Consultation Process

The consultation process

After you book your first consultation, we’ll email a detailed health questionnaire to you. Please complete this as fully as possible and return to IBS Clinics with copies of any relevant test results from your GP or specialist.

The questionnaire enables us to get a good picture of your health concerns before your initial consultation. So we can make the most of the time we spend with you. We ask you for a full personal history with timeline of symptoms. We also ask that you answer questions that give us a picture of which aspects of your body’s function we need to focus on. The questions cover all aspects of systems biology and key biochemical imbalances. Don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar with the terminology, ask us if anything isn’t clear. Also our web page about Functional Medicine gives a lot more information.

The questionnaire is an editable document, so you can complete it easily on your computer and simply email it back.

We’ll review the information you provide before your first consultation. That way we can focus fully on your health concerns when we meet.

We are clinical specialists in IBS care and aim to be your partner in addressing your gut related health problems. We focus on you, taking the time to understand your health concerns and anything that appears to affect your symptoms. Then – explaining everything as we go – we work with you to develop, implement and review a comprehensive treatment plan.

All IBS Clinics practitioners are Registered Nutritional Therapists who have qualified from an NTC registered Clinical Nutrition degree or Diploma course.

These courses require a minimum of three years study involving continuous assessments and in-depth training in and experience of patient consultations.

Qualified Registered Nutritional Therapists must also undertake a minimum of 40 hours of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) training each year. IBS Clinics practitioners conform to and often surpass this standard.

Our specialist approach to IBS has proved very successful in improving the quality of life for many of our patients.

Your initial consultation

Your nutritionist will start by reviewing your full personal health history, and asking any questions raised by your responses on our questionnaire.

Key aspects of your health history will be read back to you to check our understanding. Then they will work with you to agree a plan of action. If you’ve already received a diagnosis from a health professional, the plan will address your health concerns straight away.Otherwise, we may suggest tests in order to identify biochemical imbalances. We may also recommend diet and lifestyle changes as well as nutritional supplements.It’s a collaborative process and we encourage you to ask questions.We will also give you homework. This is likely to involve a trial elimination of common culprit foods or tests for, say, stomach acidity or stool transit time. If we have agreed to order clinical tests, these will be sent to your home. If you prefer, we can send them to an alternative address. By the way, all tests arrive in unidentifiable packaging. We will also provide recipes and dietary guidelines and direct you towards relevant books, websites and other appropriate resources.

Our focus is you

IBS & gut conditions

We specialise in alleviating the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and other gut conditions. Conditions which share a symptom picture with IBS include Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

Other issues

We also help sufferers of other diseases of which IBS is often a concurrent condition. These include Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Interstitial Cystitis, Restless Leg Syndrome and Acne Rosacea.

Path to recovery

Our patients can expect to achieve significant reduction in symptoms by the 3rd visit in our recommended programmes. This is usually 3-4 months from the outset of investigations and commencement of a treatment regime.

Tests

IBS Clinics follows a functional approach to nutrition as outlined by the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM). As part of this, we use laboratory tests to help ascertain functional imbalances in the body. We may recommend these tests to help us devise the most appropriate treatment programme for you. However, you are under no obligation to undertake these tests.

As these tests can be very detailed and specific the laboratories pay us a small amount (around £20 per test) to finance the time required to properly analyse the results.

According to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) a drug is defined as an “article intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease.”

Vitamins, minerals, trace elements, amino acids, herbs, or homeopathic remedies are not classified as drugs. However, these substances can have significant effects on physiology and must be used carefully.

Supplements

At IBS Clinics, we provide nutritional support and make individualised recommendations in order to improve the quality of your diet and to support your body’s physiological and biomechanical processes.

We determine quality by considering the:

Science behind the recommendation
The product ingredients used
The manufacturing process
And how the different ingredients interact

We only recommend supplements that meet our high standards.

These may be more expensive than the supplements stocked by pharmacies or health food stores. But we are able to guarantee their purity, quality, bioavailability (ability to be properly absorbed and utilised by the body) and effectiveness.

It’s not that supplements bought elsewhere have no value, however, but, please be aware that you are not guaranteed the same level of quality if you purchase your supplements elsewhere. The quality and effectiveness can vary widely.

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Head Office: Cavendish Osteopaths, 45 Queen Anne St, London W1G 9JF | Telephone: 01296 612202