Why Choose The GI-MAP Over Traditional Stool Tests?
When doing a healing protocol, you always begin with supporting digestion. This is because a poorly functioning digestive system can be linked back to any and every condition. You can’t have optimal health with a dysfunctional digestive system.
In order to get to the root cause, without guessing, we need to use the most accurate test possible. The Microbial Assay Plus, also known as the GI-MAP is preferred over a traditional stool test because of the enormous amount of accurate information it provides.
Traditional stool tests technique of culturing or microscopy can miss up to 50% of bacterial species. This technique fails because the lab is taking a small section from an already small sample to culture or view the sample specimen under the microscope. Many pathogens are missed as a result of this method because some microorganisms, especially yeast, bacteria, and parasites may not be present in this tiny sample of a sample. Additionally, traditional stool tests are incapable of quantifying pathogens because they only report a positive or negative finding.
Traditional stool tests identify stool microbes by using a technology called Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight, also known as MALDI-TOF. MALDI-TOF relies on bacterial cultures for microbial detection. This isn’t ideal because the results of the culture have the possibility to not be representative of the sample due to the possibility of the stool specimen growing or decaying after collection and transit.
The GI-MAP provides a comprehensive assessment over what microbes reside within the gut microbiome. It is able to pick up on the quantity of several different specific microbes including pathogens, opportunistic microbes, and parasites. The GI-MAP is so accurate because it uses DNA analysis of each microorganism. The DNA analysis is possible because of quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, also known as qPCR. qPCR takes the two steps of amplification and detection and combines it into one and it is considered one of the most powerful and sensitive gene analyses available.
Only one test is required with the GI-MAP versus having to take two or three from other tests. This is a huge benefit because clients have to stop taking certain supplements that aid in digestion before taking stool tests. This can be problematic because if a client is extremely constipated it can be virtually impossible to collect three samples within a week. Also, the GI-MAP minimizes the chance for human error, since this particular test is fully automated. This makes the results much more reliable!
The GI-MAP provides critical information about what is exactly going on within your gut so I can then make better decisions on creating a bio-individualized protocol without guessing. Let’s stop the guessing from only looking at your symptoms and using unreliable testing. We can get much better results by considering all of your symptoms, lifestyle, and exceptionally accurate results from the GI-MAP.
The information the GI-MAP provides:
Helicobacter Pylori and virulence factors
Normal Bacterial Flora
Opportunistic Bacteria
Fungi/yeast
Viruses
Parasites
Intestinal Health & Function such as intestinal inflammation, immune system response, enzyme output, and fat digesting
Gluten sensitivity