Dr. Paul Deglmann
Meghan Feir Walker
A staggering two-thirds of Americans suffer from semi-regular to chronic gut issues. From nausea and abdominal pain to chronic bloating, stomach issues pervade our society. No wonder people need answers for how to test gut health accurately and effectively.
Learn how you can discover more about your own gut health, which gut health test may be right for you, and much more in this article.
What is your gut microbiome?
In product advertising, your doctor’s office, and on social media, you’ve probably heard the word “microbiome” and the importance of it mentioned countless times. But what exactly is it?
Your microbiome is a collection of roughly 100 trillion microbes in your gut or GI tract. These microbes include bacteria, yeast/fungi, parasites, and viruses and comprise about 70-80% of your immune system.
Health benefits of the microbiome
The microbiome plays a monumental role in your overall health. From influencing the development of bowel disease to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease to colorectal cancer, the balance of your gut bacteria is at the helm of a major control center in your body.
Since the microbiome makes up 70-80% of your immune system, it plays a huge role in regulating inflammation, protecting the body from infections, healing wounds, and aiding in digestion. The healthy, beneficial bacteria also make different nutrients in the gut.
Beneficial bacteria of the microbiome produce nutrients such as vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, biotin, folate, B12, vitamin K2, short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, and neurotransmitters like GABA, serotonin, and dopamine.
These nutrients are essential for producing energy and play a role in the function of your brain, nerves, red blood cells, white blood cells, adrenals, gut, mood/mental health, and more.
Microbiome health can affect every system in the body
In this day and age, bodies are constantly bombarded with toxins, processed food, and other inflammatory agents, which can cause tiny tears in the gut lining. This often results in leaky gut and dysbiosis.
Dysbiosis is an imbalance between beneficial bacteria in the gut and harmful microbes. Both leaky gut and dysbiosis can drive systemic inflammation because microbes and undigested food proteins can leak into the bloodstream, causing an immune response. This immune response can produce symptoms and affects more than just the digestive system.
The health of the microbiome can impact the health and functions of several systems in the body, including the:
- Endocrine system
- Nervous system
- Gastrointestinal system
- Immune system
- Cardiovascular system
- Pulmonary system
- Respiratory system
- Integumentary system
- Musculoskeletal system
- And other areas
Common signs or symptoms of gut health issues
Gut health issues can produce a wide variety of symptoms that often affect daily life. Travel plans can be affected because of the dire need for frequent bathroom breaks. Pain, nausea, acid reflux, and other types of discomfort change eating habits, produce anxiety, lessen the enjoyment of eating, and impact social life and celebrations.
Other symptoms can just be plain embarrassing, like not being able to fit into your clothes the same as before because of bloating, or accidentally belching or passing gas frequently (even in public!).
The most obvious symptoms of gut health issues include:
- Gas/bloating
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
- Abdominal pain
- Acid reflux/GERD
- Nausea
- Belching
- And more
While those are the most commonly associated symptoms of having gut problems, many other symptoms can be caused by imbalances in the gut and can make it hard to function and live life to the fullest.
Less obvious symptoms and signs that can potentially be caused by gut issues include:
- Skin issues
- Autoimmune history
- Thyroid issues
- Frequently getting sick/lowered immune system
- Weight gain/difficulty losing weight or weight loss/difficulty gaining weight
- Headaches, migraines, brain fog, etc
- Sleep issues
- Fatigue
- And more
Since every system in the body can be affected by gut health, gut problems can lead to the development of other diseases, causing even more symptoms as an offshoot of the gut’s impact on the rest of the body.
What are the microbiome tests?
The microbiome has a huge impact on your entire body. That's why it’s so important that your gut bacteria are balanced. To test for this, doctors use a variety of gut health tests.
Depending on your symptoms and history, your doctor may choose stool, breath, or other testing to determine the cause(s) of your gut issues.
Stool testing
Stool testing is commonly used to test your microbiome. It measures microorganisms in your GI tract from your stool sample.
There are several microbiome tests available, but they aren’t interchangeable. Some tests used by standard medicine are stool tests meant for screening colorectal cancer or acute GI infections. In other words, they want to rule out some acute or worst-case scenarios. But there are many other problems and conditions that could be occurring.
