Digestive Health

What connects these conditions

Most of the conditions in this group have no visible damage to find. Endoscopies come back clear, scans look normal, and people are told nothing is wrong — while still feeling unwell.

That is because these are largely functional problems: the gut is structurally fine but not behaving normally. Motility, sensitivity, and the bacteria living there are all involved, and none of them show up on a camera.

What actually helps

• Fibre, but the right kind and slowly. Soluble fibre helps most functional gut problems. Adding a lot at once makes things worse for two to three weeks while your gut bacteria adapt. Build up gradually.
• Water alongside fibre. Fibre without enough fluid can make constipation worse rather than better.
• Regular meals. The gut has a strong daily rhythm. Erratic eating disrupts it more than most people expect.
• Fermented food. Yoghurt, kefir and other live-culture foods have better evidence than most probiotic supplements, and cost less.
• Stress. The gut-brain connection is not a figure of speech — it is a dense nerve bundle. Stress genuinely changes gut motility and pain sensitivity.

The FODMAP question

For IBS specifically, a low-FODMAP diet has good evidence. But it is designed as a short elimination phase followed by systematic reintroduction, not a way of eating permanently.

Staying on it long-term narrows your diet and starves the gut bacteria you want to keep. It works best done properly with a dietitian rather than from an app.