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 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 therapist, 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. Beyond that, your gut is a vital detoxification pathway, helping to clear out toxins and excess hormones that could otherwise contribute to imbalances.
This is why poor skin health, 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 your gut.
Good digestion relies on a carefully coordinated series of digestive actions and secretions. This is supported by a thriving ecosystem of bacteria in our guts, that help to break down food and keep less desirable microbes at bay. A lack of any of the digestive juices, an imbalance in gut bacteria, an overgrowth of potentially pathogenic microbes, or changes in how fast food moves through the digestive system can all adversely affect digestion and absorption.
Some of the most common signs of an unhappy gut include heartburn, excessive bloating, frequent burping, nausea, abdominal discomfort, 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, no amount of probiotics seem to be working, or you have struggled with gut issues for a long time and not felt like you’ve not got to the root of the problem, then getting a picture of what is going on in the gut via stool analysis often provides the extra information we need to help tweak nutrition and start making breakthroughs with gut health.
And, if you are reacting to and/or avoiding multiple foods and are worried your diet is feeling restrictive, then stool analysis can provide valuable insights into why these reactions are happening in the first place.
My go-to test for digestive health is the GI Effects Comprehensive Stool Profile from Genova Diagnostics. It offers a detailed picture of gut function, helping to identify imbalances that may contribute to IBS and other gut-related conditions. By assessing key gut-related markers, this leading edge test 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.
The GI EFFECTS COMPREHENSIVE STOOL PrOFILE 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 is to dig 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’s important that potential medical concerns are investigated. If you experience sudden changes in bowel movements or pain, your first port of call is always your GP. If they feel your gut symptoms require further investigation they will make the necessary referrals.
Your GP may also be able to run some stool tests on the NHS if they suspect a parasitic or bacterial infection. These tests will not provide the detailed bacterial analysis available through private testing as I’ve described above, but they can help identify parasites and key infections.
If you have an IBS diagnosis, struggle with managing another gut-related condition, or would simply like to understand more about what’s going in on your gut - we can run a private stool test all the additional data I’ve described above. Please do get in touch (see Next steps below).
Private stool tests usually cost £350-£400. 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.
Take a nourishing step forward today
Do you have IBS, bloating or digestives issues and need the tools and support to make improvements to your gut health and digestion?
Please check out my Rebalance programme here or contact me for a conversation now.
