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Paula Radcliffe doesn’t require any introduction; double gold medalist at the World Cross-Country Championships; British 3000m and 5000m record holder; European 10,000m record holder; triple gold medalist at the London marathon; World Record holder for the road-10km and Half Marathon and most notably, the World Record holder for the Marathon. However, success for Paula hasn’t always been easy, and, like the estimated one quarter to one half of elite athletes that are hampered by gastrointestinal symptoms , Paula has suffered too.
At the Athens Olympics in 2004, which Paula described to the BBC as the worst moment of her career, she was unable to finish the race. She said “I felt there was nothing in my legs, you go through bad stages in a marathon, but never as bad as that. I've never before not been able to finish and I'm desperately trying to find a reason for what happened”.
In most cases the overall cause of exercise related gut problems isn’t clear and many factors have been implicated including stress, medications, dehydration, infections and of course diet. After a colonoscopy and coeliac test gave Paula the all clear, YorkTest Laboratories (yorktest.com; Tel: 0800 074 6185) analysed Paula’s blood sample; just a couple of drops from a finger-prick are all that is needed. The test identified sensitivities to chicken, egg whites, wheat, gluten, soya, oats and tomatoes.
Paula told us that “After I cut these foods out of my diet, I was able to run without doubling up in pain. I have a lot more energy and I am back to my normal self. It truly made such a difference to my life and I would recommend it to anyone else suffering from symptoms like these.”
Our digestive system contains more immune cells and produces more antibodies than any other organ in the body. Our gut lining acts as a second “skin”; a highly selective barrier that is in place to protect our internal environment; protecting us from harmful toxins, bacteria and incompletely digested foods, yet making sure that essential nutrients and digested foods are freely allowed into the bloodstream. This balance between an efficient passage of nutrients and the restriction of the entry of larger molecules, such as larger proteins, is absolutely critical to energy balance and sports performance. If the barrier fails for any reason, this can lead to an increase in the passage of allergens and larger food particles that have been linked with inflammation and food intolerance symptoms. The inflammation in turn can cause further damage and a vicious circle of increased gut permeability.
How then to break that vicious circle? You give yourself an easy route map by identifying the foods from your diet that your body is reacting to, and then removing them from your diet. In order to optimise the absorption of essential nutrients our gut needs all the help and support that it can get. Healing the damage takes time, but can be achieved and trigger foods can often be reintroduced gradually after a few months.
As soon as Paula started to cut her trigger foods out of her diet she noticed a difference and she was able to function normally again. Paula was able to continue training and her performance improved, going on to achieve the world record! “I was back to my normal training regime in no time. YorkTest made such a difference to my life because the test identified foods that my body had a bad reaction to and I was able to stop the symptoms before they reached the extreme level I experienced during the Athens Olympics.
The YorkTest “First Step” food intolerance test kit is available at myprotein.com for £9.99
Dr Gill Hart is a PhD Biochemist with over twenty years experience in the development and clinical evaluation of diagnostic tests. Gill joined the YorkTest team in 2005, and has applied her scientific and regulatory knowledge to all YorkTest services; including putting in measures of ‘self-regulation’ in the under-regulated ‘diagnostic testing services’ industry. Gill regularly gives talks and lectures at Universities and Colleges. She also provides guidance for those choosing diagnostic tests with her ‘What makes a good diagnostic test’ checklist, and has written many articles in scientific journals and consumer magazines.
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