When you have problems with your health, you try everything you can to make even the tiniest of improvements. A method of empowerment by taking things into your own hands and trying to tackle issues head on, can often result in something utterly disheartening - not to mention it can leave your bank balance looking like old mother Hubbard’s cupboard. Additionally, due to countless factors, certain treatments may not be be appropriate for you, or they simply may not be available to you.

Health should never be based on wealth, or social class but unfortunately with lesser understood conditions, this seems to be the case. We are endlessly lucky to have access to free healthcare in the U.K. The NHS is far from perfect, but it’s mighty and vital and something we should never take for granted. However, if your condition isn’t treatable on the NHS, you’re often left to fend for yourself and fight the battle towards health alone. Access to the best medical teams money can buy are typically only afforded to those with financial abundance. If you can afford to curate a team of experts who will work together to help you move forward in mind, body and spirit that is incredible. No one should ever begrudge anyone the opportunity to regain their health. If you can’t afford to chase your dreams of health within the medical teams on Harley Street or the likes, you, and I, are certainly in the majority.

After having heaps of problems with my digestive system for the last 18 months and the most intense IBS flare I’ve experienced in my life, on top of my preexisting chronic conditions, I felt like I’d hit a brick wall. I was in a world of pain, having severe intolerances to foods that have never previously been an issue for me, I was being physically sick all the time and I permanently looked like I was pregnant this quintuplets. My stomach felt like a balloon that was about to burst and even something as minuscule as drinking a sip of water could result in me turning a lovely shade of green and being horribly sick.  I always like to be as positive and proactive as possible, I’m not the sort of person who is waiting for a pill to save me. I look at what I can do to help myself, and keep trying new things until something fits, but nothing I tried (and I tired A LOT) really seemed to be doing the trick in this instance. I did, of course, turn to conventional medicine to rule out anything more sinister, however I had been overlooked and dismissed by uninterested Doctors, which I knew in my heart would be the case. I had to educate my GP on what a low fodmap diet was because they said, and I quote, “I didn’t know if it was worth my time to read up on it but we are supposed to be pushing it on patients. Has it helped you? Everyone and their mother seems to have IBS these days. Just bloody well get on with it, I say”.*rolls eyes*  

I’ve tried every probiotic capsule, fermented food, kombucha, yoga for digestion, an abundance of holistic therapies and anything else you can think of. While a combination of these things (low fodmap diet and kombucha, mainly) have certainly helped manage some of my symptoms, I’ve still got a long way to go before I feel back to my “normal”.

I’ve recently read some amazing things about ‘Symprove’ so I signed up and bought the 12 week programme to see if this could be the catalyst to change and help to ease some of my symptoms. I’ll blog about how I get on to keep you up to date because I know so many of you struggle with similar conditions. I’m open minded and not expecting any over night miracles but I’m interested to see what, if any, changes occur. This isn’t an endorsement or an ad, I bought the 12 week supply myself because I genuinely want to try anything to give my gut health the best chance possible.

As I live with M.E and various other chronic conditions, my body often reacts in extreme ways to new treatment programmes, supplements etc and I’m more than likely to experience the possible negative side effects to traditional medication. I thought it may be of benefit for others in the same boat to record and share a very brief outline of my IBS symptoms and what changes/if any I experienced along the way so you can see if it may be the right thing for you too.

I’m currently 2 and half weeks into using Symprove. The first week my symptoms became a little worse, which was expected and outlined in the product info and FAQs as something that may occur. I had high levels of nausea and a raging temperature for the first few days and on the fourth, fifth and sixth day of that first week, I vomited numerous times. The pain and inflammation also felt mildly worse and my fatigue fluctuated significantly, however, this all subsided as I entered week 2. Since then, I’ve experienced no other negative side effects, my bloating has somewhat reduced, nausea has been very low key and my appetite has returned to normal. The pain is still present, but not all consuming which is brilliant. 

I’ll let you know how things develop over the following weeks  xXx

To be continued...