Video Testimonial at the Willow Herbal Centre Seminar 2010
John (Giddings) MA, MSc, PhD aged 65 years
I retired in May 2007 and moved to Suffolk permanently. My wife and I took a trip to Instanbul to celebrate, but during the trip I foolishly had a roadside "smoothie". This caused a serious bout of diarrhea that persisted for several days and recurred frequently thereafter.
I consulted my GP later in 2007 as my system was continuously upset and produced lots of gas. I was given a number of tests including wheat and gluten allergy, but these did not suggest any diagnosis other than IBS. Tests for wheat and gluten allergies were repeated subsequently with the same results.
I then tried a variety of dietary changes in an attempt to improve matters. These included 7 - 10 day periods avoiding a specific category of food (dairy products, nuts, alcohol, spices, peppermint oil, pro-biotics, and an large course of Pepto-Bismol) , all without success. I discussed these results with my GP who suggested trying a gluten-free diet as he had had a patient who had negative allergy reactions in tests but had nevertheless benefited. The effect was immediate and dramatic and I was referred to a nutritionist who helped me onto a Coeliac diet. This made my system more manageable but still uncomfortable and restrictive. My GP subsequently referred me to a consultant gastroenterologist who said he was unable to confirm me as a coeliac as the tests arranged by my GP had been 'very' negative.
I read the article by Nikki Page in "The Daily Telegraph" of 9 August 2010 and the related online comments on the "Telegraph" web-site. There seemed to be a significant degree of correlation with my own situation and I made contact with Susan Koten in October 2010.
At an appointment in November 2010 Susan diagnosed me as having the Giardia Lambidia parasite and prescribed two 7 day herbal treatments. These cleared up my original condition but unsettled my stomach. The second appointment diagnosed the stomach problem as Clostridium and a further 7 day herbal course largely cleared this up but some discomfort remained. A third herbal course has returned me to normality.
I have since discovered that although the Giardia Lambidia parasite is widely distributed worldwide and easily transmitted (World Heath Organisation) its identification in the UK is difficult using existing techniques. I wonder how many other people in the UK diagnosed as IBS/ Coeliac have picked up a parasite but remain undiagnosed due to testing difficulties.
I am now on a normal diet without any of the problems experienced previously. This is solely due to the diagnoses and herbal treatments I received from Susan Koten. The diagnosis techniques used may differ from more familiar ones, but the results speak for them selves and have been achieved without recourse to anti-biotics. I spent more than 30 months on a Coeliac diet. Only those who have experienced its effects on health, family and social life will know how difficult this is.
I would like to record my thanks to Susan Koten for the treatment she provided and to Nikki Page for writing the newspaper article.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myself and my family (My father, my husband and our two young daughters, aged 4 and 2) have suffered with Giardia for the past 2 years. I'll try to keep it brief but basically countless visits to our GP - where I mentioned could our symptoms be Giardia?, blood tests for both my daughters, visits to Paediatric Consultants (where still my suggestion that we could all be suffering with this parasite were quickly dismissed). Eventually it was my father who had a positive result for Giardia. I saw this as my green light to get treatment for myself, my husband and more importantly our two young daughters who really were suffering very badly. The GP was still so difficult, he asked me if I had heard of 'a condition called celiac disease' (even though I had already been tested for this and was negative), told me that my appointment was for me and he wasnt interested in the symptoms of my family. He kept saying to me 'are you sure it was Giardia your father has been diagnosed with?' and 'I've never heard of anyone having Giardia for this long'. At the end of the appointment I came away with my prescription for Metranidazole (after being told by said GP that I really had pressurised him into this prescription') but of course no prescription for my family, even though if one family member has this parasite then all family members should be treated. You can imagine my delight when I got a call from this GP confirming that infact my sample had indeed tested positive for Giardia. Another appointment (with another GP, I wasn't going back to the other one) and I was able to obtain prescriptions of Metronidazole for my husband and my two young daughters. To cut a long story short, the Metronidazole didn't work. It didnt work for any of us. We still had the parasite and I knew it. I was mostly concerned with my daughters, the older one (aged 4) kept being sick and she was having very bad upset stomachs and was missing a lot of pre school. My younger daughter just wasn't gaining weight and still now at 2 years 10 months she weighs a little over 10kg. After another telephone appointment with yet another GP I was told they probably had 'post treatment collitis' from the metronidazole and sent packing. I felt like I needed to try an alternative path, if not for myself but for my children. I typed 'Giardia' and 'herbalist' into google and the first person that came up was Susan Koten, I read the abstract of a recent talk Susan had given on Giardia at Herbfest and made the call to her. The next day we all travelled from Dorset to Essex to see Susan and have been seeing her since February. Susan has helped us all (with other ailments as well as the Giardia) and we are now all free of the parasite except for my youngest daughter who is still suffering, albeit much less so than she was. Susan has also picked up she has a problem with Gluten, and we are still working on that.
