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Hi,
Anyone had a hydrogen breath test to diagnose if they are lactose and fructose intolerant as part of treating their IBS?
If they come back positive, then i will need to eat gluten free. Is that hard? Are there many options for gluten free these days?
Hi Turkish Delight,
i did a hydrogen breath test for both lactose and fructose about 7 years back. At the time I was suffering with something that no-one could seem to figure out... basically episodic persistent bouts of diahrroea... I'd lost about 15kg - so they weren't suggesting it was IBS... but very IBS-type symptoms.
I was positive for the fructose test. Within days of changing my diet I felt much better, and over time I saw even more improvement. With fructose malabsorption you can't eat wheat which happens to contain gluten... but you can eat gluten if that makes sense. It's just that there's not heaps of things that contain gluten but not wheat (given wheat has gluten in it!). There's also a number of other things you need to avoid, but if you test positive, usually you'd be referred to a dietician who would help you out with the diet.
In answer to your other question, yes there's a rapidly increasing range of gluten free products out there - it's certainly increased over the last 7 years. It can be difficult to start with to change your diet, but you can find substitutes that taste good. So saying, i'd definitely do the test to see if you need to avoid wheat first :)
Good luck with it, and I'm happy to answer any other questions if you want to PM me or ask here :).
Cheers,
Belfie