tummy pain
Loose stools, diarrhoea and/or constipation
As you consider the above symptoms however, you’ll note they aren’t very specific. We’ve all experienced some of these symptoms from time to time, so how do we differentiate between IBS and regular tummy off-days? It’s likely that frequency and your description on how they impact your life would weight heavily on the likelihood of a diagnosis.
Does an IBS diagnosis benefit you anyway?
Most syndromes are hard to diagnose, as they are often a collection of symptoms as oppose a clearly defined condition. Compare a disease such as cushions disease for example. There is clear dysfunction in a body organ which can be identified via very unnatural readings in your blood. Syndrome’s however, are less defined, and there can be variations in symptoms or frequency person to person. So do we really care much for a diagnosis? From our perspective, we’re far more interested in the root-cause.
Why do we call it ‘irritable’ bowel?
The term IBS was coined some time back in the 80’s (If i remember correctly) back in the day when many unexplainable day to day ailments were deemed to be caused by ‘emotions’ (i.e - if you couldn’t see it, it must be in your head!). IBS as you may know, affect women disproportionately by far, and because we had poor understanding of gut microbes in that day, if women could just stop being so ‘hysterical’ about our bloating and tummy troubles, symptoms would surely go away :).Trials were carried out using relaxation techniques, which seemed to help somewhat. Many women were therefore told their ‘irritable bowel’ were due to stress. There’s no doubt stress may exacerbate the symptoms of IBS, but it’s usually not the full picture.
Is the term Irritable Bowel Disease Outdated?
Here’s how we see it…
Because IBS symptoms reflect a failure to process our food, we don’t care much for or about the IBS diagnosis. It’s a pretty meaningless term in respect of understanding, treating or improving gut health.
IBS testing: measuring dysfunction
What causes IBS symptoms
If we’re saying that IBS is a syndrome which is a collection of symptoms - what we then want to do next is understand what’s behind the symptoms, so we can do work to address it.
Digestive function works a bit like this:
A highly complex, multi organ system, we produce many litres of digestive fluids a DAY. These digestive fluids contain bile, stomach acid and digestive enzymes - all specialist compounds used to break down the food into tiny bits. This is so that we can then absorb it via the gut wall, taking advantage of nutrients and energy from food. This is step number one (or rather, step 1-3 at least). The final steps are the colon where we digest fibre and plant matter, then evacuation.
These steps are sensitive, in that they need to happen in the right order, and you can’t miss a step. Fascinatingly, our body is able to measure somewhat what we just ate (high fat/high protein etc etc) and adjust digestive fluids to be of the right ratio - important for complete digestion.
The modern diet is particularly imbalanced or unnatural these days, which could impact some of this messaging.
The digestive system happily accepts what we put in it for the majority (as in, it’s not necessarily rejected, though of course this can happen) - but it’s adding extra pressure, and can be a challenge for our gut bacteria.
Can you tell by the IBS symptoms what the cause is?
Sadly - not really! Example: Every time of digestive failure will usually lead to bloating. Constipation or loose stools doesn’t necessarily mean SIBO or malabsorption - they can co-exist. Even with acid reflux, something we traditionally think of as a gastric (stomach - so not intestine) issue, the cause can be a variety of things, and will usually vary from person to person.
To conclude, symptoms alone are a really poor guide of the root cause of your IBS is!
This is why we prefer testing!
What about pharmaceuticals for constipation or diarrhoea?
We’re not here to advise you around pharmaceuticals (your GP’s remit!), but of course if we can improve the root cause as oppose to just putting a plaster on things and pretend it’s not there, that’s ideal for most people. So we would rather investigate the root cause - if the science isn’t perfect and there are grey areas.
how do we test for ibs?
IBS Tests options
What we want our IBS and Gut Health Test to tell us about your digestion:
Are you breaking down your food properly
Do you have enough good gut Microbes
Are there any ‘bad’ gut microbes
If there’s any inflammation, leaky gut or an upset mucosal lining, affecting any of the above and the whole of the body
What most people tend to do wrong when IBS testing
The most common issue we see is carrying out the wrong IBS or gut health tests. A minefield, between SIBO, the gut microbiome and more. We’re keen to save people both money, frustration (which can be considerate!) and making the road to healing considerably shorter!
The ibs test: What to include
Malabsorption and Fat Malabsorption
This is all about breaking down food adequately. If you don’t break down your food well, it can feed the wrong type of gut bacteria, creating secondary problems and cause a lot of bloating or wind. Can make digestive issues more complex to understand.
Digestive juices: stomach acid, bile acids, pancreatic digestive enzymes. Our tests can’t measure exactly the stomach acid content, but looks at the total PH when it comes out the other ‘end’ which may give an indication. Low pancreatic enzymes can exist with SIBO sometimes, and can fluctuate a little bit.
