The identification of abnormal levels of yeast species, bacteria and parasites in the stool is an important diagnostic step in therapeutic planning for patients in our clinic with chronic gastrointestinal and other symptoms that may be linked with a candida yeast infection. The CDSA test provides me, as the clinician, with a wide array of the most useful clinical information to help me plan my most appropriate treatment protocol that is quite specific to the individual patient.
While this test is not for everybody (it is expensive, around several hundred dollars) it can help to solve the most difficult cases by providing me with all the answers I am looking for. The CDSA x 3 with parasitology is the most comprehensive and commonly ordered functional stool test, assessing the widest range of intestinal conditions. This test will provide information on your ability to digest, metabolise, and absorb nutrients, as well as report all bacterial flora (beneficial, imbalanced and disease causing, all yeasts, and all intestinal parasites (worms, eggs, larva, and protozoa).
It is important to analyse both the intestinal digestion/absorption functions as well as the levels of yeast, bacteria, and parasites because symptoms of mal-digestion or mal-absorption often mimic those of chronic bacterial, yeast, or parasitic infections. Additionally, chronic bacterial, yeast, or parasitic infections may have adverse effects on the body’s metabolic and absorptive processes, which can all be assessed using this most comprehensive test.
As you probably aware by now, an overgrowth of yeast can infect virtually every organ system, leading to an extensive array of clinical manifestations. Most patients I have seen over the years that have had a candida yeast infection present with some kind of digestive symptom which often includes varying degrees or different kinds of abdominal pain, cramping, bloating, gas, diarrhea or constipation and/or various forms of digestive irritations. When investigating the presence of yeast in a stool sample, disparity may exist between the culturing of yeast and any actual microscopic examination.
Yeasts are not uniformly dispersed throughout the stool, which is a good reason why you should insist on three stool samples, and by only having one sample performed it may lead to undetectable or low levels of yeast identified by microscopy, despite a cultured amount of yeast. Conversely, microscopic examination may reveal a significant amount of yeast present, but no yeast cultured. Having three stool samples assayed, and NOT all mixed together and assayed as one sample, something many labs do, you are increasing your chances of yeast detection.
While candida does not always survive transit through the digestive tract rendering it unviable, the microscopic finding of yeast in the stool is helpful in identifying whether there is proliferation of yeast or not. Although some yeast may be normal; yeast observed in higher amounts is considered abnormal.
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