I am honestly so grateful to Susan, and if we hadn't had the fortune of finding her I really dread to think what state we would all be in now.
Emma Chandler
Case History - Caroline Berry
No digestive problems until early 20's. Visited Brazil and became very unwell - investigated but no clear results.
Had laporocsopy - showed signs of recovering infection.
Any visits abroad - chronic tummy aches and virulent food poisoning. The rest of the time I felt like I was dealing with a low level stomach bug. I gave up eating wheat as it seemed to aggravate my gut.
The last 7 years symptoms have got much worse - dreadful pain overnight, unable to sleep with many nights spent walking round in circles in pain.
(Maybe unrelated - very bad period pains and eventually had a Mirena coil put in. The progesterone had a direct impact on gut motility until it eventually slowed it down to such a degree
it had to be removed March 2010)
Spring 2009-10 very ill with chronic pain and virtually bed ridden. Visited my GP, had an ultrasound scan to see if I had Gallstones (I didn't), was referred to a gastro-enterologist and eventually I had to give up work.
Spring 2009 Gastro-enterologist performed endoscopy and colonoscopy - no real diagnosis.
Pain became worse - underwent full thickness bowel biopsies which showed presence of ovoids. Again no real diagnosis but was referred to a senior consultant dealing in difficult cases - his opinion was that there may be nothing that could be done for me and that I might have to accept that the condition was likely to deteriorate. He said that I would have been diagnosed as mad and depressed up until now. I felt that was not mad or depressed but had REALLY AWFUL STOMACH ACHE. I felt utterly desperate and felt that I could not survive in this condition as every single day was a huge struggle. Anything I ate didn't go down, I felt sick all of the time and eventually stopped eating anything but soup. I lost 2 stone in 3 weeks, I was taking Tramadol, co-proxamol and Oromorph to cope with the pain but not to much effect.
He referred me to an Auto Immune specialist who diagnosed Sjogrens syndrome with coeliac disease as a secondary condition. I was prescribed Quinine and stopped eating gluten which showed some improvement but did not stop the consistent pain.
Also referred to Prof Matthias for neurological tests (which I have yet to take up).
I still felt absolutely awful and through friends who are Consultants eventually made my way to a leading neuro-gastro-enterologist. I had stomach emptying exercises which showed normal gut emptying and the small intestine manometry to check gut motility - that showed sporadic, very inconsistent movement. He thought that I had bacterial overgrowth and prescribed Amoxycillin which made some difference. He also prescribed Amytriptiline at night to de-sensitise the nerves to my gut which helped and for the first time in years I started to sleep. However, I still kept on having crippling, inexplicable tummy aches.
He also referred to a dietician who was great - she cut out gluten, lactose and FODMAP's from my diet which can have an aggravating effect on sensitive digestive symptoms. I was INCREDIBLY careful with my diet but was still getting bad tummy aches. I took several more courses of Amoxycillin over the next 6 months but became increasingly depressed as it did not knock the pain on the head or stop the symptoms re-occurring.
Eventually I read the article about Susan Koten in the Telegraph and the symptoms described were so similar to mine I felt I had to make an appointment on 23.8.10 to see whether she might be able to help.
On my first visit she diagnosed Giardia which may have been evident for a long period of time. She said that I was likely to be gluten intolerant and that it was cyclical - which explained why sometimes it was less excruciating than others. The symptom list was the first comprehensive list I had seen and shockingly, I ticked most of the boxes - including one that asked if it was worse at night. I was significantly worse at night and that had not been picked up by anyone else as a real symptom before.
