Stool Testing?

hi marina, i don't know which country your from but i certainly wouldn't pay 500 anything in any country to find out about ibs. i have coeliac disease and only discovered this through lots of tests, i am disgusted it's taken so many years. you need to see if this is ibs because it's an easy backhanded comment for doctor's to make, it means they don't have to do much. make sure everything else is ruled out before you rely on what your doctor has said. i am now trying to sue my last doctor's - a non diagnosis of coeliac disease has left me with a whole host of other problems. good luck. x

there are no stool tests for IBS. if you genuinely think you might have parasites, then you need to get tested by your dr/gastro. if you DID have parasites, a holistic practitioner certainly couldn't do anything about them, as they would need antiparasitic drugs prescribed.

it's very unlikely you have parasites unless you've been traveling to countries with poor hygiene, drinking unclean water or eating undercooked pork.

Hi, yes I had done something similar called a diagnostic test GI Map. It tells you levels of good and bad bacteria in the gut. After the results came back they said I was high in some bad bacteria, and low in good ones. they wanted me to take 4 supplements everyday -some were two at a time making it almost 8 pills a day. they said it could take months to see results. i didnt do it because I was feeling sick now and didnt think I could handle taking all the supplements and the effects they could have .

Hi Marinab-

Eastern and Western medicine both have their places. I wouldn't rule one or the other out. I have had many successes with my health from a naturopathic doctor where western medicine physicians were unable to help. Yes, they are pricey, but Western medicine practitioners would be just as expensive if not more if we didnt have insurance. Unfortunately, Eastern medicine can not pull in the kind of profit Western medicine can, so it gets put on the back burner. Eastern medicine is about being proactive and preventative. Taking natural things to help correct the imbalances and giving your body what it needs to help heal itself. Sadly, making people well is not necessarily the goal in Western medicine. Why would they want people to be healed? Theres no money in that. Not to say that your doctor doesnt care. There are lots of caring physicians who got into it for the right reasons. Unfortunately, its the bigger picture with politics and money. Anyway, sorry...getting off topic.

It sounds like your gastro doc worked you up with everything and if he didnt, you may want to advocate for yourself and ask questions. You may even be able to get a list of those tests from your holistic practitioner to see if your gastro doctor can order them so that your insurance will cover them. If they are standard tests from a standard lab, its likely they will. The best of both worlds is to try to have your practitioners work together if they are both open to it. E and W physicians operate in very different ways, neither is necessarily wrong. They are just two halves of a puzzle that are incomplete without each other. Bottom line, if you can afford it and you are open minded enough to try it, you may be surprised by Eastern medicine. Its not a quick, easy fix, but if you have a good naturopathic doctor and some patience, they can make a world of difference.

these are experts, go with what they say, have as many tests as you can to rule things in or out. don't forget you are doing this for you ONLY - without the knowledge what else are you meant to do? good luck, it's not easy but not knowing is worse.