Kenneth Willoughby Heaton (3 August 1936 – 4 March 2013) was a British physician who was an expert in intestinal diseases. He defined a set of criteria that could be used to diagnose

irritable bowel syndrome Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by a group of symptoms that commonly include abdominal pain, abdominal bloating, and changes in the consistency of bowel movements. These symptoms may ...

based on a person's symptoms, and he developed the

Bristol stool scale The Bristol stool scale is a diagnostic medical tool designed to classify the form of human faeces into seven categories. It is used in both clinical and experimental fields. It was developed at the Bristol Royal Infirmary as a clinical a ...

Life and career

Heaton was born in 1936 in

Shillong Shillong (, ) is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India. It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in India, 330th most populous city ...

, India, where his parents were Christian missionaries. His family later moved to England, where Heaton attended

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...

before completing a Bachelor of Arts at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. He went on to study medicine at Cambridge, with clinical placements in London at

Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

and

Central Middlesex Hospital Central Middlesex Hospital is in the centre of the Park Royal business estate, on the border of two London boroughs, Brent and Ealing. It is managed by the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. History The hospital was establi ...

. He married Susan O'Connor, a fellow medical student, in 1961, the year they both graduated. Heaton was a medical registrar at the

Royal Free Hospital The Royal Free Hospital (also known as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barnet Ho ...

and the

Bristol Royal Infirmary The Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) is a large teaching hospital in the centre of Bristol, England. It has links with the nearby University of Bristol and the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of the West of England, also in Brist ...

. During a year-long research fellowship at

Duke University Medical Center Duke University Hospital is a 1062 -bed acute care facility and an academic tertiary care facility located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Established in 1930, it is the flagship teaching hospital for the Duke University Health Sy ...

in the United States, he developed an interest in

bile salts Bile acids are steroid acids found predominantly in the bile of mammals and other vertebrates. Diverse bile acids are synthesized in the liver in peroxisomes. Bile acids are conjugated with taurine or glycine residues to give anions called bile ...

; he later wrote a book titled ''Bile Salts in Health and Disease''. He subscribed to the "Cleave hypothesis", first posed by Peter Cleave, that a number of diseases were due to the consumption of excessive processed foods to which the human gastrointestinal tract had not adapted. This influenced his research on

(IBS), and in 1978 he co-authored a paper positing that a diagnosis of IBS could be made on the basis of symptoms alone. His research led to the development of the Rome criteria for diagnosis of

functional gastrointestinal disorder Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID), also known as disorders of gut–brain interaction, include a number of separate idiopathic disorders which affect different parts of the human gastrointestinal tract, gastrointestinal tract and involv ...

s including IBS. From 1968, Heaton worked as a consultant at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and as a lecturer (and eventually reader) in medicine at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

. With Steve Lewis, he developed the

, an illustrated scale of faecal consistency that reflects intestinal transit time and can be used to assess bowel health and is used internationally by clinicians and researchers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heaton, Kenneth Willoughby 1936 births 2013 deaths Physicians of the Bristol Royal Infirmary Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academics of the University of Bristol Nutrition in the United Kingdom People educated at Marlborough College People from Shillong 20th-century British medical doctors British medical researchers