"My story begins when I was 14 years old and I started suffering from increasingly
severe gut issues - constant nausea, frequent stomach aches, painful bloating and chronic constipation. The nausea and stomach aches were dismissed as school
anxiety, and for the other symptoms my GP decided that I needed to add more
fibre, and in particular prunes, to my diet. Unfortunately, this ended in disaster/A&E a
few weeks later, when I was admitted in excruciating pain having not opened my
bowels in almost 3 weeks...
After this incident, my Mum was convinced that the right combination of probiotics, prebiotics and other supplements would resolve my issues. However, they did not help in any way, and several brands of well-known probiotics even made my symptoms worse...
Over the next few years, my Mum took me to see dietitians, nutritionists and functional medicine practitioners who recommended yet more supplements which were all useless. The only thing which did help my nausea and bloating was a very strict low fodmap/low fibre diet, however every time I tried reintroducing any type of fodmap my symptoms came back with a vengeance, and the low fodmap diet did nothing to help my constipation. I was eventually prescribed very strong laxatives by a
gastroenterologist, and these did quite well work for about a year but gradually became much less effective until they didn’t really work at all...
By the time I was 18, I could only move my bowels by taking a daily combination of different types of laxatives which made me feel dreadful...My gastro said there was no further medication he could prescribe as I had tried everything at this point, and if things didn’t improve, the next step would be a referral to a bowel nurse for advice on using a daily enema kit – what a horrible prospect!
However, during our regular catch ups a few months later, he suggested I could try a brand-new product which had just been launched, and this was JUVIA. My Mum and I were very sceptical that it would be helpful, but we thought there would be no harm in trying it for a few weeks.
Initially, I experienced no changes at all when I started JUVIA and assumed that it
wasn’t working; however gradually, much to my amazement, my constipation started
improving. About a month after starting JUVIA, I was able to go to the loo without any
laxatives (for the first time in over 5 years) which was amazing! We had assumed
that I would probably need to take laxatives for the rest of my life. Not only this, but I
was also able to come off the low fodmap diet and I discovered I could eat
carbohydrates and fibre with no side effects.
It’s been over three years since I first took JUVIA, and my gut symptoms have
completely resolved. I can now eat absolutely everything, and I feel that my gut is far more
resilient than many of my friends who often complain about stomach problems.
I often wonder why JUVIA worked so well for me – I had been prescribed multiple
rounds of different antibiotics for my acne between the ages of 12 – 14, and I believe
that these may have damaged my gut microbiome which perhaps Juvia helped to
repair? I really can’t thank the team who developed Juvia enough as I truly believe
that it gave me my life back."
Elizabeth
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