IBS Specialist in London

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a chronic digestive health issue.

You should consider IBS an umbrella term. Often it is used as an end diagnosis. However, our IBS specialists in London can help you uncover the underlying causes of IBS.

IBS causes can range from things like infections, overgrowths or imbalances in the gut microbiome, stress and anxiety, vagus nerve imbalances, insufficiencies in nutrients, enzymes and acids, hormonal imbalances, food allergies, sensitivities or intolerances and more.

Our IBS Specialists take a whole-body approach when it comes to addressing the root cause of IBS.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) presents with a variety of symptoms that can vary in intensity and duration from person to person.

The most common symptoms of IBS include:

Abdominal Pain and Cramping

This is often relieved by passing a bowel movement and is typically a key symptom of IBS.

Bloating and Gas

Many individuals with IBS experience a feeling of fullness and increased gas production. Often this gas develops through the day but sometimes people can feel bloated around the clock.

Diarrhoea

Frequent loose or watery stools are common, particularly in IBS-D (IBS with diarrhoea). This is more typical when there has been a past acute infection or ongoing chronic infection or acute reactions to certain foods.

Constipation

Hard, dry stools that are difficult to pass are typical in IBS-C (IBS with constipation). Something you might see more with imbalances in the gut microbiome, insufficiencies of enzymes, nutrient insufficiencies, stress, poor dietary & lifestyle habits.

Alternating Bowel Habits

Some people with IBS alternate between diarrhoea and constipation, known as IBS-M (mixed type).

Mucus in the Stool

A noticeable presence of white mucus in the stool is another symptom. This is usually a sign of inflammation / infection that should be investigated.

Changes in Bowel Movement Frequency

Unpredictable changes in how often you have a bowel movement.

These symptoms can significantly impact daily life and managing them often requires a tailored approach. Consulting with one of our IBS specialists in London or online can help identify your specific symptoms and provide appropriate management strategies, ensuring you receive a comprehensive and personalised treatment plan.

Our IBS specialists can guide you through dietary adjustments, lifestyle changes, appropriate lab testing, supplementation to effectively manage and alleviate your symptoms as well as address the root cause.

Managing Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) often involves making dietary changes to help alleviate symptoms. While trigger foods can vary from person to person, there are common culprits that tend to cause problems for many individuals with IBS.

High-FODMAP Foods

FODMAPs are a group of short-chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine.

Gluten

Some people with IBS find that gluten, a protein in wheat, barley, and rye, exacerbates their symptoms. Trying a gluten-free diet may help.

Dairy Products

The most common trigger of IBS symptoms in dairy products is lactose. However, some individuals will also be sensitive to the proteins in dairy.

Fatty Foods

Foods/meals that are high in fat, such as fried foods, fatty meats, and rich desserts, can worsen IBS symptoms. This is especially the case if there are issues with bile and digestive enzyme levels.

Caffeinated Beverages

Drinks like coffee, tea, and energy drinks can stimulate the intestines and may lead to diarrhoea or cramping. They can certainly lead to a sense of urgency, especially in those with more sensitive stomachs.

Alcohol

Alcoholic beverages can irritate the gut and lead to dehydration, both of which can exacerbate certain IBS symptoms.

Carbonated Drinks

Fizzy drinks can increase gas and bloating, leading to discomfort for those with IBS.

Artificial Sweeteners

Sweeteners such as sorbitol, mannitol, and aspartame, often found in sugar-free products, can cause digestive upset, sometimes leading to loose stools.

Identifying and avoiding trigger foods is crucial for managing IBS symptoms effectively. Working with an IBS specialist in London can help you develop a personalised diet plan that minimises your symptoms while ensuring you maintain a balanced and nutritious diet.

We can also guide you through the process of following targeted therapeutic diets like the low FODMAP diet, Specific Carbohydrate Diet, SIBO Specific Diet, Elimination Diet and more. All our IBS specialists are all qualified nutrition professionals.

There is no one single best diet for IBS. As IBS is an umbrella term that classifies an array of symptoms and potentially underlying causes, it is understandable that there is not a single diet that helps everyone.

However, there have been some diets that have been shown to help manage the symptoms of IBS. In some cases, these diets also work on the underlying cause and in other cases they are symptom relievers.

