A kebab at 3am. That was a standard meal for me during my university years. Like so many young Britons, my diet as a student was appalling.
I was living on a shoestring, which meant cheap, processed food – and plenty of it. I drank heavily and my sleeping pattern was all over the place.
Looking back now, as a scientist who specialises in gut issues, I realise it was a recipe for disaster.
Before long, I was suffering from severe heartburn – the burning pain in the chest and throat that comes when stomach acid escapes upwards into the oesophagus, the tube
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