Is Functional Medicine Stool Testing Validated?
Important Updates on Stool Testing for Gut Health with Dr. Michael Ruscio, Dr. David Brady, and Tony Hoffman.
Functional medicine stool testing can be a helpful tool when it comes to uncovering gut health issues or imbalances in bacteria that might be contributing to bloating, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, brain fog, and everything in between. But are functional medicine stool tests validated, and how do they compare to traditional stool tests?
Dr. David Brady and Tony Hoffman from Diagnostic Solutions Laboratory, which is the lab that provides the popular GI-MAP™ stool test, help to answer these questions and clear up some of the confusion surrounding functional medicine stool test methodology.
We also talk about the importance of contextualizing test results, and how clinicians can combine the information they get from a functional medicine stool test with an individual’s symptoms, history, and other test results to make better decisions about treatment.
In This Episode:
- PCR-based Stool Testing vs. Traditional Methods – 00:06:09
- False Positives in PCR Testing – 00:18:52
- Overtreating Based on Test Results – 00:23:35
- Testing and H. pylori – 00:27:50
- Ranges Used for Detection – 00:33:26
- Lab-Based Research – 00:40:46
- Differences in PCR Technology – 00:45:02
- Proper Utilization of Tests – 00:49:27
- The Dysbiosis Index – 00:57:15
