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Fructose malabsorption is the inability
to digest fructose, a common sugar found in many prepared
foods and soft drinks. It causes cramping, bloating,
gas or diarrhea when foods containing fructose are eaten.
Fructose malabsorption occurs due to the body's lack
of fructase, an enzyme normally produced by the small
intestine. In IBS patients, there is evidence to suggest
that more rapid small intestinal transit could deliver
unabsorbed nutrients to the colon and hence lead to
an increased gas production, causing pain and diarrhea.
This may explain the reduced capacity to absorb free
fructose in IBS patients. The fructose malabsortion
breath test is a quick way to discover if a patient
has fructose malabsorption.
The Fructose
Malabsorption Breath Test offered by Metabolic
Solutions is a version of the hydrogen breath test.
It can be performed in a doctor's office or given to
patients to do at their convenience and in their own
homes. It provides a safe, non-invasive, and cost effective
solution to diagnose fructose malabsorption.
Fructose malabsorption can be indirectly
determined using the Fructose Breath Test. If fructose
is malabsorbed, large quantities of fructose reach the
colon, where bacteria break down fructose into fatty
acids, carbon dioxide, methane, lactic acid and hydrogen
gas. This test seeks to quantify the changes in breath-hydrogen
concentration prior to and after the ingestion of fructose.
Normally, very little hydrogen is detectable in the
breath. In a patient suffering from fructose malabsorption
the hydrogen is absorbed from the intestines, carried
through the blood stream to the lungs and exhaled. In
this test, the patient drinks a fructose-loaded beverage,
and the breath is analyzed at regular intervals over
several hours. Raised levels of hydrogen in the breath
indicate that the fructose was malabsorbed. In a healthy
subject the difference (measured in parts per million)
in H2 production between baseline and post fructose
ingestion measurements will be small.
The majority, but not all people produce
H2. In most cases, non-hydrogen producing patients when
exposed to fructose will generate methane (CH4). These
patients will be properly diagnosed by measuring for
CH4. As a result, each breath specimen is measured by
Metabolic Solutions for H2 and CH4.
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