You can order some at-home stool tests online that look at the microbiome and give dietary suggestions and probiotic supplementation recommendations based on the results. However, these can vary in accuracy and the results can be more complicated than they appear. These tests usually don’t address the root cause of why these issues are happening in the first place.
Breath testing
Breath tests are commonly used to test for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) by measuring the amount of hydrogen and methane gasses produced after consuming a large amount of glucose in water.
Small bowel aspirate procedures may also be used to diagnose SIBO. In this test, doctors perform an endoscopy to reach the small intestine and collect a fluid sample. Using the sample, the lab then measures bacteria levels.
Other types of testing
Many doctors order additional tests when patients have chronic gut issues, such as endoscopies, colonoscopies, ultrasounds, CT scans, X-rays, blood tests, and more. However, these tests often come back as “normal” and don’t provide the definitive answers patients need.
How to test gut health: The stool test we prefer
While we may use the breath test for checking SIBO, at RHS, we take a different approach when it comes to stool testing. We prefer a qPCR stool test that looks at more than the basic bacteria levels in your small intestine. It actually looks at the DNA of gut microbes.
With this stool test, we can look at the beneficial flora/bacteria (probiotics), H. Pylori, opportunistic bacteria, yeast/candida/other fungal species, parasites, viruses, and intestinal health markers, which look at more of the overall function of the gut.
These markers look at digestion by measuring the efficiency of how your pancreas produces enzymes, along with how much fat is in the stool, what level of inflammation is in the gut, how your immune system is responding to the environment (secretory IgA), and other important factors.
Should you take a microbiome gut health test?
If you’re regularly suffering from any of the above symptoms, it’s important to consider taking action and getting tested.
At RHS, “Test, don’t guess!” is our mantra. Far too often, doctors and patients guess and make assumptions, but that route can quickly drain your resources and prolong suffering.
Many of my patients previously tried to investigate the cause of their chronic gut issues through traditional tests such as endoscopies, colonoscopies, ultrasounds, CT scans, X-rays, traditional medical stool tests, and more. However, most of the time, those tests came back normal.
When certain conditions did show up for these patients, like GERD/acid reflux or SIBO, they weren’t provided answers for how to remedy the root cause of the problem. Using medications, symptoms were sometimes temporarily abated, but then the problem returned. Infections or symptoms are often recurring, which is another reason why getting to the root cause of the problem is so important.
What is the process for getting microbiome test results?
When you’re ready to jump in and start testing with us at RHS, we will start out with this simple, straightforward process.
- After your initial consultation, we will order testing, including a home stool test for you.
- After you collect your specimen, send it to the lab, and the lab receives your specimen, it usually takes up to 3 weeks to get test results.
- Once the results are in, we go over the results with you and put together an individualized plan based on your history, test results, and health goals.
We typically also do testing in addition to the stool test, which can include genetic testing for gluten sensitivity, and various panels for food allergies, food sensitivities, nutritional deficiencies, adrenal/cortisol levels, and more.
Whether you work with us or choose to find another clinic, make sure to consult with an experienced functional medicine practitioner who is well-versed in microbiome health, who will carry out comprehensive testing and go over the results with you, and who can put together an individualized plan for you.
Ready to learn more about your gut health?
If you want to learn more about the state of your gut, there are several blood, breath, and stool tests that are helpful in getting to the root cause of chronic gut issues. Most of these need to be ordered by a healthcare practitioner. Keep in mind that many of these don’t get to the root cause of your gut issues.
While you can order at-home microbiome tests that may suggest a diet and personalized probiotic based on your test results, these tests still need to be researched more. Your results may be more nuanced than they appear. For example, they may recommend you remove many foods from your diet because they are showing up as sensitivities, but they don’t explain why you developed these sensitivities and how you can address the root cause of why this happened. This is why we always recommend consulting with a healthcare practitioner.
A high-quality stool test, such as the qPCR test, can be beneficial when investigating the root cause of your gut symptoms and can help us put together a plan to promote balance within the microbiome. We may also test for gluten sensitivity and food allergies/sensitivities, along with ordering micronutrient and hormone tests.
Learn more about restoring your gut health or schedule a free consultation with me, Dr. Paul, today.
As always, consult with your healthcare practitioner to see what the best microbiome test is for you.
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