Dr. Amy Nett: We’re actually using two different stool tests when patients are able to, and we strongly recommend that people use both Doctor’s Data and BioHealth. For Doctor’s Data, we like the CSAPx3. That’s a three-day collection, and CSAP stands for “comprehensive stool analysis and parasitology.” Chris is going to cover these in more detail as we go down the gut protocol, but I like that one in particular because not only does it show the makeup of the microbiome, but it also gives you markers for digestion. It gives you some markers for gut mucosal inflammation, specifically looking at lysozyme, calprotectin, and lactoferrin. It also gives you measures of short-chain fatty acid production and stool pH, so it’s a great test. Chris likes the methodology for Doctor’s Data, I think, perhaps even more than Genova, and that would be a good question for him at the webinar in terms of the methodologies for Genova versus Doctor’s Data.
The other test we use is BioHealth #401H. I think it’s a three- or four-day collection, and that one I like in particular. The “H” in #401H stands for Helicobacter pylori. We were noticing with the Doctor’s Data CSAP that essentially none of our patients had Helicobacter pylori, which just didn’t mirror the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori, so we decided to start using BioHealth as well, and Dr. Schweig, Chris Kresser, and I started keeping track of the discrepancies between the BioHealth and Doctor’s Data stool tests in terms of picking up parasites, H. pylori, yeast overgrowth, and we saw enough discrepancy between those two tests, not that one was necessarily better than the other, but just because if you think about when you do a stool sample, you have certain volume, but you’re only submitting a relatively small sample, and we know that if you select samples from different portions, you’re going to have different results. So this is just the most comprehensive way of understanding what’s going on with the colon. If patients really can’t afford it, then you just prioritize and maybe do the Doctor’s Data CSAP but include the BioHealth #418 test. The #418 is just the Helicobacter pylori antigen. You can sort of mix and match between BioHealth and Doctor’s Data, but those are the two companies I would recommend.