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Stool Testing: What You Need To Know
74 Plays3 months ago
Ready to resolve your constipation, gas, bloating, and other digestive problems for good? Watch my free Gut Recovery Masterclass to learn more about how I help women in your situation: https://gutrecoverymethod.com/register
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Hosted by functional health practitioner and longevity author, Christian Yordanov, this podcast is dedicated to helping women struggling with gastrointestinal problems such as gas, bloating, constipation, and other digestive distress.
Whether you have a diagnosis such as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), IBD (inflammatory bowel disease; Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis), SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) or not, you will benefit from the insights we'll share.
Join us as we explore the intricate connections between gut health and overall well-being, addressing common issues like fatigue, poor sleep, hormonal imbalances, and anxiety.
Learn how stress impacts your digestive system and discover effective strategies to reduce inflammation, improve digestion, and enhance your quality of life.
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Transcript
Introduction to Stool Testing and Gut Health
00:00:43
chrisyzen
Hi, welcome back to the Gut Recovery Method Podcast, Christian Jardinoff here. So today I'm going to give you a quick overview of stool testing, the different types of stool tests, and the one I personally like the most and the reasons why.
Methods of Stool Testing: Microscopy and Culture
00:00:58
chrisyzen
So there's quite a few different lab tests, so you have the the main methodologies that are still in use to their microscopy, culture, and polymerase chain reaction. And basically, microscopy, you have a lab technician that looks under a microscope and tries to identify parasites and their eggs or cysts. And it's good for detecting common parasitic infections like Giardia, stuff like that.
00:01:28
chrisyzen
It's limited in that it's not as effective for identifying bacteria, more microscopic things and fun fungal stuff, candida, what have you, yeast, stuff like that. and There's the risk that the lab technician is going to miss something. okay and then certain Because these parasites have a life cycle, you could see them. um If they're in that kind of egg stage or cyst stage, you might not see them and then you might not see any grown adults.
00:01:56
chrisyzen
And then you know you know you might ascertain that there's no parasitic infection where there could be some. Then the other um methodology, the second one we'll discuss is culture. And that's basically they take your your poop and they culture it to grow and identify the bacteria. And this is considered the gold standard for detecting bacterial pathogens like salmonella, shigella, campanobacter. The problem is this test um It's time consuming, so it takes a few days to culture it. and Sometimes the lab will ask you for three stool samples instead of one, as is usually the case. and that you know That can to extend the collection period by you know two, three, four, or five days. Usually you need to collect them all within a week.
00:02:45
chrisyzen
And then that kind of extends that period before you get the report or your clinician gets the report. Again, it doesn't detect most um ah more microscopic things like you know candida and stuff like that, fungal stuff. And then it doesn't detect most parasites, and then not all bacteria will grow under culture conditions. So it's quite...
PCR Testing: Sensitivity and Challenges
00:03:09
chrisyzen
Quite a limited test and then the third one is the PCR test polymerase chain reaction and nowadays the ah the one I use this is the the test I use it's actually a qPCR which is a quantitative polymerase chain reaction. And what that basically means is they amplify and detect specific DNA or RNA sequences of the of the bacteria, of the various organisms. And the pros of this kind of test is because it's automated,
00:03:41
chrisyzen
There's a quick turnaround time it can detect a wide range of pathogens and bacteria at the same time and it's very very sensitive and very specific right because it's looking at the DNA level of bacteria parasites even things like fungi candida protozoa stuff like that the cons ah there is a couple of cons um is that
00:04:08
chrisyzen
one of its pros is actually a con because it's so highly sensitive you can get quote unquote false positives, right? So if if the sample is contaminated, that's one way to get a false positive. Also, it can detect quite a few things that say you do the test and it can detect like 15 things that are overgrown. It doesn't necessarily mean that all of those things are contributing to the person's gut dysbiosis or state of imbalance in the gut. So you have to, it's, I think this is not a big con,
00:04:42
chrisyzen
as long as you treat the test like it's supposed to be treated like let's say you have a map of the lay of the land well the map is a tool for you the skilled driver to get to your destination likewise this kind of test is a tool in our toolbox that helps to give the practitioner a lay of the land of the person's gut and then with that data they're going to that that will inform the decisions And the the steps that the clinician takes and what they advise the client to do, right? So it's not the end all be all if you know, if if there's something on the test, that doesn't mean that thing is specifically causing a problem, right? It's again, it's just data that we use to make better decisions. So it's not like you don't look at the test and oh my God, I have all these things I i must be dying or something, you know, it's not something like that. I've done this test on clients where
00:05:41
chrisyzen
they didn't have an overt gut problem. um and they They said they felt really good. And then we do those two tests and there's a bunch of imbalances. So the way I see it, a lot of us can, and i've I've mentioned this before, a lot of us can have a gut imbalance or gut dysbiosis for a very long time without having gut issues, but we can start developing other health issues like a lot of people but let's say, that don't have gut problems out there can manifest them as psoriasis, eczema. There's a specific bacteria that most people with eczema have called staphylococcus aureus, right, ah autoimmune stuff, headaches,
00:06:24
chrisyzen
um ah Jesus, what's depression sort of mood stuff. So I think it's important at least once in a lifetime to invest this in in this kind of test. And these tests are like three, $400 nowadays. They're not even like expensive anymore.
