Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) affects one in five people in the UK, according to NHS Choices, although the actual figure is believed to be higher as not everyone with IBS symptoms will see a doctor. IBS is painful, distressing and can have a significant impact on your quality of life. There is no cure at…
To mark Bowel Cancer Awareness Month we’re looking at the simple steps you can take to reduce your risk of developing the disease. Let’s start with some basic facts about bowel cancer. It is the fourth most common cancer to affect both men and women in the UK. One in 14 men and one in…
How do you cope with the embarrassment of Crohn’s Disease? It’s understandable anxiety and one that we hear often in our consulting room. There is no doubt that the condition produces a range of symptoms that can be both uncomfortable and embarrassing. But that doesn’t mean your social life has to be put on hold or…
Having colonoscopy screening for bowel cancer every 10 years reduces the risks of dying from the disease by 88%, recent research has found. For many years, gastrointestinal doctors have been urging people to undergo regular bowel cancer screening to protect themselves from the disease. Now researchers have confirmed that people who are given the…
Did you know that millions of microorganisms live in and on your body… so many, in fact, that certain scientists call them our “second genome”? Their genes outnumber ours by 150 to one and some scientists even consider them to be another one of our organs.
Your liver plays a vital role in the digestion process yet not many people know much about the largest solid organ inside the body or how to look after it. What your liver does? The liver performs more than 500 vital functions in the body, including producing energy, detoxifying the blood and fighting infection. It…
Happy new year… it’s a phrase we trot out without really thinking about it. But if your body had a say, what sort of things might it be asking for to make it “happy” this new year? As gastrointestinal doctors, we deal with the outcome of many poor lifestyle choices, which can lead to both…
Have you ever found yourself looking at an empty packet of biscuits and wondering how you managed to eat the whole lot without even really noticing? Maybe you were watching TV or deep in conversation with a friend or reading a great book and the next time you looked the biscuit packet was pretty much…
Throughout November, the global spotlight falls on men’s health thanks to the Movember movement. The Movember Foundation was founded in Australia to stop men dying young from preventable disease and is now a worldwide phenomenon. It focuses on some of the biggest health issues facing men including cancer, mental health and suicide prevention. Men raise…
You’d have to have been living on the moon to be unaware that smoking is bad for your health. But did you know that it’s not just your lungs and heart that are affected? Smoking also disrupts gut function and damages your overall digestive health. Here are just some of the reasons why quitting smoking…