UK GI Mapping - any experiences to share?

[Ebx_design]

Hi everyone,

I don't have IBS but do have hashimoto's and am interested in looking into a GI Map test - with a view that if it flags anything nasty in my gut, it could be helpful to know (you know, desperate attempts to find a root cause etc).

It seems Geneva Diagnostics is the gold standard, but they are very opaque about pricing! A company in the UK (where I am based) would be preferred, eg this kind of thing:

healthily.co.uk/tests/compl...

functionalhealthclinic.co.u...

(the above are just general google searches btw, which is why I'm keen on seeking recommendations!)

Many thanks!

[xjrs]

Please don't waste your time and money. Going down this route is like a rabbit hole that you will find it difficult to get out of. I went down the 'functional medicine' route via nutritional therapists and sorely regretted it and became £1000s out of pocket from expensive tests such as the one you are suggesting and also the fees of the therapists needed to interpret them. Note that this practice is not recognised by the NHS and the therapists take private courses which have very little in the way of prerequisites to attend them.

If you took the test, you might find out that you have a dominant bad bug, which is what I did. However, how do you use that information? I became obsessed with getting rid of mine and was encouraged by the therapists to take antibiotics and antimicrobials to achieve this. However, antibiotics or antimicrobials deplete and undermine the microbiome in general, which will affect your overall health and the bad bug is highly likely to grow back, so you are back where you started. You are also possibly in a worse position since some of the good bacteria may also be depleted in numbers. Since I went through this process, I ended up with chronic constipation, since much of healthy stool is made up of bacteria. I now have to consume a huge amount of fibre to have a BM due to the loss of bacteria.

Many people with IBS will have a gut bacterial imbalance and one or two dominant bad bugs are likely to show up as part of such testing. All people have a mixture of good and bad bugs in their gut - this is actually normal. The important thing is whether the good bugs are keeping the bad bugs under control and things are 'in balance' in the gut. The best way to achieve this is through a good probiotic, which helps to kick the bad bugs into touch, without compromising your overall microbiome which antibiotics will. I recommend Alflorex which has been scientifically studied for IBS since it has been a game changer for my symptoms. I wish I had known about this sooner. This would have been far cheaper too and I wouldn't have comprised my health in the process.

[Ebx_design in reply to xjrs]

xjrs Hiya, apologies for my delayed reply, my health has been rubbish and I've been offline. What you've outlined makes total sense and it is good to have another opinion on this.

Many thanks for the comprehensive response, I have had these concerns tbh. The idea that, if I find something I'll become a bit obsessed with getting rid and perhaps not do myself any favours in the long run and / or compromise my health in the process.

I think the main issue, as you rightly point out, is there is no way I want to end up taking antibiotics - I will avoid that at all costs - especially since I have been making and eating fermented foods for over a year now, and don't want to undo where I am right now. Not that my health is great - it really isn't... but still.

I've never taken a probiotic. I'll look at the one you mention out of interest though.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and story, it kind of does confirm what I was suspecting. Some things we are just not meant to know maybe. But I do wish I could get to the root of my insanely high TPO antibodies (Hashimoto's) I'm running out of things to investigate fast.

Best,

Eb