TENBY hairdresser Janina Evans used to be plagued all day by crippling indigestion – and when she got home, she was so shattered she would often fall asleep by as early as 6.30pm.

Doctors became so concerned about her health that she spent a week in hospital undergoing tests for everything from pancreatitis to chest problems.

The tests all came back negative, and medics concluded she was simply suffering from irritable bowel syndrome.

But now her health has been utterly transformed after she discovered that her food was actually to blame.

Janina, who runs Janina Louise Hair Studio in Tenby's Upper Frog Street, says the indigestion and associated bloating have gone, and she has so much energy she recently cycled 110 miles in two days with the Tenby Aces cycling club.

The breakthrough came earlier this year when the 40-year-old, who has suffered digestive problems for about 15 years, sent off a pinprick of blood to 'YorkTest', a food intolerance testing laboratory in York.

The results came back showing she had a severe intolerance of dairy products, wheat, gluten, eggs and beef.

She set about transforming her diet.

"At breakfast, instead of dairy yoghurt, I switched to soya, and I would stop having milk in my tea or coffee," said Janina.

"Instead of ordinary bread, I ate one made without wheat or gluten. I also had to be careful with processed foods - not that I eat a lot of them anyhow - because they often contain milk or gluten, and at home we'll have salads and meat or fish instead.

"My husband Carl is a star. He goes round the supermarket checking the ingredients in food and finding things I can eat.

"It had been getting really bad. My indigestion was crippling and I would get it all day long, but when you're running a business, you just soldier on. But when I got home, I would be so tired I would go to sleep at 6.30 or 7 pm and sleep for two hours, and then I'd still have to go to bed by 10," she continued.

"If someone had suggested I should go on a bike ride, I'd have said they were having a laugh.

"After changing my diet, the indigestion stopped within days, and so did the bloating. It's so nice to be free of pain. My energy also flooded back. In the summer, I regularly went on 30-mile cycle rides through the Pembrokeshire countryside on several evenings a week and I've cycled several rides in excess of 100 miles in a day," added Janina.

Janina said the only time the problems have returned has been when she has eaten the wrong things in too great a quantity, and it has only been a temporary setback.

For more information on the food intolerance test, go to http://www.yorktest.com">www.yorktest.com or call 0800 074 6185