Breath test to detect illness
House of Health uses technology from the United States that can detect digestive issues.
Nurse-turned-naturopath and business owner Sharon Erdrich was teaching students when she came across a medical diagnostic tool that she says has revolutionised detecting digestive issues.
Erdrich, who is midway through her PHD about the gut health microbiome from the University of Sydney, employs four staff and has eight health and wellness practitioners operating out of her Auckland Gut Clinic centre in Mt Albert.
She has adapted her business model over the past 20 years to carry out gut testing for her patients and those of other medical professionals around the country, including Auckland Hospital.
What has your venture set out to achieve?
I have a natural health clinic in Mt Albert, which has different types of practitioners working out of it. We focus on digestive health and have a specialist testing service. I’ve had House of Health since 2004, and been offering breath testing for more than 10 years.
Nursing was my original calling and later I qualified as a naturopath and herbalist, with aromatherapy and massage under my wing as well. When I was ready to start practising, I purchased a clinic from a retiring naturopath and embarked on a Masters in nutrition.
I’m now doing a PHD, and I went down breath testing and the gut health specialisation pathway. I used to teach undergraduate naturopathy for about 11 years, and during that time, I had to understand a certain breath test in order to teach it and that got me quite fascinated.
I was very excited when I found the diagnostic tool that was used in the medical setting that could help us understand the cause of digestive distress, and so embarked on a journey of learning and training, flew to the United States to attend specialist conferences and developed my specialisation.
What most commonly causes digestive issues?
When bacteria is fermenting food in your gut it produces gas. When the fermenting happens before it reaches the colon, or in excessive amounts, this will create undesirable end results from gases produced.
The two major gases are hydrogen and methane, and about 20% of what the gut makes get absorbed into the bloodstream and exhaled on the breath.
My standard breath test can detect a condition known as ‘bacterial overgrowth’ in the small intestine, and also lactose malabsorption, fructose mal-absorption – and other sugars – and what we call polyols that cause problems for some people; sorbatol and mannitol, substances that, if you don’t absorb them correctly, they produce a lot of gas and a lot of digestive distress.
We haven’t built the technology, we use validated equipment built by a company called Quintron in the United States. We are not the only facility in New Zealand that offers this service, but we’re the only facility that offers it direct to consumers.
We have a test that people can do at home or at the clinic, otherwise people have to jump through hoops going through the public system to end up in a gastro clinic to do it. The cost of the DIY test is around $220; coming into the clinic for it costs under $200.
There are a lot of reasons why people can have digestive upsets. About one in five people have what is called Irritable Bowel Syndrome but a good percentage have it because of a problem caused by these substances being fermented in the wrong place in the gut or at the wrong rate.
Our breath test has revolutionised how we detect and help people with digestive issues – it takes out a lot of the guesswork, and has made it much easier to refine supporting somebody to get their health back on track.
Many people coming to see me blame food for their digestive problems, and remove food after food from their diet. Often what happens is people get a little bit better from stopping eating wheat, for example, but a few weeks later then find that hasn’t helped and end up taking something else out.
So, often, by the time people come to see me they are eating quite a limited diet, and if it is good food that people are avoiding, that needs to be sorted.
How much time and money have you invested?
It has been more than 20 years of my time, not including all the learning that has taken place outside that.
I initially did this part-time while I was nursing. When I started, I put in an initial investment of $30,000, and over the years that has increased and there has been investment in equipment and other products to establish the business. Until now I have invested between $100,000 and $150,000 as the business has grown over the years, starting from a small threeroom clinic.
It was quite challenging over the Covid period, but given the economic climate that we’re in now, we are OK. I have five naturopaths working at the practice and we have quite a few consulting rooms with other allied practitioners and services on offer too, including a child feeding specialist, child psychologist and a counsellor.
What’s next for you?
My mission is to let people know that if they have digestive problems, there might be something they can find out by doing this breath test. We’re looking forward to having some new breath-testing equipment that will enable us to test another gas; a third gas called hydrogen sulphide – that has been identifiable in the US and can identify another layer of accuracy when detecting digestive problems, but nobody in New Zealand has the ability to test for this yet.
The manufacturer of our equipment has a prototype that is about to go to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval in the States, so once that’s done we’ll have that available in New Zealand.
What’s been the biggest lesson you’ve learnt?
I have had a hard lesson on contracts. Four years into my business, I opened another clinic with somebody else, and we were still negotiating the contract a year later when she walked out and left me with a huge lease and several more years on it. If you’re going to go into business with someone else, get contracts nailed before you do anything.
Most helpful piece of advice you have received?
Be passionate about what you do, and ensure you have support around you to encourage you on your journey. It’s not easy being in business.