Interpreting Test Results: Opportunistic Bacteria and Pathogens
00:06:43
chrisyzen
I mean, so so some of us are spending that money on on like a night out dinner and cocktails, you know, or like double that to get a new phone. So it's all about priorities. And once we understand that our biggest priority should be our health, our own vehicle, not our car, but
00:07:02
chrisyzen
the vehicle of our body because that also influence that the physical body influences the mental like the mind then this is this becomes a very negligible expense or investment but here's the thing if you have an overt gut problem then it's almost 100% for sure that there's going to be imbalances in the gut and investing in this allows your practitioner to help you make better decisions for your health.
00:07:35
chrisyzen
Now the test I do they do, they do this sort of polymerase chain reaction, ah so it's a DNA RNA test. it um What I've noticed is that very rarely do they actually detect things that are overt pathogens like cryptosporidium, Giardia, you know C. difficile, Shigella, Salmonella, these kind of things that you know You might get food poisoning or drink water when you're out camping and then have the diarrhea for a week. These more overt pathogens are actually very rarely detected. What's more often the case is the what's known as the opportunistic bacteria in the gut.
00:08:23
chrisyzen
Some of these are part of our regular microbiome and they only become a problem for us if allowed to overgrow because of let's say some insult to the gut. Let's say your immune system is suppressed or some toxins or poor diet or stress. There's a lot of different factors that can cause these these sort of pro-inflammatory bacteria to overgrow. Some of them thrive in this inflammatory environment, right?
00:08:49
chrisyzen
So this is kind of where the value is. We can see what's overgrown. Is it gram negative? ah Is it protozoa? Is it bacteria? Is there fungal stuff going on? If if ah if the candida, for example, is detected on this kind of test, um it generally means there's Hell of a lot of candida overgrowing and I actually did this test on myself, ran it on myself for the first time in 2019 and I had so much candida on the test. It's very difficult to detect, right? We usually use urine testing to detect certain um ah chemical compounds that indicate candida or fungal overgrowth.
00:09:32
chrisyzen
So very difficult to get this going on, ah to get it detected on a stool test. So, um but did knowing what's up, ah is it a pathogen and overt pathogen? Is it an overgrowth of the regular microbiome? Because that can also happen I see it quite often or at least certain bacteria could be overgrown and some of those bacteria are gram negative, right? So that they can be a problem for us even even though they're part of the regular microbiota. So knowing that is super important. But what this test, the one I use also has is a bunch of markers for intestinal health, so digestion.
Markers Indicating Digestive Support Needs
00:10:12
chrisyzen
ah pancrea pancreatic elastase one that's a digestive enzyme secreted by the pancreas and there's the adequate so this these couple of markers if out of whack they can basically tell us that the person needs more digestive support right So imagine up until now we we know if you have a ah ah more pathogenic type overgrowth or infection or it's a overgrowth of opportunistic dysbiotic pro-inflammatory bacteria and then with these other couple of markers we will know if you have digestive issues like actual you need digestive support. Then there's other markers for example there's an enzyme called beta glucuronidase and when that one is high
00:11:02
chrisyzen
that enzyme can actually break the bond between detoxified estrogen and the glucuronic acid, and that can allow estrogen and other toxins to circulate back into into sort systemic circulation and contribute to estrogenic burden, which can cause women a lot of estrogen ah dominance, estrogen excess type symptoms, which are extremely unpleasant.
00:11:28
chrisyzen
from water retention to insomnia, to you know mood disturbances, to um weight gain, just but ah swollen, sort of sense sensitive I mean, just anything anything you can think of that is related to estrogen excess or estrogen estrogen dominance can be contributed to by this this estrogen getting in systemically.
