How to Read & Analyze a Gut Test
How to Read & Analyze a Gut Test
Are you struggling with low energy, poor mental health, or physical discomfort?
All the symptoms may be originating from the same place: your gut microbiome.
Research is now showing that your gut microbiome is now considered to be an essential component of the body’s overall health, with imbalances (or dysbiosis) in the microbiome linked to a range of health issues, including digestive problems, autoimmune disorders, and even mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
The gut acts as the engine of your body by processing and absorbing nutrients from the food you eat, which provides the energy you need for all of your systems to function.
When your digestive health is on point and the gut flora is in balance, your body is able to extract the maximum amount of nutrients from the food you eat, which provides a steady stream of energy and supports your body’s various systems.
But when your gut is not functioning properly or the gut microbiome is imbalanced, your body may not be able to extract all the nutrients it needs, leading to low energy levels and a range of other health issues, including opening the door for energy thieves to sneak in and take over.
What’s Inside Your Gut Microbiome?
Trillions of microorganisms, collectively known as the gut microbiome, call the gut their home.
Inside us, we have both “good” and “bad” bacteria—and maintaining the delicate balance inside you can be challenging, especially because that’s not all that resides there.
In addition to bacteria, our microbiome can contain fungus, viruses, parasites, and other pathogens that zap our energy, steal our nutrients, and cause inflammation.
Most people have no idea what’s going on inside their delicate microbiome. They dismiss digestive health symptoms such as gas, food sensitivities, and digestive upset as getting older or eating something that doesn’t agree with them.
They may also suffer from mood disorders such as anxiety and depression—dismissing it as being stress-related or due to external causes, such as family dynamics, work stress, or relationship troubles.
But the truth is, there may be a real, physical cause to all these issues—an unhealthy gut microbiome.
Knowing exactly what’s going on inside you may hold the key to boosting your energy, restoring your natural youthful radiance, sharpening your memory and mental processing, and having a happy, healthy mental and emotional state.
Gut tests, also known as microbial analysis or microbiome testing, can provide valuable insights into the composition of your gut microbiome. This information can be used to identify imbalances or dysbiosis in your gut.
A gut test can tell you right away whether your digestive system is causing disease.
It can also act as a key resource in knowing what exact steps can help resolve your health issues.
What is a Gut Test?
A gut test, also known as microbial analysis or microbiome testing, is a type of diagnostic test that provides valuable insights into the composition and health of your gut microbiome.
The test typically involves collecting a sample of stool or fecal matter, which is then analyzed in a laboratory to identify the different types of bacteria and other microorganisms present in the gut.
If you’ve never had a gut test before, the process can seem overwhelming. But the truth is, it’s actually really simple.
Many of my clients hold off on getting a gut test because of their thoughts or fears:
- Is it expensive?
- Is it invasive?
- Will it be painful?
- Will it take forever to fix my microbiome?
- Will I have to stop eating what I love?
When it comes to your health, ignorance is not bliss.
Luckily, there are simple (yet powerful!) solutions to restore your microbiome—no matter what’s going on inside you.
Now, let’s look at some actual test results…
How to Understand Gut Test Results
In this video, I show you a real gut test and explain how to read and understand gut test results.
This client’s main concerns were low energy, brain fog, constipation, and anxiety.
She told me she wasn’t sleeping well at night, and was waking up tired. And after a long day at work, she had zero energy to work out, or do fun things with family and friends.
She described her brain and mental stamina not as “no longer crisp”, with memory recall “not as strong as it used to be.”
She said to me, “Brain fog seems like a wet blanket holding me down. If my health doesn’t change, I’ll need to pull back and retire early, because I just don’t think I can keep up anymore”.
Let’s breakdown her gut test results, so you can see what exactly shows up and what it means.
PATHOGENS
This section looks at bacteria, parasites, and viruses.
You can see she’s got a parasite right here: Giardia.
This would definitely be contributing to her digestive health symptoms.
HELICOBACTER PYLORI
In the next section, you’ll see she’s got Helicobacter pylori.
That’s a bacteria that lives in the upper GI tract in the stomach.
It can be responsible for things like indigestion, heartburn, belching, burping, incomplete stomach emptying, nausea, and bloating.
COMMENSAL KEYSTONE BACTERIA
The commensal keystone bacteria are “the good guys”—the good bacteria in her gut.
We see something interesting here in this microbiota analysis—she’s trending normal to high on many of her bacteria, which means overgrowth could cause some serious bloating and food intolerances, irritation, moodiness, and low energy.
