Mar 11

Mar 11 Stool Analysis - What's It all About and How can it Help You?

Ever wondered what's going on inside your gut? In this blog I explain how a comprehensive stool analysis can help get to the bottom of any frustrating digestive or IBS-related symptoms, as well as guide personalised nutritional approaches to help rebalance and optimise gut health.

UNLOCKING THE SECRETS HELD IN YOUR GUT

As a nutritional therapy practitioner, I have learned that a well-nourished gut is a foundation of overall health. This is because the nutrients your body extracts from food through digestion and absorption influence the function of every system and cell in your body.

You could be eating the most nutrient-dense diet, but if your body struggles to digest and absorb those nutrients effectively, you may still fall short of true nourishment. Moreover, your gut is a powerhouse of immune function - it houses a significant portion of your immune system- and acts as a vital detox pathway by clearing toxins and excess hormones that might otherwise lead to imbalances.

These connections are why poor skin, autoimmune conditions, allergies, chronic fatigue, brain fog, hormone imbalances, and low mood, among many other symptoms, can often be traced back to what’s happening in the gut.

Effective digestion relies on a carefully coordinated series of digestive actions and secretions. A thriving ecosystem of gut bacteria supports these processes by breaking down food and keeping potentially harmful microbes in check. When there’s a lack of digestive juices, an imbalance in gut bacteria, or an overgrowth of potentially pathogenic microbes, or changes in gut motility, the digestion and absorption of nutrients can be compromised.

Common signs of an ‘unhappy’ gut include heartburn, excessive bloating, frequent burping, nausea, abdominal discomfort, difficult or fluctuating bowel movements, and food intolerances. Understandably, symptoms like these can really impact quality of life and detract from the enjoyment of eating.

STOOL ANALYSIS AND IBS

If you’ve been given the frustrating diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), an umbrella term covering a host of gut-related symptoms, then the struggle with chronic bloating, abdominal pain, excessive flatulence, constipation and diarrhoea may be familiar to you.

If your digestive issues don’t appear to respond to changes to your lifestyle or eating habits, probiotics aren’t making a difference (or are making things worse!), or you have struggled managing gut issues for a long time without reaching the root of the problem, then getting a picture of what is going on in the gut via stool analysis can reveal hidden imbalances.

And, if you are reacting to and/or avoiding multiple foods and are worried your diet is feeling restrictive, again, stool analysis can provide valuable insights into some of the underlying imbalances giving rise to food reactions in the first place.

In turn, the extra insights from stool testing help a nutritional therapist to shape personalised recommendations - improving your chances of having the breakthrough in your gut health you need to move forward.

The GI EFFECTS COMPREHENSIVE STOOL PrOFILE

At Gut Reaction, my go-to test for gastrointestinal health is the GI Effects Comprehensive Stool Profile from Genova Diagnostics.

This leading edge test offers a detailed picture of gut function, helping to identify imbalances that may contribute to gastrointestinal symptoms, and gut-related concerns including IBS, and can help us to make more strategic personalised decisions about the actions that can be taken to promote better digestion and gut health going forward.

It includes an assessment of:

Fat digestion, protein digestion and pancreatic function
Markers for inflammation, allergic response and gut immune function
Microbial balance, including an abundance of beneficial species of bacteria and presence of yeasts, mould and other bacterial species
Pathogenic bacteria, yeasts and parasites
The integrity of the gut lining

The image for this blog provides a snapshot of part of the first page of a sample stool analysis report. The first page provides a high level overview of the findings that are detailed in the rest of the report.

My role as your nutritional therapy practitioner is to probe into and interpret these findings in the context of your symptoms, health goals, health history, diet and lifestyle, and help you turn information into a manageable, meaningful action plan.

How do you get a stool test?

Nutritional therapy practitioners are not diagnostic and it is important that potential medical concerns are investigated. For any sudden changes in bowel habits or pain, it is crucial to consult a GP, who can decide if further investigation or screening is needed. Your GP may also be able to run some stool tests on the NHS if they suspect infection (parasitic or bacterial).

NHS stool tests are designed to rule out serious medical conditions rather than provide a detailed analysis of gut microbiota or gastrointestinal balance, as is available through private testing as I’ve described above.

Many commercially available gut tests online tend to offer a broad overview of your gut microbiota. While they provide useful initial insights, they are unlikely to deliver the detailed information necessary to effectively tailor personalised interventions.

Private tests, like the GI Effects Comprehensive Stool Profile mentioned offer a broad and detailed analysis, which is why they tend to be more expensive (around £350-£400). These tests are often part of a support package that includes professional guidance to help manage gut health concerns. At Gut Reaction, the GI Effects Comprehensive Stool Profile accompanies my Rebalance programme which includes time together to support you along your gut health journey.

If you have IBS or have been diagnosed with another gut-related health condition, are struggling to manage gastrointestinal symptoms, or would simply like to understand more about what’s going in on your gut, please do get in touch.