00:11:57
chrisyzen
And then there's certain bacteria that produce this enzyme, right? And then we have other things you can check for. ah the the This test that I use, it also tests for immune the immune response. So we can see if your immune response is activated acutely, if it's low, if it's high, that means different things. And then there's a couple of other markers for intestinal inflammation.
Testing for Gluten Sensitivity and Health Motivation
00:12:20
chrisyzen
In addition, we can also see if you are reacting to gliadin, which is actually ah it's part of the gluten.
00:12:31
chrisyzen
you know, protein in certain grains and when it's elevated this anti-gliadin antibody it just indicates that gluten is causing issues and I've actually seen it on tests where we test that one then there's another add-on marker for zonulin which can indicate again that gluten is a problem for the person and there's leaky gut and stuff like that but when when we see this and a client sees this I'm like okay my anti-glide antibodies high that means I'm reacting to gluten that's a really good indicator that you need to take a break from the gluten and when clients see the data they're much more likely to follow through on recommendations because I can tell you any number of things right and depending on ah on how open-minded you are to them
00:13:30
chrisyzen
You might say, okay, great. I'll try that and see how I feel. Or you may be like, that's, that seems like a lot of work. I might, uh, I might just do what I, what I want to do, which it we're adults at the end of the day, you know, you can do whatever you want to do. But then when you see data on a lab test.
00:13:50
chrisyzen
that can corroborate my sort of recommendations and then you are more much more likely to follow through and get really good results. You get the good results if you just listen to me but the lab testing can help push you over the edge in case you need a little bit of extra motivation. So there's so many There's so many benefits to getting some data on yourself because even if it just look if it's just like blood work, just getting a few blood markers to kind of give you a picture of what's going on <unk> today and then six months or one year down the line, getting the blood markers and just keeping a little, even if it's a little file or folder on your computer or a little like a ring binder with with your lab tests.
Proactive Health Tracking and Preventive Approach
00:14:34
chrisyzen
just so you have a little bit of data on yourself. you know the way how you like People like do a ah budget family budget or you know you have a little ah you track things for your site hustle or your business or know your finances. I really think with our body, we have to be a little bit more proactive like this. right so know You might run some genetic tests. I have a fire with when um we started getting to all the sales stuff with my my wife. We weren't even married yet. We did a bunch of like genetic tests and then we ran our genes that we got like the DNA kind of file with the actual raw data. We ran it through other companies that give you like a report on nutrigenomics and stuff so I started kind of building a little file and then we would run ah blood work on my wife especially ah because you know we're we're planning to have kids and stuff so
00:15:26
chrisyzen
We're doing a lot of good stuff and hormones and all this stuff. and it's It becomes like like you know your car every time you have it inspected. and stuff You can't sell your car without this little booklet that makes sure that the car has been maintained well.
00:15:40
chrisyzen
you know and this is it's like that except it's a bazillion times more important the the vehicle you're taking care of and you're monitoring right so this again like i said a stool test especially if you have an overt cut problem is going to be very useful but even if you don't even if you're actually perfectly healthy, I think it's worth investing in these kinds of tests once, and italy even if it's once in a lifetime, like a ah nice comprehensive hormone test or occasionally like ah an organic acid test, which is a urine test that can give you a bunch of different markers because you can catch things early and then do something about them. That's my approach to health and longevity.
00:16:25
chrisyzen
You don't wait until something's broken and then you fix it. You're proactive. And this is where we've caught things like with relatively healthy clients, we have caught things like DNA damage, oxidative stress, that they would have had no idea until this thing became a problem maybe 10 years down the line or even earlier or maybe later.
00:16:46
chrisyzen
or or low antioxidant status, which could be indicative that they're getting a lot of toxic exposure or they're not getting enough of the nutrients to support the detox systems. So there's a lot of value to understanding the what can be done with some of these lab tests, right they educating yourself. Because again, your people you know you have your house inspected for whatever structural damage or mold or you know you can um your car the mechanic test tests every system in the body or in the car to make sure everything is done you know the oil the injection i don't even know most of the systems right the axles the the wheel alignment so we don't do that most almost people do is they go to the like
00:17:36
chrisyzen
their doctor the doctor runs a few stupid markers mostly like cholesterol and hemoglobin a1c and just most of those are they will catch problems when the problem has been you know, festering for a very long time. That's when these things start to become visible on on lab work or blood work specifically, because the blood is buffered to very tight ranges, has to be maintained in certain ranges, all those markers at the expense of the tissues. Right. So a lot of these other tests, they're a little bit more advanced, but we're catching imbalances that could one day lead to a lot of health problems. So that's kind of the way I see it.
