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I’ve been seeing a doctor who practices alternative medicine, and he had me take a test called GI-Map. It’s only been around for a couple of years now. It uses DNA maps to test your poop for a number of pathogens – including bacteria, parasites, fungi/yeast, and a few viruses. It does not culture but rather uses new technology to search for DNA, thus yielding far better results than a run of the mill stool or blood test.
My results were pretty crazy. Here is the list of what was found in terms of pathogens (an image of the test results is at the bottom of this post):
- C difficile Toxin B
- E. coli
- Cryptosporidium (single cell parasite)
- Whip worms (eek, I have worms! A parasite)
- H. Pylori
- Pentatrichomonas hominis (a protozoa, possibly not harmful)
.. and high levels of klebsiella, citrobacter freundii, streptococcus, and a few other bacteria that seem bad (though I'm not sure how problematic these are)
On top of all that, I have low readings of some beneficial bacteria. The good news is I don’t have EBV or CMV (viral testing is limited to only these two).
I haven’t talked with my doctor in detail yet about the results or a game plan. It is interesting to me that when I look these things up on the internet, almost always these seem to be things that people with a compromised immune system are at risk for.
I’ve had two surgeries since being afflicted with CFS, which might explain the C-Diff and a few others. Not sure when I got worms! I also have had a couple of ‘stomach bugs’ in recent years. Further, when I first got ill with CFS, I did several rounds of antibiotics (plus I took more with the surgeries). That certainly could be partially responsible for bacteria getting out of balance and opportunistic pathogens taking hold.
My doctor said that this is among the worst results he’s seen. It looks very bad compared to the results from others I’ve seen on the web, so I don’t think this is anywhere near normal.
I have a few observations/ideas/thoughts, and I’m curious as to what others think:
1. The pathogens identified in my test may not have been the cause of my CFS, but rather the result. One theory that fits this picture is that some kind of instigator – like an as yet unidentified pathogen – sent my immune system into chaos, and these other things took hold. This would be consistent with the anecdotes of outbreaks and of immune system irregularities. If each person’s immune system is compromised, everyone might get different pathogens taking hold and wreaking havoc. For me it might be bacteria, for someone else it might be viruses, etc. Thus each person would have a unique response to the initial event, leading to disparate symptoms.
2. Antibiotics may have made things much worse. My gut bacteria seem way out of whack, and this seems like the likely source.
3. Treatment? My doctor is going to try to treat these in some kind of order and we shall see the results. He gave me a yeast/bacteria killer supplement (plant tannins) early on and I had an amazing improvement that was subsequently lost after a few months. Perhaps one kind of pathogen was killed off, leading to temporary relief, but then something else grew to fill the gap and caused more symptoms. This might explain why people get temporary relief with various anti-viral or anti-bacterial treatments.
The test is $430, and is typically not covered by insurance. It must be ordered by a doctor, but there are folks on the internet who will order this for you (for a fee, I think). It seems like we should all be doing a test like this if we can afford it. I think over time they will add more pathogens to the list.
What do you all think? I wonder if any of you have thoughts about how this fits with Lipkin’s work?
My results were pretty crazy. Here is the list of what was found in terms of pathogens (an image of the test results is at the bottom of this post):
- C difficile Toxin B
- E. coli
- Cryptosporidium (single cell parasite)
- Whip worms (eek, I have worms! A parasite)
- H. Pylori
- Pentatrichomonas hominis (a protozoa, possibly not harmful)
.. and high levels of klebsiella, citrobacter freundii, streptococcus, and a few other bacteria that seem bad (though I'm not sure how problematic these are)
On top of all that, I have low readings of some beneficial bacteria. The good news is I don’t have EBV or CMV (viral testing is limited to only these two).
I haven’t talked with my doctor in detail yet about the results or a game plan. It is interesting to me that when I look these things up on the internet, almost always these seem to be things that people with a compromised immune system are at risk for.
I’ve had two surgeries since being afflicted with CFS, which might explain the C-Diff and a few others. Not sure when I got worms! I also have had a couple of ‘stomach bugs’ in recent years. Further, when I first got ill with CFS, I did several rounds of antibiotics (plus I took more with the surgeries). That certainly could be partially responsible for bacteria getting out of balance and opportunistic pathogens taking hold.
My doctor said that this is among the worst results he’s seen. It looks very bad compared to the results from others I’ve seen on the web, so I don’t think this is anywhere near normal.
I have a few observations/ideas/thoughts, and I’m curious as to what others think:
1. The pathogens identified in my test may not have been the cause of my CFS, but rather the result. One theory that fits this picture is that some kind of instigator – like an as yet unidentified pathogen – sent my immune system into chaos, and these other things took hold. This would be consistent with the anecdotes of outbreaks and of immune system irregularities. If each person’s immune system is compromised, everyone might get different pathogens taking hold and wreaking havoc. For me it might be bacteria, for someone else it might be viruses, etc. Thus each person would have a unique response to the initial event, leading to disparate symptoms.
2. Antibiotics may have made things much worse. My gut bacteria seem way out of whack, and this seems like the likely source.
3. Treatment? My doctor is going to try to treat these in some kind of order and we shall see the results. He gave me a yeast/bacteria killer supplement (plant tannins) early on and I had an amazing improvement that was subsequently lost after a few months. Perhaps one kind of pathogen was killed off, leading to temporary relief, but then something else grew to fill the gap and caused more symptoms. This might explain why people get temporary relief with various anti-viral or anti-bacterial treatments.
The test is $430, and is typically not covered by insurance. It must be ordered by a doctor, but there are folks on the internet who will order this for you (for a fee, I think). It seems like we should all be doing a test like this if we can afford it. I think over time they will add more pathogens to the list.
What do you all think? I wonder if any of you have thoughts about how this fits with Lipkin’s work?
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