“It feels worse after X” is a hunch until it’s written down next to what actually happened on the days it didn’t. A trigger is rarely one thing: food, stress, sleep, medication timing and things outside your control all play a part.
What the Full Guide Covers
Four categories worth tracking: food and drink, stress and sleep, medication, and other factors like infection or hormonal cycle
A printable weekly log with the same four columns you can copy or keep digitally in your Health Record
How to read the pattern after a few weeks, and why one bad day proves little
Why this is a starting point for a conversation with your team, not a diagnosis on its own
The full PDF has the complete weekly log template. 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.
Nine short questions so the hub can point you at the research, tools and recipes that actually apply to you. You can change any answer later.
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Everything here is optional and private to your account. It is stored so you can keep one record over time and take it to appointments; it is not a diagnosis and it is not shared with anyone.
Stored privately against your account. General information only. Not a diagnosis, and not a substitute for advice from your healthcare team.
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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.