Breath Methane and Hydrogen Tests

The diagnostic units we use to ‘read’ your breath samples measure changes in the methane and/or hydrogen content of your exhaled breath.

At the start of each of these breath tests, you will be given an inflatable bag to create a ‘baseline’ breath sample. This sample is processed and the amount of methane and/or hydrogen in it will be recorded.

You will then have a sugar drink, after which you will create further breath samples at 20 minute intervals for the next 2 hours at minimum.

As you will have followed the diet a full day before your test (2 full days if doing via Mail Order Kit), this will have lowered the level of bacterial activity in your digestive tract to as close to zero as possible. The diet is designed to lower bacterial activity through a lack of sugars which may be causing you symptoms – namely Fructose, Lactose and Sorbitol.

The baseline breath reading before your drink will provide your ‘resting’ hydrogen and methane content.

Then, when you have the sugar drink, this travels through your intestinal system over the next hour or so.

If the sugar passes through the small bowel with minimal or no absorption through the gut wall, it will carry on to the large bowel, where the bacteria will begin feeding on the sugar, converting it in part to a gaseous response, which is able to be read via your exhaled breath content.

It is the increase (of a specific amount and above) in these gases in your exhaled breath which indicate if you have a problem absorbing that sugar.

While most people produce a response via hydrogen output in their exhaled breath, a range of people may produce stronger responses via the methane in their exhaled breath. Some people produce both hydrogen and methane, and very small percentages produce no usable result on hydrogen or methane in their expired breath.

It is important to have these tests performed via the Methane and Hydrogen units, as patients can produce results on methane, methane and hydrogen, hydrogen alone, or a combination of methane or hydrogen within successive tests.