What's Involved in a Reflux Clinic Consultation
Douglas Mizzi takes a careful, structured approach to understanding your reflux, GORD, heartburn, bloating or digestive discomfort. Every consultation is designed to help you get a clearer picture of where your symptoms come from and why they developed.
Before Your Appointment
Before your consultation, you will be asked to complete a detailed health history questionnaire. This includes information about your symptoms, diet, medications, medical history and lifestyle. The more detail you provide, the more Douglas can help you during the session.
The Consultation Process
Step 1: Detailed History Review
Douglas begins by reviewing your completed health questionnaire and exploring your symptom timeline in detail. This includes when symptoms started, what makes them worse, what medications you have tried, and any relevant medical investigations. The goal is to understand your full health picture — not just the reflux.
Step 2: Symptom Pattern Assessment
Douglas examines the patterns behind your reflux, GORD, bloating, fermentation or digestive discomfort. This includes looking at timing, frequency, severity and any connections to food, stress, sleep or other factors. Identifying patterns is key to understanding what is driving your symptoms.
Step 3: Meal Timing & Diet Review
Your current diet, meal timing, portion sizes, food combinations and eating habits are reviewed. Douglas looks for specific dietary contributors to reflux — not just the obvious triggers, but the less well-known ones that can quietly aggravate digestive discomfort over time. Where clinically appropriate, in-clinic assessments may also use MSA-Pro, a non-invasive screening tool, to help identify possible food and intolerance triggers for further exploration.
Step 4: Personalised Protocol Development
Based on your history, symptoms and dietary review, Douglas creates a practical, personalised protocol. This is not a generic diet sheet — it is a targeted plan built around your individual patterns, triggers and health goals.
Step 5: Follow-Up Support
Follow-up consultations allow Douglas to review your progress, refine your plan and address any new symptoms or questions. Most clients benefit from at least one or two follow-ups to ensure their protocol is working and to make adjustments as their digestive health improves.
Exploring food and intolerance triggers — without guesswork
When reflux is accompanied by bloating, abdominal distension, bowel changes or an increasingly restricted diet, food patterns can be an important part of the overall picture.
Where clinically appropriate, our in-clinic assessment may use MSA-Pro, a non-invasive screening tool that helps identify possible food and intolerance triggers for further exploration. Rather than relying on broad, long-term elimination diets, this gives us another practical reference point when reviewing foods that may be contributing to a person’s individual pattern of bloating, digestive discomfort or reflux symptoms.
MSA-Pro is never used in isolation. Douglas cross-references the findings with the person’s symptom and health history, medication and treatment history, meal, bowel and bloating patterns, known suspected foods, response to structured changes, and more than three decades of clinical experience.
The goal is not to create a lifetime of restriction. It is to identify useful clues, reduce unnecessary guesswork, settle the digestive pattern where possible and reintroduce foods thoughtfully when appropriate.
Zoom Consultations Australia-Wide
The same comprehensive consultation process is available by Zoom for clients anywhere in Australia. Whether you live outside the clinic areas or prefer the convenience of a remote session, Douglas provides the same detailed assessment and personalised support.
Please note: MSA-Pro is an in-clinic screening tool and is not used in online consultations. Zoom assessments focus on a detailed review of your history, prior testing and treatment, current symptoms, medication history, food patterns, meal patterns, bowel habits and response to foods.
Frequently Asked Questions
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