Why functional gut testing is the ultimate insight into your health
You have tried countless supplements to reduce your bloating, pain, and unhappy bowels but they just aren’t working! Why? Because you have not addressed the cause. Functional gut testing can help get to the cause of what is causing your unhappy gut!
Functional gut testing is a comprehensive approach to assess the health and functionality of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. This type of testing goes beyond the diagnostic faecal PCR testing that doctors use and aims to identify underlying issues therefore allowing us to treat the cause rather than just the symptoms.
So, what is functional stool testing?
Functional stool testing doesn’t just tell you if you have a parasite or a bacteria. It gives you a thorough look at your the profile of your gut. It can tell you…
if there is inflammation or an immune response present
blood or mucous present
is there an issue with your stomach acid or digestive enzyme capacity
a breakdown of the bacteria in your gut (good and bad)
if your gut lining is compromised
an indication of disease risk particularly for autoimmunity or cardiovascular disease
what your gut bugs are producing and consuming and how this is effecting you
and of course it can tell also tell you whether you have a pathogen, fungus or parasite present
What do we do with this information?
We put it all together, decipher all the jargon and present it to you in a way that you can understand together with education on how the results match up to your symptoms and diet and lifestyle choices so that you can then make changes and take your health into your own hands.
We also put together a treatment for you, this treatment varies from person to person as no two results are ever the same.
Who is this type of testing suited for?
This type of stool testing is not just for gut health, since the gut is the centre of everything there are wide range of conditions and symptoms that our naturopaths consider this type of testing for including but not limited to:
gut dysfunction (constipation, diarrhoea, reflux, bloating, abdominal pain)
hormonal imbalances - particularly estrogen excess pictures
any auto-immune conditions (gut function and lining integrity is paramount for regulating auto-immunity)
food intolerances
skin conditions - eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, acne
lowered immune states (chronic infections, getting sick all the time, run down)
general health management
A note on food intolerances
Food intolerances are not allergies, they are usually a symptom of gut dysfunction. I am commonly asked by my patients for food intolerance testing and I generally recommend against it - why? Because my view is that we want to address the cause we can’t address the cause by simply knowing what you are reacting to, we need to know why. That is why I recommend undertaking a functional stool test to improve the overall function of the gut, fixing that dysfunction with the aim to increasing tolerance to those foods.