Here are some diets that our IBS Specialists would consider:

Low FODMAP Diet

FODMAPs are a group of short-chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine. They include:

Fermentable Oligosaccharides: Found in wheat, rye, onions, and garlic.
Disaccharides: Found in dairy products containing lactose.
Monosaccharides: Found in foods high in fructose, such as certain fruits and honey.
Polyols: Found in some fruits and artificial sweeteners like sorbitol and mannitol.

Elimination Diet

Some people with IBS find relief by avoiding certain food triggers. An elimination diet classically looks at removing the most common food triggers such as gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, caffeine, alcohol, refined sugar. However, variations of this diet can be created by our IBS specialists and in some cases, we can use data from testing to guide an elimination diet.

Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) is another dietary approach that some people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) may find beneficial. The SCD diet is designed to limit specific types of carbohydrates that are believed to contribute to digestive problems.

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet focuses on eliminating complex carbohydrates and only allowing easily digestible carbohydrates. The idea is to reduce the amount of undigested carbohydrates in the gut, which can feed harmful bacteria and yeast, leading to symptoms like bloating, gas, and diarrhoea.

Working with our IBS specialist in London can help you develop a tailored dietary plan that addresses your specific symptoms and nutritional needs.

A structure often used in Functional Medicine to help with IBS is called the 5R approach. This involves the following:

Remove

This involves removing things that are potentially driving the IBS type symptoms. This might include testing for and addressing certain infections, overgrowths, or imbalances. It may also mean following a targeted therapeutic diet, removing potential allergies, sensitivities, or intolerances to foods to help manage symptoms.

Replace

Here we look at what we might need to add back in. This could be foods that may have a therapeutic benefit, or it could mean adding back in acids, enzymes, nutrients etc that could aid overcoming IBS. By adding things back in that the body needs, this may help to reduce the risk of IBS flares and reoccurrences.

Repopulate

Ideally the bugs within us coexist in supporting our health. Unfortunately, when they get out of balance or become too dominant in unwanted areas this can lead to IBS symptoms.

Through testing we can establish what the imbalances are, where they are and what we can do to improve upon this.

Repopulating the gut with selected probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, fibres and phytonutrients can be very important to create long term improvements in your digestive health. Relying on the removal phase alone, will often lead to recurrence of the same or similar imbalances shortly after.

Repair

Unfortunately, a major cause and effect of imbalances in the digestive system is the breakdown of our intestinal lining, also known as leaky gut or intestinal permeability.

Our digestive lining is like a bouncer on the nightclub door, allowing good things in, kicking bad things out and stopping bad things to get in. When this breaks down and things get into the body that should not this can trigger off systemic immune and inflammatory response that affect the whole body.

If we see evidence of impaired intestinal barrier function, we look to treat the underlying reason for this and provide nutrients and compounds that assist in it’s recovery. Underlying causes can be infections, food sensitivities and overgrowths, however other common causes include nutrient insufficiencies and stress.

Rebalance

Rebalancing involves optimising nutrition, sleep, stress, movement etc for the long term to help support the changes we are making but also to help prevent recurrences of IBS issues in the future.

Not only is our physiology complex, how we interact with our environment and how that influences our physiology is also very complex. There is no one size fits all approach to IBS, therefore, we work with you to find what is going to work for you.

Part of this is looking more broadly at your health, nutrition, and lifestyle to make improvements across the board, providing more balance and a better foundation to work from moving forward.

All our practitioners are trained nutritionists. Each has also gone on to study and implement a Functional Medicine approach with advanced gut health and IBS training with Functional Medicine institutes.

Each of our practitioners regularly attend continued development courses on IBS and gut health to ensure they stay up to date with all the latest research, testing and treatment options.

Over the past 15 years the practitioners in our clinic have also gain a wealth of real-world experience.

In addition, each practitioner has also experienced a time in their life where their gut health was impacting on their own physical and mental health. This means that beyond the qualifications, we also understand what you are going through.

We get the impact poor gut health can have on your confidence. We also appreciate how limiting IBS can be and how conventional approaches to IBS can often result in a lack of answers and a lot of frustration.

Simply fill out the contact form below so that we can start to understand your unique situation.

Before you commit to working with us, you’ll have the option to book in for a complimentary discovery call with one of our specialists so that you can get to know them and so that we can discuss your situation in more detail.

If you decide to proceed, we'll book you for our initial one-month consultation package. You then continue on a monthly basis, or for an agreed timeframe following a conversation with your practitioner at the end of the first month.