Gut health in Cairns.

IBS

A label for what you experience, like bloating, pain and altered bowels with no damage on standard tests. It describes the symptoms, not why they happen.

IBD

Inflammatory bowel disease: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, where inflammation damages the bowel. A stool test, faecal calprotectin, helps tell it apart from IBS. IBD needs a gastroenterologist.

SIBO

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth: more bacteria than usual in the small intestine, which can cause bloating, wind and altered bowels. It’s usually investigated with a breath test, which can be wrong in either direction, so the result is read alongside your symptoms.

Coeliac disease

An immune reaction to gluten that damages the small intestine. It’s diagnosed with a blood test and then a biopsy, and both rely on you still eating gluten.

Reflux (GORD)

Stomach contents rising into the food pipe, felt as heartburn, a sour taste or a cough. Frequent reflux, or reflux with trouble swallowing, needs a doctor’s review.

Food allergy

An immune reaction, sometimes serious or immediate. It needs proper medical investigation, not self-experimenting.

Food intolerance

A digestive problem rather than an immune one: the gut can’t properly break down or absorb something, as with lactose.

Food sensitivity

A looser term for delayed, low-grade reactions, and the area where popular testing tends to over-promise.

Low-FODMAP diet

A short-term, structured way to find which fermentable carbohydrates set symptoms off, followed by bringing foods back. It isn’t meant to be permanent.

• Blood in your stool
• Unexplained weight loss
• Persistent vomiting
• Difficulty swallowing
• A change in bowel habit that won’t settle
• New, significant symptoms after 50

Coeliac disease needs testing before you cut gluten out. If your picture needs a referral, we’ll tell you.

• $379 60 minutes, initial consultation
• $349 60 minutes, results and care plan, once results are in

Cost

The initial consultation is $379 for 60 minutes. If tests are ordered, the results and care plan follows once they’re in: $349 for 60 minutes. Any test is explained and priced before it’s ordered.

Medicare

Medicare rebates may apply, and they’re generally better face to face. Cameron’s consultations don’t attract a Medicare rebate. Reception can confirm your expected rebate and out-of-pocket cost before you book.

Telehealth

Anywhere in Australia, by phone or video, at the same fee. Medicare telehealth rebates usually need one face-to-face visit with us in the past 12 months.

Referral

You don’t need one. Book yourself, or start with the free nurse call.

Where

17 Anderson St, Manunda QLD 4870. Open Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 9am–1pm. Free, secure parking on site, with accessible bays.

Why am I bloated even when I eat well?

Persistent bloating on a good diet is often about how your gut handles food rather than its quality. How food moves through the gut, the balance of bacteria and sensitivity to fermentable carbohydrates are common threads, and sometimes the healthiest foods are the ones a sensitive gut ferments hardest.

Should I stop eating gluten before a coeliac test?

No. Keep eating gluten until you’ve been tested. Coeliac Australia advises eating gluten every day for at least six weeks beforehand, because the blood test and the biopsy both rely on the reaction gluten causes.

Can my gut affect my mood, sleep or concentration?

The gut and the brain signal to each other constantly, in both directions. Stress can unsettle the gut, and gut symptoms often travel with low mood, poor sleep or brain fog, which is why we look at them together.

Do I need a low-FODMAP diet?

Not necessarily, and it isn’t meant to be permanent. It’s a short-term tool to find your triggers, followed by bringing foods back, and it works best as a guided process. Whether it suits you is decided after your first appointment.

Do you do gut tests?

Only when a test could change your plan. Any test is explained and priced before it’s ordered, and some specialised tests aren’t covered by Medicare.