*This post contains a review of a service which was gifted to me by the company but all views are totally my own*

In April 2016 I woke up with horrific abdominal and back pain. I had been totally fine the night before, albeit tired, and waking up in so much pain was definitely a shock to the system.

What has followed is two and a half years of abdominal discomfort, seemingly spontaneous outbursts of pain of varying intensities and exhaustive tests that seem to rule plenty out and nothing in. Eventually, last summer, a very defeated doctor who had been an absolute star in trying to get to the bottom of it concluded that unless it started to get worse there was nothing more they could do and suggested that it might be an intolerance to something.

I have dry skin, migraines and am prone to allergic type reactions as well as having a few allergies that I do know about – the thought that it might be food intolerances did not seem at all impossible. Amongst the infinite NHS tests was a test for coeliac disease which came back negative, but no other intolerance/allergy type testing had been done as far as I know.

This was round about the time I was shipping out to India, so keeping a food/lifestyle diary totally went out the window and I just never quite got round to starting. So when Test Your Intolerance got in touch to offer me an intolerance test in a bid to get to the bottom of my suffering I jumped at the chance.

Test Your Intolerance offer a couple of different tests – an elite blood test, essentials hair test and advanced hair test. I had the advanced hair test, which tests your body for reactions to more than 700 different things including foods, plants, pets and metals. The essentials test will test for 300 different things. What I thought was pretty cool about doing it as a hair test instead of a blood test is that it’s not so invasive and is pretty good for anybody who doesn’t like needles or blood (I’m fine with both).

So once I had ordered my test online all I had to do was print out a wee form from the website with my name, order number and where I wanted the results e-mailed to and pop that in an envelope along with some of my hair, which they ask you to put in a sandwich bag just to make sure there’s not a problem if the weather damages your envelope or anything. All it takes is an ordinary stamp at the post office and voila – you’re on your way to being tested!

I got a nice little e-mail telling me that my sample had arrived and was in the queue for testing. This e-mail said that I would have my results in my inbox in 7-10 business days, but unfortunately day 12 rolled around and I still hadn’t received my results. I can’t fault the customer service experience I had though – I used their 24 hour live chat to explain the situation and five minutes later my results were sitting there in my inbox!

So what do the results look like? I received three reports – one for food and non-food intolerances (things which showed an 85% or more negative response), one for things my body is deficient in and one for heavy metals that my body is apparently intolerant to. Each report gives explanations of what the item is or where it might be found, and there is also a bigger booklet which explains in greater detail how you can use the information in your reports to make improvements to your wellbeing.

In total I showed intolerances to 5 metals, 19 food items and 5 non-food items as well as deficiencies in 5 nutrients (not totally surprising since I’m such a fussy eater). Some of the intolerance results definitely surprised me…in fact I was so shocked to see cheese on the list that I abruptly declared the whole thing a lie! I can’t remember the last day that I didn’t eat cheese.

I think I found the nutritional deficiencies the most interesting to read though – it gives examples of some of the symptoms you might experience through such a deficiency (deficiency defined as you’re body showing to have less than 15% of the recommended amount) and I found myself agreeing with a lot of them!

I think the next stage for me is to try cutting the things highlighted out of my diet – being such a fussy eater means I don’t eat a lot of them anyway but there are a few on the list that I do enjoy (CHEESE) and with a few additives (E-numbers) on the list too I’m going to really have to put some thought into what I’m putting into my body. I know I should start now, but with Christmas approaching I think I’ll wait until January – I’ve been suffering for two and a half years what’s an extra month! When I do cut them out I will let you all know how I get on.

In whole I would say that it was a pretty easy and positive experience, and the results were certainly interesting. A lot of people shun these types of tests for their accuracy, so it would be interesting to try a different company’s intolerance test in the future to see how they compare. Most importantly though, I think the true review of the test is how I feel when I cut out all those things that my body apparently doesn’t agree with! I’m desperately hoping that this might be the miracle cure I’ve been waiting for, but I’m also prepared for it to not work.

If you’re interested in giving Test Your Intolerance a go, they have a couple of special offers on at the moment or alternatively you can use my referral link http://803testyourintoler.refr.cc/kirstybrown (not actually affiliate but can benefit us both) for 20% off. In fact you might even be able to get 20% off the special offer, I’m not sure!

If you have any questions please just ask and I’ll try to answer them for you!