Susan prescribed a remedy which included wormwood and a second tonic/remedy to deal with the Giardia in my gall bladder.
After 2-3 days I felt significantly better and after a week felt normal. My second visit 10 days later showed that the Giardia had gone but I was warned that it was cyclical and might re-appear and that I could be reinfected by my family. All 6 of us visited Susan with the result that my husband and eldest son had Giardia (they were treated) and I at last seemed to be under control.
I visited Susan again with symptoms ( I thought they may be from eating gluten in a restaurant) but it seems that the Giardia is back and I am being treated again. This is the only course of treatment that has any sort of lasting effect and I simply do not have the crippling pain that I have lived with for all these years. I am hugely relieved to have had some sort of diagnosis and to be able to be treated.
SYMPTOMS
Like food poisoning 24/7
BLOATING
GAS
WIND
DIARRHOREA - SOMETIMES
CONSTIPATION - WITH PAINKILLERS
No typical stool pattern but never regular and normal.
SWEATING
NAUSEA
BAD BREATH
JOINT PAIN
MUSCLE PAIN
CHRONIC FATIGUE
CONSTANT FEELING THAT FOOD IS NOT GOING DOWN INTO GUT
THROBBING PULSE IN GUT DOWN LH SIDE WHEN PAIN IS AT IT'S WORST.
INABILITY TO CONCENTRATE
DEPRESSION (THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE)
SLEEP DISTURBANCE
NOISY INTESTINES
DISTENDED ABDOMEN
SHORTNESS OF BREATH (UNABLE TO BREATHE OVER THE PAIN - HAD TO USE LABOUR TECHNIQUES TO BREATHE AS PAIN SO BAD)
MEMORY DEFICITS
BURPING
DISCOMFORT AFTER EATING (to the point where easier not to eat)
OFTEN FELT WINDED AS THOUGH KICKED IN STOMACH
POOR CIRCULATION VERY COLD HANDS NOSE AND FEET
MUCH WORSE AT NIGHT MENTIONED TO EVERY DOCTOR/CONSULTANT AND NEVER REFERRED TO AGAIN IN DIAGNOSIS
December 2010
John (Giddings) MA, MSc, PhD aged 65 years
I retired in May 2007 and moved to Suffolk permanently. My wife and I took a trip to Instanbul to celebrate, but during the trip I foolishly had a roadside "smoothie". This caused a serious bout of diarrhea that persisted for several days and recurred frequently thereafter.
I consulted my GP later in 2007 as my system was continuously upset and produced lots of gas. I was given a number of tests including wheat and gluten allergy, but these did not suggest any diagnosis other than IBS. Tests for wheat and gluten allergies were repeated subsequently with the same results.
I then tried a variety of dietary changes in an attempt to improve matters. These included 7 - 10 day periods avoiding a specific category of food (dairy products, nuts, alcohol, spices, peppermint oil, pro-biotics, and an large course of Pepto-Bismol) , all without success. I discussed these results with my GP who suggested trying a gluten-free diet as he had had a patient who had negative allergy reactions in tests but had nevertheless benefited. The effect was immediate and dramatic and I was referred to a nutritionist who helped me onto a Coeliac diet. This made my system more manageable but still uncomfortable and restrictive. My GP subsequently referred me to a consultant gastroenterologist who said he was unable to confirm me as a coeliac as the tests arranged by my GP had been 'very' negative.
I read the article by Nikki Page in "The Daily Telegraph" of 9 August 2010 and the related online comments on the "Telegraph" web-site. There seemed to be a significant degree of correlation with my own situation and I made contact with Susan Koten in October 2010.
At an appointment in November 2010 Susan diagnosed me as having the Giardia Lambidia parasite and prescribed two 7 day herbal treatments. These cleared up my original condition but unsettled my stomach. The second appointment diagnosed the stomach problem as Clostridium and a further 7 day herbal course largely cleared this up but some discomfort remained. A third herbal course has returned me to normality.
I have since discovered that although the Giardia Lambidia parasite is widely distributed worldwide and easily transmitted (World Heath Organisation) its identification in the UK is difficult using existing techniques. I wonder how many other people in the UK diagnosed as IBS/ Coeliac have picked up a parasite but remain undiagnosed due to testing difficulties.
