Hydrogen breath test Archives

Tag: Hydrogen breath test

Ghoshal, Uday. (2011). How to Interpret Hydrogen Breath Tests. Journal of neurogastroenterology and motility. 17. 312-7. 10.5056/jnm.2011.17.3.312.

A hydrogen breath test is a non-invasive and safe test used to investigate intestinal disorders. You will be given a test solution to drink after you have fasted (not eaten) overnight. The concentration of hydrogen in your breath is then measured using a hydrogen breath test machine.

A hydrogen breath test provides information about the digestion of certain sugars or carbohydrates. This will help determine if you are intolerant to, or cannot digest, certain sugars. One example is lactose (milk sugar) intolerance, a disorder in which people develop symptoms after eating dairy products or foods which contain lactose.

The test is also used for detecting abnormal growth of bacteria within the small intestine. It is normal for bacteria to be found in your large intestine as they aid digestion. However, sometimes bacteria can grow in the small intestine and interfere with the digestion of food; this is a condition known as Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). We usually administer lactulose (a non-digestible sugar) for this test. Bacterial overgrowth can cause a variety of symptoms including nausea, diarrhoea, bloating, gas, and abdominal cramps.

28 May 2024

By Ronny Allan

22 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer Nutrition Series Article 3 – Gut Health

Diet and NutritionAntibiotics, Carcinoid syndrome, Carcinoid tumour, Diarrhea, Diet, Dysbiosis, FODMAP, Gut, Gut Flora, Hydrogen breath test, Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Lactulose, Malabsorption, Midgut, Neuroendocrine, Neuroendocrine cancer, Nutrition, Probiotic, Proton pump inhibitors (PPI), Small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), Small intestine NET (SI NET), Surgery

In this article, I'm discussing the use of probiotics to combat several issues including the general health of the 'gut' including IBS like symptoms, and the potential issue of small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), all of which may be related in some way to Neuroendocrine Tumours. That said, these issue may be regular conditions, nothing to do with NET. Nutritional issues are one of the biggest challenges affecting most Neuroendocrine Cancer patients and nutrition and gut health can become more important issues. It is also a key factor in maintaining a decent quality of life and for most countries without…