mySymptoms Users Help Advance Research on Managing IBS Symptoms

The mySymptoms community has made an important contribution to new research on managing IBS that shows tracking apps can help detect food-symptom and stress-symptom relations.

The study, conducted last year by research Dutch research University KU Leuven, shows that food diary apps like mySymptoms can be a helpful aid in identifying dietary triggers for people with GI conditions and food intolerances.

The key findings have now been published in the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Journal, considered to be the scientific voice of European gastroenterology and one of the most authoritative journal-publishing papers in the field.

KU Leuven analyzed the food and symptom diaries of 163 mySymptoms volunteers. The users were selected according to qualifying criteria from the several hundred who responded to invitations. All user data was anonymized and provided on an opt-in basis only.

Key findings include:

• Personal food-symptom and stress-symptom relations can be detected from a food and symptom diary.
• Individuals with night-time pain often consumed food deep into the night.
• Platforms such as mySymptoms could aid in identifying potential food intolerances.

Both the researchers at KU Leuven and the team at mySymptoms would like to thank everyone who took part in the study. Thank you!

The paper is titled ‘Relations between food intake, psychological distress, and gastrointestinal symptoms: A diary study’ and can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2050640619839859