Category Archives: Questions & Answers

Questions & Answers, Yeast Infection Signs And Symptoms

Yeast in Your Stool: What You Need To Know

At least one in four healthy people have got microscopic amounts of yeast in their gut. For many people, yeast is a normally occurring microorganism in their intestines. People have got hundreds of types of bacteria and yeast colonizing their digestive tract.

Doctor’s Data Labs, one of the best laboratories for stool testing, checks for over 600 types of yeast. One possible finding is an abnormally large amount of dead yeast in the stool. A comprehensive stool analysis (CSA) should include three samples. If one sample has a high level of dead yeast, look to see if the same is true for the other two samples. If there are a high number of dead yeasts in all three stool samples as well as live yeast that was cultured from the stool, then you may have a problem.

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Excessive yeast in your digestive tract is worse if accompanied by a lack of beneficial bacteria or an overgrowth of harmful bacteria. Conversely, if you have abnormally high numbers of yeast, but also high levels of beneficial bacteria, your digestive problem isn’t quite as bad. In fact, I’ve had some very healthy clients with large amounts of dead yeast in their stool, but they were completely symptom-free. They continued to be healthy because of the high levels of good bacteria in their intestines. It’s essential to look at all the findings on the stool test to truly understand what you need to address in your gut. My recommendation is not to get carried away with one marker but to look at the totality of the findings in the stool test report. Also, don’t just pay attention to the stool test, take into consideration your symptoms. There is a saying in medicine, “Treat the patient, not the lab results.” Keep that in mind when trying to decide your next steps after having a stool test.

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Questions & Answers

Stool Test Findings In Irritable Bowel Syndrome

A comprehensive stool analysis (CSA) is an outstanding test for detecting irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). A stool test can differentiate between IBS and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

If you want to get the best possible scope of information, I recommend doing a SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth) breath test and a CSA at the same time. If possible, do both tests on the same day as you want them done very close together. The combination of these two tests is going to give you an excellent understanding of the bacteria in the whole gut.

The SIBO test will determine if your intestines contain a large number of hydrogen or methane-producing bacteria. If you have large amounts of hydrogen-producing bacteria, you can safely assume you’ve got SIBO.

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Irritable Bowel Syndrome is quite common. It affects a large chunk of the population. About half of people with IBS have developed the condition as a result of stress. The other 50% of people with IBS have the condition due to other causes such as food allergies, dysbiosis, Candida, and parasites.

Usually, when I spend about 20 or 30 minutes with a client, I can quickly work out if it’s IBS or IBD, just by looking at the case history. The tests help confirm my initial diagnosis.

A stool test is a very good way to determine if the bowel is irritated or inflamed. With IBD, there will be inflammatory markers found during the stool test. Inflammatory markers do not occur in IBS. With IBS, findings tend to include Candida and lots of different types of bacteria in large amount. Invariably. About 50% of people with IBS have a lack of beneficial bacteria.

Doing a stool test and the SIBO breath test will give you massive amounts of data. Your team can use that data to formulate a customized treatment plan.

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Questions & Answers, Yeast Infection Signs And Symptoms

Can I Get A Stool Test At My Doctor’s Office?

It is most likely that your medical doctor will not be able to do the comprehensive stool analysis I frequently recommend. Most conventional medical doctors have not had training in the field and most likely will not agree that it is a useful investigation. Your doctor may not be sympathetic to this kind of test at all. Your doctor may even refute the test, saying it’s not warranted, it’s not required, it’s unnecessary, etc. I’ve heard it all before.

In my opinion, you shouldn’t worry if your doctor doesn’t approve of stool testing. Doctors aren’t always right. If you want to do a stool test, you can do it on your own through Direct Labs. You can also get stool testing done through a naturopath or a functional medicine doctor. Functional medicine doctors are traditionally trained at medical school but have done further workshops and courses. Functional medicine doctors understand my perspective. I’ve got many doctor friends like this who are amazing people with incredible skill sets. Western medicine can be fantastic to use in conjunction with naturopathy.

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If you want the best of both worlds, I recommend you work with a doctor who offers Western medical science plus natural intervention as a first option. This combination is what medical practice should be.

A comprehensive stool analysis can be the turning point in managing your physical symptoms. Finally, you will know what is going on in your digestive tract. There’s no point bringing stool test reports to medical doctors with no training in the area. With the appropriate expertise, your doctor won’t be able to interpret the results or use them to formulate an effective treatment plan. I recommend working with a healthcare provider with years of experience in stool testing to get the most out of your results.

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Questions & Answers

Things You Need To Do Before Having A Stool Test

The best way to prepare for a comprehensive stool analysis (CSA) involves your diet. My recommendation is to stay on your current diet, particularly if you feel your current way of eating might not be right for you. If you think the way you eat is making you unwell, the stool test can give you the facts about what your gut looks like when you’re eating that way.

If you’ve just recently changed your diet to improve your symptoms, revert to how you were eating before the changes. If you’ve changed your diet for a more extended period, I suggest that for the week leading up to the CSA, cut loose and eat on instinct. Eat according to your cravings. Eating on instinct will allow the stool test to show what your gut would look like if you ate based on your desires.

If you eat the kind of foods that you like to eat and you’ve got bugs in your tummy, they will express themselves in higher counts because they got what they wanted. They want their food. Based on my clinical experience, I have found it best to have clients eat on instinct before stool tests, allergy tests, and blood tests. You want the test results to reflect the real you, not the lettuce, lamb, and pears, you suddenly started eating a week before the investigations.

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Stop probiotic supplements for 14 days before any stool test. Antimicrobial supplements should be stopped one week before a CSA. Antimicrobials include oregano, grapefruit extract, neem, barberry, undecylenic acid, and other natural anti-infectious agents. Digestive enzymes should be stopped a day or two before the test. Most other supplements should also be held for a day or two before the stool test.

You can continue to eat yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, and kefir right up to the test. They’re foods, they’re not supplements.

Try and collect the samples on a typical working day. Preferably, I’d like you to obtain the three samples from Sunday to Tuesday instead of Friday to Sunday. Pick ordinary days for collecting the stool samples. They should be days where you are spending your time as you usually would. It’s not a good idea to do the stool test on holidays or when you’re on vacation eating new foods.

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Questions & Answers, Yeast Infection Signs And Symptoms

Constipation And Milk: Is There A Connection?

Milk can have an impact on bowel function, but not necessarily constipation. For example, lactose intolerance generally causes diarrhea.

Lactose is a sugar found in milk. The small intestine makes an enzyme called lactase, which breaks lactose down into two smaller sugars, galactose and glucose. People who don’t have enough lactase aren’t able to break lactose down efficiently. The result is a constellation of symptoms, including bloating, cramping, pain, diarrhea, and gas. These symptoms usually onset within two hours or three hours of drinking milk. We call that a dairy intolerance, not an allergy, because lacking an enzyme is not an allergy. Allergies are reactions mediated by the immune system rather than being due to an enzyme deficiency.

Unlike lactose intolerance, a true allergy to cow’s milk can cause constipation. There’s a protein in dairy milk called casein. For some people, beta-casein triggers an immune response resulting in bloating, cramping, pain, and, sometimes, small hard lumps of stool, which are hard to pass.

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Some people with lactose intolerance take lactase tablets to make up for their body’s inability to produce enough of that enzyme. But in my opinion, if you’ve got a problem with milk, avoid it.

If you are experiencing constipation and you’re drinking milk, stop the milk to see what happens. If your constipation clears up, you may have your answer.

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