Fat malabsorption may cause wind, bloating and often fatigue or other symptoms which may last 2-3 days
Parasites and Candida
Protozoa (parasite organisms. Not creatures or worms, single cell organism, so similar to bacteria)
Candida and other yeasts (again, similar to bacteria). Not beneficial to health. Candida the most common overgrowth - can cause a lot of digestive symptoms and other body-wide symptoms
The Gut Microbiome
This is all about how you process vegetables, plants and wholegrain. A lack of enough good bacteria may lead to a TON of wind and bloating when consuming too many raw vegetables beans or lentils or other high fibre food.
We need these bacteria to help us make lots of really important vitamins for ourselves, to keep our metabolism happy and our mind free of depression and anxiety.
Leaky gut and inflammation
It’s useful to understand if you have an ‘unhappy’ gut lining and if you’re immune responses that lives in/by this gut lining is effected. This can help understand immune related
Are IBS Tests reliable or scientific?
Gut Health tests are based on emerging science as oppose to traditional medicine, using what lab skills we have to try and understand a life-limiting condition. Meaning, they are not diagnostic, there are lots of grey areas, but they use what technology we have to try and understand and rectify gut health dysfunctions. We don’t want to have to wait to help people until the science is more robust, knowing what we already know about gut health!
Interestingly,
we’ve known about the digestive mechanisms and how it all worked for a very very long time, so this part is not new at all. We even knew about the gut microbiome, we just couldn’t measure it very well (before gene technology).
HOW CAN IBS testS HELP YOU?
Ok, so whilst we call it IBS test for the purposes of this article and for the reader, we really like to call it Gut Function Analysis.
We’re especially trained Nutritionists, helping you understand how the test can explain some of your symptoms. We look for patterns and observations, finding deeper meaning behind the results.
Not diagnosing, not always clear cut - together with very detailed case historyt
can’t we tell from gut symptoms alone what the problem is, without the need for test?
This can be challenging. Many of our client’s have wasted years of googling, the wrong diets, tests and supplements and still have no real answers or progress with their gut health.
who should test and what should you include in your test
If you have complex or long standing gut health issues, go with the ‘everything’ test. It’s a bit investment and you don’t want to second guess or miss anything. This is a once in a lifetime investment, with the aim of changing the trajectory of your health and digestive wellness.
How do you know if your have simple or complex digestive issues?
If your symptoms are very multi-factorial, i’d describe them as complex. Examples would be
Both upper digestive concerns as well as wind/bloating and change in bowel habits, so e.g acid reflux or indigestion
If you have more than 3 significant, life-impacting gut health symptoms
If you have experienced digestive issues for many many years
If you also have systemic issues, such as inflammation, pain, auto-immune conditions or other health conditions or chronic health risks
…Not sure? Have had some tests with GP already? Fill in our health questionnaire and we’ll help advice…
How we ensure you use the right IBS test
Because we are practicing Nutritionists, we screen all our IBS test purchasers via a health questionnaire, and follow up with some guidance. We strongly recommend seeking the support via a specially trained Gut Health Practitioner (we’ve spent decades helping women overcome digestive issues, and many many years in degree level training) to interpret and action plan your IBS test or Gut Health test results.
Are gut issues simple to resolve?
Gut issues can be notoriously challenging and patience testing to resolve.
Why is it important to know if your not absorbing well?
Because when we test vitamin levels in our IBS clients - they are LOW!
Sad fact is, you can have a terrible diet and have higher levels of vitamins and minerals in your blood than someone on a perfect diet who’s not digesting and absorbing what they eat. That hard effort is fruitless, and you’re likely to have many body systems that feel ‘off’ or experience strange and body wide niggling symptoms (that your GP will have no explanation for).
Feeling Confused? Drop us a line with details of your current symptoms and we’ll give you a free assessment.
IBS diet - what should you eat?
Whilst the GP often-recommended Fodmap diet may give temporary relief for some, this is by no means a positive long term solution and may even leave you with bigger problems than when you started.
Better to tailor-make a diet plan that better fits your particular IBS.
A Success Story
Female Aged 43 with chronic constipation, sugar cravings, on/off ‘puffyness’ and low mood
Female with history of decades of digestive issues, constipation, acid reflux, food intolerances and joint pain. GP tests concluded no coeliac, but she felt gluten worsened her constipation somewhat. She had lots of heavy feeling in tummy with some pain and cramping. Very reactive painful wind if ate raw vegetables or certain foods.
A comprehensive stool test revealed a significant imbalance in gut microbes overall, with a triple whammy of too little good bacteria, candida, and lots of inflammatory pathogens (joint pain?).
The outcome
The client worked with us over 3 months, but then went on to self manage, once her tolerance to food had increased significantly. She continued to work on nurturing her gut with our tools, and at 9months had resumed natural bowel movements for the first time in her life.
get more help
How we could help you have natural bowel movements and a calm flat tummy:
We’re here to help, whether you just need some pointers for your own research, a full handholding programs that moves you forward, and just someone that listens, we’re here for you :).
Where to start?
Schedule a discovery call, or head to your ‘Which Test’ form HERE