I am now on a normal diet without any of the problems experienced previously. This is solely due to the diagnoses and herbal treatments I received from Susan Koten. The diagnosis techniques used may differ from more familiar ones, but the results speak for them selves and have been achieved without recourse to anti-biotics. I spent more than 30 months on a Coeliac diet. Only those who have experienced its effects on health, family and social life will know how difficult this is.
I would like to record my thanks to Susan Koten for the treatment she provided and to Nikki Page for writing the newspaper article.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myself and my family (My father, my husband and our two young daughters, aged 4 and 2) have suffered with Giardia for the past 2 years. I'll try to keep it brief but basically countless visits to our GP - where I mentioned could our symptoms be Giardia?, blood tests for both my daughters, visits to Paediatric Consultants (where still my suggestion that we could all be suffering with this parasite were quickly dismissed). Eventually it was my father who had a positive result for Giardia. I saw this as my green light to get treatment for myself, my husband and more importantly our two young daughters who really were suffering very badly. The GP was still so difficult, he asked me if I had heard of 'a condition called celiac disease' (even though I had already been tested for this and was negative), told me that my appointment was for me and he wasnt interested in the symptoms of my family. He kept saying to me 'are you sure it was Giardia your father has been diagnosed with?' and 'I've never heard of anyone having Giardia for this long'. At the end of the appointment I came away with my prescription for Metranidazole (after being told by said GP that I really had pressurised him into this prescription') but of course no prescription for my family, even though if one family member has this parasite then all family members should be treated. You can imagine my delight when I got a call from this GP confirming that infact my sample had indeed tested positive for Giardia. Another appointment (with another GP, I wasn't going back to the other one) and I was able to obtain prescriptions of Metronidazole for my husband and my two young daughters. To cut a long story short, the Metronidazole didn't work. It didnt work for any of us. We still had the parasite and I knew it. I was mostly concerned with my daughters, the older one (aged 4) kept being sick and she was having very bad upset stomachs and was missing a lot of pre school. My younger daughter just wasn't gaining weight and still now at 2 years 10 months she weighs a little over 10kg. After another telephone appointment with yet another GP I was told they probably had 'post treatment collitis' from the metronidazole and sent packing. I felt like I needed to try an alternative path, if not for myself but for my children. I typed 'Giardia' and 'herbalist' into google and the first person that came up was Susan Koten, I read the abstract of a recent talk Susan had given on Giardia at Herbfest and made the call to her. The next day we all travelled from Dorset to Essex to see Susan and have been seeing her since February. Susan has helped us all (with other ailments as well as the Giardia) and we are now all free of the parasite except for my youngest daughter who is still suffering, albeit much less so than she was. Susan has also picked up she has a problem with Gluten, and we are still working on that.
I am honestly so grateful to Susan, and if we hadn't had the fortune of finding her I really dread to think what state we would all be in now.
Emma Chandler
Case History - Caroline Berry
No digestive problems until early 20's. Visited Brazil and became very unwell - investigated but no clear results.
Had laporocsopy - showed signs of recovering infection.
Any visits abroad - chronic tummy aches and virulent food poisoning. The rest of the time I felt like I was dealing with a low level stomach bug. I gave up eating wheat as it seemed to aggravate my gut.
The last 7 years symptoms have got much worse - dreadful pain overnight, unable to sleep with many nights spent walking round in circles in pain.
(Maybe unrelated - very bad period pains and eventually had a Mirena coil put in. The progesterone had a direct impact on gut motility until it eventually slowed it down to such a degree
it had to be removed March 2010)
Spring 2009-10 very ill with chronic pain and virtually bed ridden. Visited my GP, had an ultrasound scan to see if I had Gallstones (I didn't), was referred to a gastro-enterologist and eventually I had to give up work.
Spring 2009 Gastro-enterologist performed endoscopy and colonoscopy - no real diagnosis.
