Gastrointestinal complaints are among the most common reasons that make patients seek medical help. I believe every single soul on earth will experience this even though the severity would vary greatly. This is easily understood since every one of us have different lifestyle, homemade foods and culture. Our digestion is a delicate and super smart systems that work hard whenever we need them to digest and absorb the nutrients from our food to make sure we are nutritionally well-supported and stay well.
Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis (CDSA) - or Poop Test - is an inexpensive (compare to colonoscopy and other imaging diagnostic) and non-invasive diagnostic assessment that allows us to objectively evaluate the status of our digestive system. It shows efficiency of digestion, absorption and the extent of inflammation in the gut.
So when you have IBS or any other digestive complaints, I would say, the best and probably the fastest way to diagnose is through examining your stool in a comprehensive way that functional medicine use. Beyond that, this test can also be used to determine the cause of many other chronic medical conditions since now study have shown that all chronic diseases are inflammatory in nature, and thus knowing the extent of inflammation in the gut through our poop, can help us decide a personalised treatment.
Stool Analysis is a functional test, that means it tests if your body functions in a way it is supposed to as opposed to colonoscopy that aim to detect if there is any abnormality in your digestive tract – in other word, colonoscopy does not check your digestive system but instead only see what damage had been done to your digestive tract.
To me, this is the most common follow up mistake, because when you have a “normal” colonoscopy (which you most likely will even when you have annoying digestive complaints), you would likely to continue your everyday lifestyle that damage your digestive systems despite those lingering annoying symptoms and complaints and before you know it, the next colonoscopy would show that damage… when it is too late. Stool analysis can be used for prevention, Colonoscopy… well… not so much!
Many of us now are familiar with the term "leaky gut", the medical term for this condition is increased intestinal permeability or impairment of the barrier function of gut. This leaky gut is now thought of the culprit of many conditions including autoimmune diseases and cancer. Leaky gut is a condition that with causes including low sIgA (IgA is the reliable marker of humoral immune status in the GI tract and represents the first line of defence by acting as immune barrier); low stomach acid; chronic maldigestion; food allergens’ impacting on the bowel absorptive surfaces; bacterial overgrowth or imbalances (dysbiosis); pathogenic bacteria, yeast or parasites with related toxic irritants; and the use of NSAID’s and antibiotics and many other stressor to our homeostasis. These causes can not be detected with colonoscopy but simple stool analysis can!
Be proactive in your health and wellness journey. Prevention is still the best approach to stay well:-)
Take a peek at the report here: https://site-akiajqrf22xmaqzsiz6q.s3.amazonaws.com/DDI+Website/Sample+Reports/Sample+Report+CSAP21.pdf
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