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Introduction: the right surgeon depends on the problem Most patients do not need the most famous colorectal surgeon in Sydney. They need a surgeon with the right experience for their particular condition, working in a hospital that can provide the right support around the operation. That distinction matters because colorectal surgery is not one job. A surgeon who spends most of the week removing rectal cancers has a different skill set from one who spends it repairing pelvic

Public vs private, the four fees you'll be billed, MBS item numbers 30473 and 32222, and a plain-English action plan for booking your scope.

A normal colonoscopy rules out disease in the bowel lining, not slow movement or the bacteria behind it. Here is what to ask about before anyone mentions an operation.

Most positive bowel screening results are not cancer, but every one needs a colonoscopy, ideally within 30 days. What the result means, what happens next, and how to be seen promptly in Sydney.

The different settings for endoscopy in Sydney are not rungs on a ladder from worst to best. They are different tools, built for different work.

There is no single best gastroenterologist. There is a best fit for a particular problem — and knowing the difference is what gets you to the right person faster.

One overactive immune cell, symptoms in many systems at once. A clear guide to what MCAS is, how it's really diagnosed with the tryptase 20%+2 rule, and how it's treated.

A gastroenterologist's readable deep-dive into how methanogens, short-chain fatty acids and keystone gut microbes speed up, slow down and fine-tune gut motility — and how we can influence them.

How your gut microbiome shapes mood and mental health — the science of the gut–brain axis, plus a real case of bipolar disorder improving after FMT.

Faecal microbiota transplant has moved from fringe curiosity to one of the most studied therapies in gastroenterology. What the evidence actually says in 2026: cure rates above 90 per cent in recurrent C. difficile, antibiotic-FMT combination protocols for ulcerative colitis, a modest but real signal in IBS, and a rapidly expanding frontier in depression, bipolar disorder, and autism — alongside the multi-modal, multi-donor Shore protocol that reflects where the science has l

IBS is still too often dismissed as a diagnosis of exclusion treated with a pamphlet, an antispasmodic, and a low-FODMAP handout. In reality it is a biologically driven condition sitting at the intersection of the microbiome, diet, the gut-brain axis, visceral hypersensitivity, and psychology. This is the full map — from excluding serious disease through symptom relief, dietary and microbiome work, to faecal transplant and the cellular frontier of confocal endomicroscopy.

Reflux is one of the most common complaints in gastroenterology and one of the most misunderstood. Not all reflux is acid, not all reflux causes heartburn, and not all reflux responds to the first PPI prescribed. This is a deep but readable guide to the full spectrum of reflux disease — severity grades, Barrett's oesophagus, bile and non-acid reflux, motility disorders, and the diagnostic and treatment toolkit from lifestyle through vonoprazan to anti-reflux surgery.

Bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers in Australia and one of the most preventable. The difference between a routine screening test and a preventable death is often a single well-timed colonoscopy. This is a clear, evidence-based guide to who should be screened, with what test, and how often — from average risk through to strong family history, previous polyps, and inflammatory bowel disease.

The gut and the brain are in constant conversation, exchanging signals every second of your life along four distinct biological highways. Understanding that dialogue — how it works, what it says, and what happens when it is disrupted — is becoming essential to modern medicine. This is a detailed but accessible tour of the gut-brain axis, for patients and clinicians who want the real science, clearly explained.

Can a faecal microbiota transplant stabilise a mood disorder that has resisted every combination of psychiatric medication? The early evidence — and a growing body of compelling case reports — suggests that in carefully selected patients, the answer may be yes. For patients with severe treatment-resistant bipolar depression, FMT is no longer a theoretical curiosity. Delivered in the right clinical framework, it can meaningfully reduce antidepressant burden and restore mood st

For patients who have failed two, three or even four rounds of H. pylori eradication, a new class of acid-suppressing drug is quietly rewriting the treatment algorithm. Vonoprazan-based bismuth quadruple therapy is delivering cure rates above 92% in real-world populations with heavy antibiotic resistance — and achieving rescue success where every previous regimen has failed. For a carcinogen long regarded as one of the hardest to eradicate, this is a genuine paradigm shift.

The burning, the bloating, the uncomfortable fullness that descends with every meal — these are the hallmarks of dyspepsia, a word derived from the Greek for "bad digestion." For millions of Australians, these upper gut symptoms are a daily reality. Most assume they have reflux, reach for an antacid, and never look deeper. But for a significant proportion of people — perhaps as many as one in ten adults — the symptoms are not explained by reflux, ulcers, or any visible abnorm

Your skin is the body's largest organ and, in many ways, its most honest. When something is wrong internally, the skin often broadcasts it — in the form of acne, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, or a dull, inflamed complexion that no topical cream seems to fix. Dermatologists attribute these conditions to genetics, hormones, sun damage, or stress. And while those factors matter, an increasingly compelling body of evidence points to a deeper, often overlooked driver: the state of y

You return from an exotic holiday with sun-kissed skin and wonderful memories—but also with a persistent rumble in your stomach that just won't settle. Three weeks post-travel, you're still managing loose stools, bloating, or unusual food intolerances that weren't there before you left. If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Traveller's diarrhoea is one of the most common health complaints among international travellers, affecting up to 40% of those visiting developing re

Experiencing persistent heartburn or reflux on Sydney's North Shore? Dr Jeffrey Tu is a specialist gastroenterologist at Mater Private Hospital, Wollstonecraft, providing expert GORD diagnosis and treatment for patients in Roseville, Chatswood, Lindfield and all North Shore suburbs.