Pain became worse - underwent full thickness bowel biopsies which showed presence of ovoids. Again no real diagnosis but was referred to a senior consultant dealing in difficult cases - his opinion was that there may be nothing that could be done for me and that I might have to accept that the condition was likely to deteriorate. He said that I would have been diagnosed as mad and depressed up until now. I felt that was not mad or depressed but had REALLY AWFUL STOMACH ACHE. I felt utterly desperate and felt that I could not survive in this condition as every single day was a huge struggle. Anything I ate didn't go down, I felt sick all of the time and eventually stopped eating anything but soup. I lost 2 stone in 3 weeks, I was taking Tramadol, co-proxamol and Oromorph to cope with the pain but not to much effect.
He referred me to an Auto Immune specialist who diagnosed Sjogrens syndrome with coeliac disease as a secondary condition. I was prescribed Quinine and stopped eating gluten which showed some improvement but did not stop the consistent pain.
Also referred to Prof Matthias for neurological tests (which I have yet to take up).
I still felt absolutely awful and through friends who are Consultants eventually made my way to a leading neuro-gastro-enterologist. I had stomach emptying exercises which showed normal gut emptying and the small intestine manometry to check gut motility - that showed sporadic, very inconsistent movement. He thought that I had bacterial overgrowth and prescribed Amoxycillin which made some difference. He also prescribed Amytriptiline at night to de-sensitise the nerves to my gut which helped and for the first time in years I started to sleep. However, I still kept on having crippling, inexplicable tummy aches.
He also referred to a dietician who was great - she cut out gluten, lactose and FODMAP's from my diet which can have an aggravating effect on sensitive digestive symptoms. I was INCREDIBLY careful with my diet but was still getting bad tummy aches. I took several more courses of Amoxycillin over the next 6 months but became increasingly depressed as it did not knock the pain on the head or stop the symptoms re-occurring.
Eventually I read the article about Susan Koten in the Telegraph and the symptoms described were so similar to mine I felt I had to make an appointment on 23.8.10 to see whether she might be able to help.
On my first visit she diagnosed Giardia which may have been evident for a long period of time. She said that I was likely to be gluten intolerant and that it was cyclical - which explained why sometimes it was less excruciating than others. The symptom list was the first comprehensive list I had seen and shockingly, I ticked most of the boxes - including one that asked if it was worse at night. I was significantly worse at night and that had not been picked up by anyone else as a real symptom before.
Susan prescribed a remedy which included wormwood and a second tonic/remedy to deal with the Giardia in my gall bladder.
After 2-3 days I felt significantly better and after a week felt normal. My second visit 10 days later showed that the Giardia had gone but I was warned that it was cyclical and might re-appear and that I could be reinfected by my family. All 6 of us visited Susan with the result that my husband and eldest son had Giardia (they were treated) and I at last seemed to be under control.
I visited Susan again with symptoms ( I thought they may be from eating gluten in a restaurant) but it seems that the Giardia is back and I am being treated again. This is the only course of treatment that has any sort of lasting effect and I simply do not have the crippling pain that I have lived with for all these years. I am hugely relieved to have had some sort of diagnosis and to be able to be treated.
SYMPTOMS
Like food poisoning 24/7
BLOATING
GAS
WIND
DIARRHOREA - SOMETIMES
CONSTIPATION - WITH PAINKILLERS
No typical stool pattern but never regular and normal.
SWEATING
NAUSEA
BAD BREATH
JOINT PAIN
MUSCLE PAIN
CHRONIC FATIGUE
CONSTANT FEELING THAT FOOD IS NOT GOING DOWN INTO GUT
THROBBING PULSE IN GUT DOWN LH SIDE WHEN PAIN IS AT IT'S WORST.
INABILITY TO CONCENTRATE
DEPRESSION (THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE)
SLEEP DISTURBANCE
NOISY INTESTINES
DISTENDED ABDOMEN
SHORTNESS OF BREATH (UNABLE TO BREATHE OVER THE PAIN - HAD TO USE LABOUR TECHNIQUES TO BREATHE AS PAIN SO BAD)
MEMORY DEFICITS
BURPING
DISCOMFORT AFTER EATING (to the point where easier not to eat)
OFTEN FELT WINDED AS THOUGH KICKED IN STOMACH
POOR CIRCULATION VERY COLD HANDS NOSE AND FEET
MUCH WORSE AT NIGHT MENTIONED TO EVERY DOCTOR/CONSULTANT AND NEVER REFERRED TO AGAIN IN DIAGNOSIS