Why We Use the GI-MAP to Understand Gut Health

Stomach pain, nausea, and constipation happens to almost everybody at some point in time. According to the American College of Gastroenterology, approximately 10% of Americans have persistent symptoms that can be diagnosed as a GI disorder. This leads people to go to the doctor looking for answers.  The common response to these concerns is either to add probiotics or kill off pathogens with antibiotics. When the bowels are slow, people are given harsh medications to push the bowels. These strategies each come with a cost to our long-term health and vitality. However, there is a better way…

GI symptoms often follow predictable patterns, and we see improvement in these symptoms as we begin doing things like improving stomach acid, increasing bile production (and/or thinning the bile) and feeding the gut microbiome. Knowing these patterns, we have been able to help many people get control of their GI issues.

However, in more challenging cases, advanced testing like the GI Map from Diagnostic Solutions, may be needed to help strike the right balance. For instance, sometimes we are surprised to see an overgrowth of commensal (“good”) bacteria in the gut. In this situation, probiotics are not always the best choice and can sometimes make symptoms worse. Other times, we find a prevalence of opportunistic (“bad”) bacteria in the gut. In this case, it is best to use natural antimicrobial herbs such as Oregano oil so that we do not destroy the commensal bacteria along with the opportunistic.

The GI Map is more than a traditional medical stool test. Medical stool tests often only test for the worst pathogens; things that medical doctors use medications (typically antibiotics) to treat. Antibiotics should be carefully considered in these cases, but we must acknowledge that treating these pathogens with antibiotics can disrupt the greater gut microbiome.

Example of Part of a GI Map Report

Example of Part of a GI Map Report

At Center for Champions, we prefer the GI Map test because it gives us a broader view of gut health by including markers that will help us not only see the worst pathogens, but also the balance of opportunistic and commensal bacteria as well as other organisms such as H. pylori, Candida, Worms, and Parasites. Additionally, the test has markers of digestive health, the gut immune response, gut inflammation, and “leaky” gut. This combined approach gives us a very clear picture of gut health and directs us specifically on how to supplement in order to optimize health!