Has anyone done the York Fiid Intolerance Test and what are your options on it?

[Afternooninthepark]

I’m at the end of my tether with my IBS symptoms. I have gotten nowhere with my GP he keeps robbing me off with medication which doesn’t help. I’ve seen 2 gastroenterologist this year, they both concluded IBS and left me at that. I had high hopes for the Low Fodmap diet and was on that strictly for 4 months under an NHS dietician but it didn’t help and she said I must be one of the 25% of people it doesn’t help and told me to go back to eating normally! So I’m back to square one. The York test seems to get a slating from health professionals yet on sites like Trust Pilot many, many people are saying it’s changed their lives. The test is quite pricey but I would honestly pay that if I thought it worked.
Anyone with experiences of it??

Yes. I paid the £300 for a York test some years ago. I had already worked out that gluten and lactose were making me ill and had cut them out of my diet but still didn't feel good and couldn't work out what it was. I had been to the doctors who were no help and had tried keeping a food diary but couldn't work out what else was the problem. The York test showed that I was also intolerant to all dairy, egg, rice and corn. I would never have worked that out by myself. I cut them all out and then gradually reintroduced. Took a long time but am now feeling fine and back on everything. York test was well worth the expense for me.

Yes, I did it for IBS problems. I knew gluten was a problem, it told me that milk, eggs, almonds and cherries were also an issue. Like PP said, I would never have been able to work that out. From there, I was able to work out that most other nuts and all other tree fruits also caused me problems. It helped a lot, didn’t magically solve everything, so I tried the Paleo autoimmune protocol too. Again that made things better but wasn’t perfect.

When I overlaid the intolerances with Low Fodmap, it really worked out a lot better for me. Again, much better but not perfect.

Some people with IBS actually have a parasite called Blastocystis Hominis. NHS test isn’t sensitive enough to pick it up.

If you have that parasite you’ll be sensitive to lectins and phytic acids as well as fodmap. Those substances are in plants as a defence against being eaten by insects. They cause the parasite to release an enzyme which irritates the gut, causing it either to freeze (IBS-C) or go into overdrive (IBS-D).

IBS is really a bucket diagnosis- it means “we don’t really know what you’ve got so we’ll limp you together with people with similar symptoms”. Some researchers/physicians are starting to unpick that, and Blastocystis Hominis is one of the things that is starting to be properly looked at as a cause of IBS ins one (but not all) people who have been diagnosed with IBS. There is an effective treatment for it, developed by an Australian doctor.

I’ve just paid about £400 for a more sensitive test that looks more closely at parasites and gut flora.

I would say it’s definitely worth doing the York Test, as food intolerances complicate the picture and can cause you to have continued symptoms even if you are having other treatments e.g. low Fodmap diet, treatment for parasites. So it’s important to deal with everything that is contributing to the situation.

PM if you want details of the test people (there are two places in UK that do it that I found, the other one might be more convenient for you than the one I used, just due to location).