Testing for Candida and Sibo

I have never been tested for Candida ....not to sound completely stupid but is that a blood test? I notice the subject comes up here a lot. I have been diagnosed with sibo before but now with COVID not sure if they are testing at this time since It was always performed at the local hospital. It is so confusing with all this symptoms overlapping each other. My gastro now just wants to hand out PPIs which I believe aggrevate what’s going on.😠

there are several forms of candida overgrowth
eg skin infection, blood infection (v serious), and overgrowth in the gut

for the gut overgrowth that i guess most here are interested in the tests i know of are as follows:

serology - blood test looking for antibodies to candida - not sure how reliable it is. in persons with lyme or lyme and co-infections thier immune system may be too depressed to make significant antibodies - so thsi may be a factor in the usefulness of this test.

stool culture tests - eg comprehensive stool panel from Genova and Drs data
here they try to see what grows when the organisms in the stool are cultured in various mediums and try to identify them from their appearance and metabolites etc
it generally tries to identify overgrowth by the quantity that is cultured - but this has various problems as not many intact yeasts may be in the stool - and yet they could be present higher up in the digestive system. they could also feasibly not culture well ( doubt this is an issue for most yeasts ) or be outcompeted by something in the stool - the test probably generally picks up major issues - but maybe not 100% reliable.

PCR type tests - these tests essentially count the number of copies of yeast DNA in a stool sample. i think they are fairly reliable at genus level - in that it's a direct test that simply counts what is in the stool. the yeast's DNA are sufficiently different from bacteria and other organisms in the stool that the test resolution should be good enough to give a fairly reliable reading of what is there. there is still the issue that the amount of intact yeast DNA in the stool may not accurately represent how much yeast is elsewhere in the digestive tract. for instance is fungal overgrowth was occurring in the small intestine - but bacteria in the colon were breaking most of that down by the time the stool was produced/tested.

Organic Acids testing - eg great plains labs - this test looks at the levels of metabolites of yeasts ( and other microbes ) in the urine and compares this to norms for a large sample of humans. because it's looking for the metabolites of known yeasts - being excreted it gives a pretty good idea of how much activity of that organism there is in the body and doesn't rely on what comes out in the stool. the test comes as part of a large panel that has many other useful markers that give an indication of neurotransmitters, oxidative stress, vitamins etc.

there are of course a lot of internet-style "DIY tests " that people swear by - but i suspect they are all rather unreliable.

because none of the tests are 100% perfect the functional medicine doctors i have followed - the best ones anyway - tend to run 3 of the above tests and use the results to build a better more reliable picture.
eg if you had a stool test that suggested lots of yeast and the OAT test found lots of yeast metabolites and you had a prominent yeast species on a PCR test you could be pretty sure you have a yeast problem. whereas any one or two of the above might leave room for doubt.

"blood test looking for antibodies to candida - not sure how reliable it is. in persons with lyme or lyme and co-infections their immune system may be too depressed to make significant antibodies - so thsi may be a factor in the usefulness of this test. "

I found the blood antibody test to be reliable for gut candida ablicans and was covered by my insurance (a normal lab test).

My worse time with symptoms (and obvious oral thrush), I blood tested during the overgrowth and then about three months later(after duflican RX) to see it dissipate on labs and symptom feel.

Tested this blood test four times across a few years - it always matched my symptoms. I just happened to have the most common easy to detect gut yeast overgrowth - C-Albicans. It was a Quest test that you can find online and ask your Dr to do it. Im sure Lab Corp has the same thing - those are common labs regular Drs and insurance uses. I paid nothing for them, so this is a good place to start if you have insurance and a regular Dr who has somewhat of an open mind- or an LLMDs lab order and then go to a blood draw place. What I found with US insurance companies- Usually anything inside a LLMD clinic is not covered at all. Go physical out of it for "normal" tests and I was covered.

I would imagine the skin test is a skin scrape sample?- never did that. Prob a Derm Dr could do this.

Blue - as far as "gut heath testing", in addition to candida antibody blood tests, remember that H. Pylori and the SIBO breath test (there's actually two different ones) are also conventional medicine tests, covered by insurance.

Yes, Ive had the H.Pylori breath test in the past, didnt there was a blood test also. .

There are two diff SIBO breath tests is what I was trying to say.

Some regular clinics labs should be able to order those during covid vs going to a hospital lab. (?)

yep the SIBO breath tests feed a carbohydrate dose and measure gases produced by bacteria in the gut in the person's breath at time intervals afterward.

there are several types - they vary by what gases they measure and also by what carbohydrate substrate they use.

Gases:
some only test for hydrogen - some test for hydrogen and methane (much better because many overgrowths are actually archaea that produce methane but not hydrogen)

substrates:
Some breath tests use glucose as the substrate - however, glucose is very rapidly absorbed in the small intestine ( typically within the first few feet - but the small intestine is around 20 feet long ) and so this test tells you little about what is happening in the majority of the small intestine.
other tests use something called lactulose - it's a sugar that is not absorbed in the human gut so travels the full length of the small intestine and into the colon. these tests can help detect bacteria overgrowths at any point in the small intestine.

so in summary - select a test that uses lactulose - and measures both hydrogen and methane.

consider also using a comprehensive stool test and or OAT test at the same time to get a better picture of what is going on in the gut and with overall health.
outcomes are often not as clear-cut as you might imagine when you decide to test, so this will help with interpretation and help guide your treatment decsions.

dcd2103 said...
lactulose and fructose will test for lactulose and fructose malabsorption as well

They normally use glucose because it's usually absorbed, so its specific for SIBO. If you use lactulose or fructose, a positive result could mean either lactulose/frutose malabsoprtion (makes it to the colon and feeds bacteria there), or SIBO (there are bacteria in your small intestine), or both.

i could be wrong but as far as i remember when i was reading into it, when it comes to the lactulose test - a peak when it reaches the colon is normal. Peaks before that on the timescale indicate SIBO
But as I think you infer - transit time can vary from person to person so some interpretation is needed.

i think there are now a bunch of different breaths tests apart from those for SIBO

Hey chiming in here... I recieved my breath test and have yet to open / look at paperwork . Why you may ask? ....well after years of ill feeling burping episodes that have been daily and unrelenting for last several month, wouldn't you know after I get fed up and am trying to dig for answers/ order tests, ask questions etc....... it goes away. Isn't that a wack a mole . I'm sure it'll be back, it's only been three days, but I haven't changed diet or anything.

Would sibo or candida go away for a couple days? Does this tell me anything... it has gone away before ( not lately) but can't attribute it to anything.

Lightlife said...
Would sibo or candida go away for a couple days? Does this tell me anything... it has gone away before ( not lately) but can't attribute it to anything.

Both have symptoms are dependent on your type of food intake. Which is why FODMAPS are also brought up. People FODMAP sensitive will have gas from these foods. Ignoring this and keep on eating thee foods, then SIBO can get out of hand. FODMAP sensitive people are missing a digestive enzyme to digest these, which is what DCD is mentioning.

I can start up SIBO by eating the wrong foods for myself, if highly accumulated/injested in a few days.
like clockwork. Which is why we all need to investigate foods that work and dont work for our bodies.