Understanding Digestive Conditions
Explore a wide range of digestive conditions and learn from others with similar experiences.
Community experiences, not medical advice
Explore a wide range of digestive conditions and learn from others with similar experiences.
Select a category to find specific conditions and related community insights.
If a digestive condition you live with is not listed yet, you can suggest it. Research still signs off any full guide — a listing can appear as coming soon until then.
Suggest a conditionCommunity members can suggest treatments or approaches they have found helpful, for Research to review. This is not medical advice. Nothing is added to Approaches until Research signs it off.
Suggest a beneficial treatmentIBS with constipation is characterized by abdominal pain, bloating, and infrequent bowel movements.
A condition where food moves too slowly through the digestive tract, leading to infrequent bowel movements.
Difficulty coordinating the muscles in your pelvic floor during bowel movements, causing constipation.
A functional disorder where pelvic floor muscles don't coordinate properly during bowel movements.
An excess of bacteria in the small intestine causing bloating, gas, and bowel habit changes.
Includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, characterized by chronic inflammation.
Stomach acid flows back into the oesophagus or throat, causing heartburn and other symptoms.
IBS that develops after a bout of gastroenteritis, with lasting changes in gut function.
NICE NG188 lists abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, and weight loss and reduced appetite. Not a long-COVID clinic page.
Many medications can cause constipation, including pain medications and antidepressants.
Persistent constipation without an IBS pain pattern. Rome V calls this chronic constipation, distinct from IBS-C, slow transit, and dyssynergia.
IBS with diarrhea is characterized by abdominal pain, urgency, and frequent loose bowel movements.
A condition where the lining of the colon becomes inflamed, often due to an autoimmune response.
Watery, urgent diarrhoea when too much bile acid reaches the colon. Also called bile acid malabsorption. Not the same as IBS-D.
A condition that affects normal stomach muscle movement, causing delayed emptying.
Small pouches form in the digestive tract, which can become inflamed or infected.
An autoimmune reaction to gluten that damages the small bowel. NICE NG20: test on gluten before an IBS label or a gluten-free diet.
NHS indigestion that continues when tests have not found an ulcer or similar disease. Subtypes: PDS and EPS. Not gastroparesis, and not heartburn alone.
A break in the stomach or duodenal lining, usually linked to H. pylori or regular NSAIDs. Alarm features need urgent care.
The mixed-bowel-habit sibling of IBS-C and IBS-D. Rome V includes discomfort. NICE CG61 asks for coeliac antibodies. No IBS-M-specific drug.
Lactase deficiency, lactose malabsorption, and lactose intolerance are not the same. Not a milk-protein allergy and not coeliac disease.
Immune inflammation of the oesophagus causing solid-food dysphagia and food bolus obstruction. Diagnosis needs biopsies, not an allergy panel.
Not enough pancreatic enzymes reach the gut. Steatorrhoea, weight loss, and fat-soluble vitamin deficiency. Prescribed PERT, not shop enzymes.
Use our Symptom Explorer to identify potential conditions based on your symptoms, or take our interactive self-assessment.