00:18:18
chrisyzen
But anyway, I hope you I hope you've got value from discussion.
Personal Testing Philosophy and qPCR Focus
00:18:22
chrisyzen
This discussion was to test my personal goal to Would be to use a qPCR test like the one I use because it also has these intestinal health markers so we can see Is there pathogens related? Could it could it be H by Lori? Could it be? um You know in gram negative bacteria overgrowing or perhaps the regular microbiota is very low and that could be allowing these other things to proliferate or it could be very high because that also can contribute to gut problems and then maybe some of these intestinal health markers could be out of whack, there could be a lot of inflammation, a lot of immune system act activation, could be digestive
00:19:04
chrisyzen
insufficiency type stuff right where the person is not digesting the food properly and that could cause a lot of these other inflammatory things because undigested food that can be putrefied you know it can be fermented it can go down to the wrong place like the large intestine where it shouldn't be undigested at that point and then it can be fermented further by various organisms and that can cause a lot a lot more kind of like gases and inflammatory molecules so knowing the lay of the land allows you to stop guessing, stop doing random trial and error and accelerate your journey back to optimal digestion digestive health and great health overall. So um worth again, once I said, one once once again, um as I said, it's worth investing in these in these kinds of things for your health because what think think about it this way. This is the question I'll ask you.
00:20:02
chrisyzen
what a better way to invest invest your cash than your own health or your family's health. I can't think of not one thing not one thing that's more valuable to invest in than your own family's health. like For example, with my wife, i just the hormone test that I sometimes use with clients, i've ah I've ran that on her like three times already in the last, like I don't know, three, four years. so And then with the one time it was like with this add-on, the test cost like six, ah seven hundred dollars. So there's this add-on where you pee on the paper every couple of days and it maps your cycle, like your progesterone and your estrogen estrogen, how they rise and fall during the cycle and it maps, it gives you a nice chart.
00:20:48
chrisyzen
And you know for me, that these kinds of things are an investment. i I've done organic acid testing on her, hair testing, obviously but blood work we've done plenty of. um you know I just kind of see see this as, where am I better off buying her like ah i don't know a bracelet, a gold bracelet?
00:21:13
chrisyzen
or getting her like a lab test. And so probably if you ask her, she's like, I will ah prefer the prefer the bracelet or something like nice like that. and But i i personally, I genuinely think it's much more valuable to run a test, discover, even if it's one small imbalance on um a test that tests for 20, 30 different things, even if you just catch one thing early and address it,
00:21:40
chrisyzen
Think about if you do this like once a year, twice a year, or even every couple of years, you catch one imbalance here, one imbalance there, and then you just, let's say you get a supplement for that one, or you change something for that one, and just think of how it would change the trajectory of your life in health. But this is only if it's not a stressful thing, right? If you're gonna obsess over it and become orthorexic, obviously that's not gonna be healthy either.
Health Testing as Preventive Maintenance
00:22:05
chrisyzen
um It's important to kind of, like I said,
00:22:08
chrisyzen
get the data and then make logical decisions with the data, not like no SIBO yourself with, Oh my God, I have this thing. Now I'm going to like develop health problems because of ah we've caught very serious imbalances in clients that were function highly highly functioning, functioning very highly. And it's it's like you're, again, just use the car analogy. Your car could be running really well, really fast, real smooth.
00:22:35
chrisyzen
and then you take it for the yearly checkup and they find like seven different things like oh this this is clogged up that has to be replaced the brake pads or kind of whatever need to be replaced and you know the the wheels are out of alignment but that car could have ran for another maybe year without any problems maybe maybe two same with the body you could be very highly functioning especially if you use caffeine and other stimulants to kind of prop yourself up you could function really at a high level for decades before you start creaking and breaking down as it were. So the point is why allow that? Why not invest in your vehicle like you invest in your car? It's probably because with the cars you're forced to by law because we're told to do it and with our bodies nobody's forcing you.
00:23:24
chrisyzen
to do anything like that. And I guess i guess um people just, it's an education thing. We just have to educate people really. That's it at the end of the day. Anyway, ramble over. Hope you got value out of this one and I'll catch you on the next episode.