Fructose Malabsoption test
#333490 - 07/29/08 06:28 AM
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Hi, I really need to know if any of you know anyone who lives in the UK who has had a test for fructose malabsorption. Can anyone help? Over the months i have seen that many of you who live in the US have access to this test. However, my doctor is reluctant to refer me for the tests (I think becasue of the costs involved - we pay for health care through our taxes in the UK rather than medical insurance).
If anyone knows of anyone in the UK who has had the test i would like to find out more so i can go back to my doc and ask for the tests again....I'm getting so desparate I'm even willing to pay for it myself!
Thanks in advance 
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I am a fructose malabsorber. The fructose breath test is not available here. My diagnosis was done by excluding foods high in excess fructose. Also, the breath test only tells you if you cannot handle a 25 gram load of fructose. If you are positive for fructose malabsorption the test will not tell how sensitive you are. In other words it does not tell you if you are sensitive to a 1, 2, 10, 20, etc grams of excess fructose.
The simplest thing to do is to remove foods with excess fructose from your diet. Here is a message with links to some articles on fructose malabsorption. Figure 1 in the second article has a table of favorable and unfavorable foods. You might try elminating the unfavorable foods from your diet for 4-6 weeks and see how it goes.
Fructose malabsorption is not a cause of IBS but fructose can be an IBS trigger exacerbating IBS symptoms. And IBS suffers appear to be more sensitive to fructose malabsorption problems than non-IBSers.
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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Hi Syl,
Thank you for your reply and attached articles. I found the lists of foods which contain the highest amounts of fructose interesting.
I was hoping to be able to have a test mostly to prove to myself and my doctor that i'm not making my symptoms up! I pretty much eat nothing but soy milk, cereal, rice, potatoes, chicken and peas. Every time i try and introduce a small amount of fruit i run into trouble and fruit juice is the worst.
Do you mind me asking how you get all the vitamins and minerals needed to stay healthy if you have to avoid fruit in adequate quantities?
Vitamin pills don't agree with me and i even found a liquid spray supplement which is supposed to go into the bloodstream quicker, but it contains sorbital.
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Perhaps you can print off the articles particularly the first and second one and take them to your doctor. It might convince him/her that to let you take the test. It really isn't a costly test. All you do is drink 25 grams of fructose and periodically they have you breath into something that checks the amount of hydrogen in you breath.
I don't take vitamins. I get most of vitamins from veggies, bananas and deseeded kiwi fruit. Also, I make juice from raspberries, blue berries, strawberries, etc. I heat the berries with a small bit of water. This releases the juice which I strain to remove fruit pulp and seeds. The pulp and seeds are high in IF which causes me problems. I put 3-4 teaspoons of the juice in my cereal along with a bit of brown sugar. I also spread it on toast and various loafs I make along with a little bit of chocolate syrup -- yummy! It adds lots of vitamins and antioxidants to my diet.
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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I'm definitely going to print the articles off to show my doctor, then at least she can see that i'm trying to help myself to feel better.
Thanks for the tip about the heated berries - I'm going to try that tomorrow morning
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Tell is how it goes with your doctor. I hope you enjoy the berry juice.
Good luck
--------------------
STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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