Not every bad gut day is a flare, and the difference matters: treating an infection as a flare, or a flare as “just a bug,” can mean the wrong treatment, or none at all. This isn’t a diagnosis; it’s a starting point for the call you make to your IBD team.
What the Full Guide Covers
What actually counts as a flare, per Crohn’s & Colitis UK
Things that can look like a flare but aren’t: antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, food poisoning, overlapping IBS
The two tests that tell the difference: faecal calprotectin and stool infection screening
Red flags that mean call 999 or go to A&E now, not later
The full PDF has the complete quick-reference checklist and a comparison table. Download it below.
Team Vance is the editorial team at Vance Medical, the medical foods company behind this hub. Vance Medical has spent more than thirty years in gastrointestinal medicine, developing nutritional products under the same regulatory frameworks that govern prescription medicines.
The Hub exists to make that ground accessible, to people living with Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, IBS and related conditions, and to the clinicians treating them. Articles are written and edited in-house, and clinical claims are referenced to published research, with each study linked to its DOI so you can read the source rather than take our word for it.
We publish primarily for a UK audience. Nothing here replaces advice from your own GP, gastroenterologist or dietitian.
For general information only. This article is for general information and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It reflects the best available evidence at the time of writing and may not capture the most recent developments. Always talk to your GP, pharmacist or healthcare team before acting on anything you read here, and never disregard professional advice or delay seeking it because of something on this site. Where we mention products from Vance Medical Foods Ltd we identify this clearly.
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This builds the whole two-page declaration with your own section (Part 2) already filled in. Part 1 stays blank for the shop to complete at the till. You'll still need to sign it by hand, then hand both pages over.
