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A recent study presented at the British Society of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting.found that irritable bowel syndrome patients experienced greater benefits from a low FODMAP diet if they had a positive fructose breath test. The researchers found that irritable bowel syndrome patients that had fructose malabsorption had more symptom relief from a low FODMAP diet as compared to patients who tested negative. We offer a home based hydrogen breath test for fructose malabsorption.

Food allergies are on the rise.  Why the increase has occurred is unclear but understanding your situation is important to maintain good health. That said, people also tend to overestimate the extent of food allergies, according to a 2006 piece in the scientific journal EMBO Reports. “The rates of perception of food allergies are often up to four times greater than the rates of true food allergies, because people confuse allergy with intolerance or even cases of mild food poisoning.”

People who have difficultly digesting fructose (known as fructose malabsorption) will often experience gastrointestinal distress including bloating and abdominal pain.  A recent study examined whether dietary changes would reduce the GI symptoms.  The study enrolled 107 patients who were identified as having fructose malabsorption using the hydrogen breath test.  The important take home information from this study was that it is not necessary to completely eliminate fructose from your diet to get symptom relieve.  Patients can titrate their fructose intake to determine the point where symptoms occur.  Understanding your limits can allow you to avoid unnecessary food deprivation.

There is a link between joint and gut inflammation of unknown etiology in arthritis. Existing research indicates that regular consumption of high-fructose corn syrup sweetened (HFCS) soft drinks, but not diet soft drinks, may be associated with increased risk of seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in women, independent of other dietary and lifestyle factors. One unexplored hypothesis for this association is that fructose malabsorption, due to regular consumption of excess free fructose (EFF) and HFCS, contributes to fructose reactivity in the gastrointestinal tract and intestinal in situ formation of enFruAGEs, which once absorbed, travel beyond the intestinal boundaries to other tissues and promote inflammation. In separate studies, the accumulation of advanced glycation end-products has been associated with joint inflammation in RA. Objective of this study was to assess the association between EFF beverages intake and non-age, non-wear and tear-associated arthritis in US young adults.

In this article Dr. Shawn Khodadadian, Lenox Hill Hospital, discusses his preference for using the hydrogen breath test to confirm diagnoses rather than start empirical treatment.  Dr. Khodadadian sites lactose intolerance, fructose malabsorption and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth as diseases that are often receive unwarranted treatment that can lead to adverse side effects.  He has found that the hydrogen breath test very useful in treating patients with gas and bloating and IBS because they allow patients to be placed on accurate and specific diets that are usually less restrictive than if testing was never done.

In the past few years the Gluten-Free diet has become very popular.  Part of the popularity is fueled by the idea that while a person may not have celiac disease then may have gluten sensitivity.  As result, these self –diagnosed individuals begin avoiding foods with gluten.  But there is a cost to this decision  – foods with gluten often contain fiber, vitamins and minerals that are necessary in the daily diet. Gluten-free foods often contain refined grains that are often low in nutrients.

Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) are often diagnosed with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth but seldom tested for carbohydrate malabsorption.  To look at this issue of carbohydrate malabsorption a research group in Germany studied 2,390 IBS patients.  Each patient received a hydrogen breath test for fructose malabsorption and lactose intolerance.  The result was that 35% of the patient tested positive for lactose intolerance and 64% for fructose malabsorption.  This lead the researchers to conclude that lactose and fructose intolerances are a frequent but underestimated condition in patients with IBS symptoms.

A high prevalence of Fructose malabsorption has been reported in previous studies of IBS patient. This research sought to examine whether the findings held up in a statistically significant number of Indian patients.  The study enrolled 97 patients with confirmed IBS using the Rome III criteria and 41 healthy controls.  Each subject was given a hydrogen breath test for Fructose Malabsorption.  The result was that IBS patients tested positive for fructose malabsorption at a statistically significant rate higher as compared to controls.  Furthermore, patients with diarrhea-predominant IBS had a 91% positive rate for fructose malabsorption as measured by the hydrogen breath test.

This research studied 90 patients with confirmed irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The goal was to determine if a low FODMAP diet would reduce IBS symptoms. Each of the 90 patient was given a hydrogen breath test for fructose malabsorption, lactose intolerance and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). 75.6% of these patients tested positive for fructose malabsorption which is a gastrointestinal problem that causes abdominal pain, bloating, flatulence and diarrhea. After switching these patient to the FODMAP diet 72% of them reported fewer symptoms.

A study was conducted on 222 children who had unexplained abdominal pain alone or associated with constipation, bloating, gas and diarrhea. Each child took a hydrogen breath test for fructose malabsorption. In this cohort, 121 or 54.5% tested positive for fructose malabsorption. These children then placed on a low-fructose diet. Using a standard pain scale 76.9% of the children reported resolution of symptoms as a result of the new diet.