So we want to help her bacteria get back down to the normal healthy range.
OPPORTUNISTIC/OVERGROWTH MICROBES
Here we see the opportunistic/overgrowth microbes—and she’s got all these levels sky-high.
I have to tell you, this is one of the most impressive opportunistic overgrowth microbe tests I’ve ever seen, which is why I wanted to show it to you because it’s so incredible that she was even functioning like this.
This is a lot of bacteria overgrowth, and when these bacteria overgrow, they secrete toxins into the body that make you feel brain foggy, achy, painful joints, low energy, skin eruptions like rashes and irritations that cause anxiety and moodiness and hormone disruptions.
She was going to need some serious help knocking all this back down. You cannot eat your way out of this.
You need to support this with herbs, botanicals, and a protocol that will really take you through simple steps in the right way to solve this.
YEAST/FUNGI & VIRUSES
This is the Candida fungus/yeast section. This person didn’t have any Candida. There’s a virus section here as well. That was also negative.
PARASITES
Here’s the second parasite section.
There are 3 parasites listed on the first page and another 12 here.
This person didn’t have any parasites here. But remember, she had Giardia on the first page, which is a much worse than the second set of parasites we look at.
INTESTINAL HEALTH MARKERS
Have you ever wondered, do you need digestive support? Like some bile liver/gallbladder support? Or some digestive enzymes? Well, we can see that from looking at this intestinal health section right here.
We can also see if someone may be at risk for leaning towards estrogen dominance. If the B-Glucuronidase is high, that gives us a clue as to how well they’re excreting fat soluble toxins from the body and what’s happening with Phase One and Two liver detox.
There’s a section for occult blood—we don’t want to see blood in your stool!
IMMUNE RESPONSE
Secretory IgA is a marker of immune function in the gut. And you can see this one here is low, meaning it’s ‘crashed out’. Factors that can cause this are massive stress in someone’s life, the standard American diet (SAD) and by that I don’t mean McDonald’s drive-thru.
I mean the standard stuff we have in our grocery store: conventionally raised meat, inorganic produce, quick grab-and-go pre-made foods… like salad dressings, deli food, and restaurant takeout. That’s the standard American diet. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a fast food drive-thru.
Secretory IgA also tells us a lot about your immune function in your gut, and this person needs some massive immune support.
Anti-gliadin IgA is a gluten marker. When it’s high, it means the person is reacting to gluten and should eliminate it from the diet.
Eosinophil activation protein is another immune marker that tells us a bit about histamine and allergic response. People who tend to be more allergenic tend to be higher here. But a limitation is it can also be falsely negative.
And finally Calprotectin—this is an inflammatory marker. And look at this reading; it’s sky high. This person has massive inflammation in her body, and would definitely benefit from some anti-inflammatory support and a gut restoring protocol.
Taking Action After a Gut Test
The benefit of doing a gut microbiome test is this; once you know what is happening in our gut, you can actually target exactly how to support yourself by giving your body only what you need—and nothing of what you don’t need.
I always say that a gut test is foundational to everything else we’re going to do to support you.
We’ve got to get your gut health dialed in. It’s non-negotiable.
Because when you get your gut fixed, a bunch of positive things start to happen in your body.
The inflammation goes down, your immune system gets stronger, the ‘good’ gut microbes start producing hormones, neurotransmitters, and vitamins all in the right amounts…to help every system in your body heal.
Once it’s balanced, your gut can more efficiently communicate with your mitochondria—your energy producers—which in turn communicate with your immune system, and all organ functions in your body.
If you’re going to invest in any type of functional medicine or support for yourself, I would say start with a gut test.
How to Get Started with a Gut Test
Microbiome testing is a valuable tool for gaining insight into the intricate ecosystem of microorganisms residing in the human gut.
With a clear understanding of your microbiome, you can take targeted steps to enhance gut health through dietary changes, lifestyle modifications, and supplements.
Without proper insight, attempting to detox or address nutrient deficiencies is like taking a shot in the dark. Microbiome testing provides a roadmap for better gut health and improved wellbeing.
While at-home stool test kits are available, my clients say they get the best value from the consultation, where we interpret the results and create a personalized protocol solution.
Don’t try to DIY your health.
Let’s see if I’m the right person to help you boost your energy, regain your youthful radiance, and add happy, healthy years to your life!
Take Good Care,
