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Roundhay pilates teacher Miranda Wells makes a living from being fit and active so she was frustrated that despite repeated trips to the doctor she was still unwell.

Miranda suffered from daily headaches and agonising migraines since she was a teenager but GPs simply prescribed painkillers and advised her to avoid "triggers" such as strong smells like cigarette smoke, alcohol and perfume.

Despite her energetic lifestyle, working as a personal trainer and teaching pilates and dance classes at Virgin Active and Esporta, The Light, she was still plagued by debilitating headaches and often felt
sluggish and sickly.

She said exercising helped, as the endorphins released acted as natural painkillers, but she wanted to get to the bottom of the cause of her headaches.

She said it felt as if her body was "fighting something" so she set out to diagnose the problem and cure it herself.
Miranda tried everything from detoxing to different diets and Chinese medicine, to no avail.

But when her sister's stomach problems vanished after being diagnosed with food allergies and changing her diet accordingly, her parents persuaded her to try a food intolerance test.

She sent a blood sample to YorkTest Laboratories, in York, and paid £250 for the foodSCAN test against 113 foods.

The results were back within a week and showed she seriously reacted to seafood, cow's milk and wheat gluten – found in bread

And many other foods. She didn't eat seafood anyway but loved toast and cafe lattes.

She decided to give it a go and changed her diet completely – cutting out everything containing the problem substances.
Food intolerances can be caused when the body doesn't produce enough natural digestive chemicals to break down a particular type of food.

The most common are to gluten and lactose – the sugar found in milk.

As well as migraines, conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), eczema and asthma have also been linked to food
intolerances. Miranda said the effects of cutting the foods out of her diet were instant.

"Within three days I could not believe the difference.

"I woke up with somuch energy, I was able to maintain that energy and the daily headaches had gone completely."
She said it hadn't been easy but it was worth it, as in the year since she had changed her diet she has barely had a headache.
On the rare occasion she has eaten any "banned" foods she felt the effects immediately.

Miranda said: "I know there's a lot of scepticism around food intolerance but my advice to anyone with migraines would be
definitely give a test a chance."

Case of food intolerance cases are thought to be rising but the Government's Food Standards Agency advises anyone who thinks they have a problem to get a proper diagnosis.
Cutting food groups out without medical advice could mean missing out on important nutrients.

Les Rowley, spokesman for YorkTest, said 30 per cent of the people that approached thefirm had been suffering with migraines for ten years.
He said the firmwas campaigning for food intolerance testing to be accepted and adopted by the NHS.

Dr Tom Heyes, Head of Professional Development, Leeds Primary Care Trust, said: "It is well-known that migraine is often triggered by certain foods, or other stimuli."

Sufferers are often advised by GPs and specialists to keep a diary of events to investigate a possible link to diet or other triggers.

Similar comments would apply to irritable bowel syndrome. If this method fails,some may benefit from a more detailed examination of the role of dietary factors.

"There is limited research evidence to support the validity of any particular way of detecting specific food intolerances in sufferers from these and other conditions," he said.

Dr Heyes continued: "Probably the most reliable approach is the 'few food' or oligoantigenic diet with serial re-introduction of excluded foods to identify reactions to individual elements of the diet.

"Successful trials of this approach have been done with a variety of conditions. However, it is difficult, disruptive and time consuming."

Various tests have been developed to try to identify more easily which foods are causing problems, but there is limited evidence as to how reliable they are, and none is widely accepted by the medical profession.

For example, IBS sufferers are more likely to have positive skin prick tests to foods but in research there was a poor correlation between the results of the tests and the foods to which they thought they were intolerant.

A blood test called RAST is sometimes used to detect IgE antibodies in blood; these relate more to classical allergies than to the conditions usuallylinked to food intolerance.

"The YorkTest reports the presence of IgG antibodies to foods in the blood.Most medical opinion does not support all the claims
made for it though it may lead to a good result in certain cases. There appears to be more evidence for its use in IBS than in other
conditions.

"There are numerous 'quack' tests marketed, whichmakes it more difficult for sufferers to get reliable help.
"At present in the NHS, food intolerance does not have a high priority and there is limited expertise and resource available.
This is partly because of the small amount of good evidence available and scepticismabout how
common and important it is.

Sufferers may have a number of conditions, such as migraine, skin problems, joint pains, fatigue, and IBS, that are treated by different specialists,making it more difficult to get an overview of the
condition.

Research in this field is difficult for a number of technical reasons, so progress is likely to be slow," he added.

Useful numbers:

* YorkTest: 0800 458 2052
* Migraine Action Association: 0870 050 5898