Many chronic health issues are caused by inflammation in the digestive tract and imbalances in the microbiome of the gut.  Boulder Natural Health offers the GI Effects Comprehensive Stool Profile from Genova Diagnostics to help you find the root cause of your digestive complaints.  This test provides a throughout look at digestive function including digestive enzyme levels, inflammatory markers, commensal bacteria, pathogenic bacteria, yeast and parasites, and fecal occult blood. This test can be beneficial for patients with the following conditions:

• Leaky gut syndrome
• IBS
• Crohn’s disease
• Ulcerative colitis
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Candida/Yeast
• Gas and bloating
• Ulcers
• SIBO
• Malabsorption issues
• Celiac disease

Digestion and Absorption:

• Pancreatic Elastase-1, a marker of exocrine pancreatic function
• Products of Protein Breakdown, markers of undigested protein reaching the colon
• Fecal Fat, markers of fat breakdown and absorption

Inflammation/Immunology:

• Calprotectin, a marker of neutrophil-driven inflammation; produced in abundance at sites of inflammation, this biomarker has been proven clinically useful in differentiating between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)*
• Eosinophil Protein X, a marker of eosinophil-driven inflammation and allergic response
• Fecal Secretory IgA, a marker of gut secretory immunity and barrier function
• Additional biomarkers available: Fecal Lactoferrin

Gut Microbiome:

• Commensal bacteria demonstrating the composition, diversity, and relative abundance of gut organisms, all of which are linked to both gastrointestinal and general health.
  1. More than 95% of commensal gut organisms are anaerobic and are difficult to recover by traditional (aerobic) culture techniques; molecular DNA techniques are now considered the standard for anaerobic bacteria assessment in research, permitting identification and quantification of multiple organisms with a single specimen.
  2. The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) methodology can identify bacterial populations at any level of taxonomy, as broadly as phylum and as narrowly as species. This ability permits analysis of the gut microbiome at a desired degree of complexity.
  3. GI Effects assesses a key set of 24 clinically relevant genera/species that map to 7 major phyla.
  4. Bacterial and fungal culture which demonstrate the presence of specific beneficial and pathological organisms

• Traditional bacterial culture complements DNA-based tests to provide an expanded survey of a patient’s gut microbiota, beyond the specific organisms targeted by PCR.

• Parasitology

  1. GI Effects provides microscopic examination of fecal specimens for ova and parasites (O&P), the gold standard of diagnosis for many parasites.
  2. Enzyme immunoassay (EIA), widely recognized for its diagnostic utility in the detection of pathogenic antigens, is used for the identification of Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba histolytica, and Giardia lamblia.