New methods for testing microbes in stool are proving to be more clinically useful than older culture methods alone. Acceptance of such improvements is historically slow and misconceptions and rumor abound. Three points (time-of-collection snapshot, anaerobe profiling, and ... [More]

Case study involving a 38-year-old male who suffered from idiopathic gastrointestinal pain of unknown origin. Through an integrative and functional medicine approach, including the use of Metametrix laboratory testing, key pieces of his case were brought to light... [More]

The recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report revealed that the prescribing rate of antibiotics for a person 14 years and younger has declined by approximately 24%, which is down from... [More]

Let’s face it, people do not imagine anything attractive when they think of parasites. A wiggly protozoan or worm inside our own GI tract? The knee-jerk reaction is “Gross! Kill it…NOW!” There is good reasoning behind this opinion. Parasites, by definition, live at the expense of their host and can wreak havoc to many body systems... [More]

H. pylori has been found to play a role in chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma, and gastric carcinoma. It is estimated that 50% of the world’s population is infected with H. pylori and 30% of North Americans with dyspepsia are infected... [More]

A recent study reported that adults who were treated for pediatric cancer have a higher-than-average risk of gastrointestinal problems. This fact is not surprising, but it makes me wonder if gut health was a concern for clinicians in the early days of treating patients who were suffering from pediatric cancer... [More]

Everyone looks forward to the food being offered at a party, right? Our “other” cells, the bacterial guests in our colon are also largely at the mercy of what we, their hosts, see fit to feed them. As we mentioned before in this series, we need to be aware of nourishing this mass of commensal, beneficial microbes as well as ourselves, when we consciously sit down to eat... [More]