The colonic microbiome is the community of helpful bacteria living mainly in the large bowel, where they play an important role in nutrition, recycling, gas production, immunity and overall gut wellbeing.
When this balance is disturbed, certain sugars, known as FODMAPs, may be abnormally fermented, leading to gut symptoms like bloating and altered bowel habit. Measuring hydrogen and methane in expired breath helps identify this by measuring these gases when challenged with a sequence of the FODMAP sugars.
The breath fermentation pattern following a glucose challenge may also suggest SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), where bacteria inhabit the small intestine, which normally contains very few microbes, and can result in abnormal gut reactions.
SIBO – £409
FODMAP – £1008
£545
Video capsule endoscopy is a gentle and painless way to look at the inner structure of your digestive tract. The capsule is about the size of a jellybean and contains tiny cameras, like a small TV studio. You simply swallow it with a few sips of water and the wireless camera capsule transmits a video of the inner lining of the bowel as it travels naturally from mouth to toilet.
There is no day case admission and no sedation. There are no tubes and no cables Sending a capsule endoscope to survey the bowel hardware allows us to consider whether a traditional upper or lower endoscopy is necessary, or not.
£1975
