The Functional Gut Clinic

General information

What are functional gut disorders?

Many patients suffer with gut disorders relating to feeding, sensitivity, pain and bowel evacuation. These disorders are often associated with abnormalities in how the nervous systems in the brain and the gut communicate with each other. Such abnormalities can result in patients developing:

heartburn,
swallowing difficulties (dysphagia),
chest pain,
stomach pain,
abdominal pain,
bloating,
nausea,
constipation,
diarrhoea
difficult defecation
incontinence

Patients with these symptoms may also suffer from nutritional, respiratory and psychological problems.

Functional gut disorders are what we specialise in, helping with diagnosing and treating abnormalities in gut neuromuscular function and brain-gut interactions.

Why are Functional Gut Disorders important?

Despite Functional Gut Disorders being extremely common, diagnosing the cause of these symptoms and allocating effective treatment is difficult. Neurogastroenterology specialists and advanced diagnostics are not readily available within most hospital settings. The lack of a firm diagnosis and treatment strategy can be extremely worrying for patients and drastically reduces their quality of life.

In the past 5 years, there have been many technological advances in diagnostics for studying gut neuromuscular function and brain-gut interactions. Application of these new technologies, to study patients with complex functional gut symptoms, is increasing the diagnostic yield of these investigations. This helps clinicians make informed decisions about tailored management strategies in difficult to treat patients.

The Functional Gut Clinic aims to consolidate knowledge, expertise and technological advances in this area and help get your gut functioning properly again.