NHS crisis leads to rise in demand for health tests

Delays in seeing a GP and a rise in the number of people suffering with food intolerances have sent sales of at-home health tests developed in the East Midlands soaring.

Test Your Intolerance, provided by Castle Donington-based Healthy Stuff, has experienced a 200% increase in sales of its products over the past 12 months from customers wanting to take control of their own wellbeing.

The company supplies a range of allergy, intolerance and health tests, and has doubled in size in the past 12 months to keep up with demand.

It receives finger-prick blood samples and uses state-of-the-art equipment to produce validated results to determine allergies and food intolerances, giving customers the information to make changes to their lifestyle and amend diets.

Cris West (pictured), who runs Test Your Intolerance with business partner Jason Wootton, said: “We have never been busier. This is almost certainly because the NHS is in crisis and people can’t get an appointment to see their GP, never mind the ability to ask for a blood test.”

Test Your Intolerance also supplies tests that can measure a person’s kidney and liver function, as well as a prostate health test and levels of Vitamin D, and has recently released a menopause kit. Cris believes the experience of using self-test kits during the pandemic, when millions of people became accustomed to checking for symptoms using lateral flow tests at home, has increased awareness and trust in how the technology can help them.

He added: “Our tests are clinically proven and because people have more faith in carrying out self-testing, as they did during Covid, there is increased confidence in the kits we produce. “The majority of our tests are identical to those used by medical professionals, which means that presenting your GP with evidence of an allergy or intolerance will place you a step nearer to suitable medication, or an appointment with a specialist.”

...which can spot lack of fatty acids too

SureScreen Diagnosis’ sister company has launched a new service under its NeoVos brand to enable people to find out if they are lacking in fatty acids, which are necessary to prevent disease.

The Omega-3 test, which involves taking a blood sample via a finger-prick and sending the results off to SureScreen Scientifics’ lab, in Morley, Derbyshire, is one of a number of home tests offered by NeoVos to help people better understand their bodies.

Omega-3 fatty acids are key building blocks of all the cells in our bodies, including those in our brains, and so are essential for mental and physical health.

There are very few regular sources of Omega-3 in a Western diet – they are most commonly found in fish –and, as a result, deficiencies and imbalances are widespread, which can lead to diseases related to inflammation.

Managing director Troy Whyte said: “Our tests are at the cutting edge of an area of science that has huge potential for helping people to change their eating habits for good, and change their health and life expectations.”