What increases your chances of conquering IBS is taking responsibility for your health and educating yourself about natural solutions.
But there are some pitfalls to this approach also.
The biggest one is self diagnosing yourself during your Internet research based on common symptoms. Assuming you have conditions like candida, SIBO, parasites or leaky gut, based on nothing but conjecture and a gut feeling will lead you astray. You are simply playing a guessing game.
If you follow a diet, cleanse or supplement protocol based on your hypothesis, you’re gambling on a hunch. I know because I’ve been there and did a lot more damage to myself in the process by follow a raw food diet.
This approach is like closing your eyes and throwing a dart at the board. Sometimes you get lucky and hit the bulls eye, but often you don’t even hit the board.
If you want to save time, money and the heartache of disappointment when another self imposed protocol fails, then functional gut testing is the way to go.
Another test?
People with IBS have been tested to exhaustion.
And what’s worse is that is the tests have all come back normal. I had plenty of tests that showed nothing wrong with me. It is because these tests don’t look at microbial balance. They don’t test for yeast, worms, viruses or pathogenic bacteria.
These tests also often miss parasites and provide a false negative result, which is worse than not testing at all. The right tests will make all the difference in moving your forward while the wrong tests leave you stuck, confused and discouraged.
My aim in my health coaching practice is to find the best tests for giving the clearest big picture of what’s going on with the gut. And recently I’ve found and tried out a test that I have been very impressed with based on the amount of information it provides.
It’s called the GI Map.
The GI Map looks at the state of the large intestine, where most of your body’s bacteria reside. This is also where yeast tends to grow and parasites can take up residence. It also uses PCR testing technology, making it better and more reliable at picking up bugs, particularly easy to miss parasites like giardia. PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction, which works as an amplifier on any DNA strands found in the stool sample. This allows it to find things that other tests, that don’t use this technology, can miss.
The GI Map tests for h pylori, bacterial overgrowth, fungal overgrowth, worms, parasites, pathogenic bacteria and viruses. But it also includes markers that tell us if someone suffers from leaky gut, lack of pancreatic enzymes, fat malabsorption or immune dysfunction.
Identifying a hidden gut infection or overgrowth is a crucial piece of the IBS puzzle. When this is an issue, no amount of stress relief, bone broth, probiotics, diet, cleansing or supplements will fix it. The proper anti microbial protocol is required. And in some cases dietary intervention is necessary but not always.
If you’ve tried many diets or supplements without relief, diving deeper with gut testing can provide some targeted direction and relief.
The two most crucial tests for finding gut pathogens and overgrowths are the SIBO breath test for the small intestine, and the GI Map for the stomach and large intestine. Previously, I’ve used another stool test for the large intestine, the 401H, which is $100 cheaper at $279, and still very good. But does not provide the valuable markers and extra information listed below.
For $379, the GI Map not only identifies the most common pathogens, pancreatic function, intestinal lining health, inflammation levels and gut immunity. Not only does it test for fungal overgrowth and h pylori, but it differentiates which species of fungus and bacteria are present.
GI Map Test Markers
Elastase
This tests pancreatic function and can determines if you need to take additional digestive enzymes to help digest your food. If your pancreas works well it will produce the digestive enzymes you need and extra enzymes will be overkill. This can not only save money but also lessen your supplement load.
Secretory IgA
This is one of the most important marker on the test because it measures gut immunity. Your immune system is located primarily in your gut and is your biggest defense against toxic and pathogenic invaders. Secretory IgA explains why some people have an iron stomach and never get food poisoning or gut bugs, while others are more vulnerable.
The most common things that deplete Secretory IgA are stress, food intolerances, and/or an active gut infection. This is one of the best and biggest clues to the state of gut health and resiliency and can point your practitioner in the right direction of where to look next.
Calprotectin
Elevated calprotectin indicates intestinal inflammation in the large intestine. An elevation can also indicate a bacterial infections and in people with inflammatory bowel disease it’s associated with disease activity and severity.
Zonulin
Zonulin is protein that modulates the activity of the tight junctions of your intestinal lining. Your intestine will secrete zonulin to tell the tight junctions to open up. When this marker is elevated on the GI Map it points to issues with intestinal permeability, also commonly called leaky gut.
Elevated levels of zonulin have been associated with autoimmune diseases, such as coeliac disease.
Anti-gliadin IgA
Gliadin is a protein found in wheat. The anti-gliadin marker can indicate whether or not there is an immune response to gliadin, and therefore wheat. This is a good indicator of true gluten/wheat sensitivity, and a much better approach than just guess. People who show reactivity to this protein will have an inflammatory response to wheat, which may be responsible for compromising the gut lining.
Epstein Bar virus
This test looks at two common viral markers and one of them is the Epstein Bar Virus, which is associated with mononucleosis and chronic fatigue syndrome. This virus can become reactivated in some people and tax the immune system. It can be a root cause of gut distress and autoimmune activation, particularly of Hashimotos Thyroiditis, a common, yet under detected cause of hypothyroidism.
Autoimmune disease activation is a three legged stool. These legs are stress, genetic predisposition and a viral stimulant to the immune system. Elevation of this marker could warrant further antibody testing based on symptoms.
Steatocrit
This marker tells us how well the body is digesting and breaking down fat. An elevated steatocrit marker is a sign of fat absorption. Some people are very aware they have of this issue, while others are not.
If fat digestion is compromised, there’s also likely to be nutritional associated deficiencies of fat soluble vitamins and nutrients.
Additional information
The GI Map will provide detailed information about the bacterial balance and diversity in the large intestine. It looks at different categories of bacteria, including normal flora, opportunistic bacteria (pathogenic) and the bacteria associated with autoimmune triggers.
If you’re interested in diving deeper into your gut health, and ordering a GI map you can contact me through the “contact me” sidebar on my website.
Angela Privin is proof that IBS is NOT an incurable disease, but a cry for help from a gut out of balance. When the body AND mind are complaining, it’s an opportunity to examine what’s not working and change it. After solving her own IBS mystery almost two decades ago, Angela became as a health coach to help others. Angela uses root cause medicine protocols personalized to the individual to solve each IBS mystery. Her tools are lab testing, dietary changes, supplementation, subconscious mind work and nervous system rebalancing . Learn more here.