Gut Microbiome Test?

[Batty]

Just wondering if anyone can suggest a lab, or home test kit, for a full gut Microbiome test in Thailand?

 

I have seen a few UK/US companies online offering the service but wanted to know if there is a Thai equivalent? 

 

Bumrungrad do it, but the 'package' is a ridiculous 40,000 baht. The home test kits in UK/US run for around (equivalent of) 5000 to 15000 baht. Would be great if there was a Thai equivalent?

 

Context: wife's guts have been ravaged by H Pylori for a few years, it is improving, thankfully, but after a few years of various medicines, prodding,  and poking, she wants to make sure her gut biome is in reasonable shape. Well, I do - and she's ok with it. 

 

She asked the doctor at local military hospital here in Udon but he apparently gave her the usual "Mai dai". Either he can't be bothered to get involved or has no clue such a test exists lol. 

 

And yes I know a good pro biotic & natural yogurt, kimchee etc will help restore gut bacteria, but would be good to learn what kind of shape it's in.

 

I'm not playing doctors here, by the way. It's been a hell of a problem over the last few years and the level of care has been a bit crappy - honestly, it has - so I'm just trying to be a little proactive, that's all. 

[jas007]

Perhaps look for a functional medical clinic in Bangkok.  I was looking one time, just to check the cost.  Anyway, there are a few such clinics in Bangkok, but their web pages don’t list any prices that I could find.

 

The bigger question is this: assuming your wife’s tests show an imbalance, what to do about it?  I think the proper diet is the key.  The progress won’t be instantaneous, but a real cure is possible, over time.
 

[mstevens]

Digestive system issues are becoming more of an issues as diets get worse and worse. We're murdering our gut and many of us have (complicated) gut / digestive issues that go well beyond what your average gastroenterologist is trained in.

 

For years I had gut issues. I went to the doctor and was tested for all sorts of things. I was sent to a specialist and they did all sorts of advanced tests and they could not find anything wrong with me at all. I wasted over a year before I realised that this is an area where the mainstream medical industry is simply not up to speed on gut issues. You really need to look at naturopaths or, preferably, functional medicine practitioners - who look primarily at, and deal with, issues in the gut.

 

In my case, I had all sorts of issues including Candida and SIBO which in turn caused leaky gut, histamine intolerance, malnutrition and oxalate degradation issues.

 

Ideally, you need to work with a practitioner to resolve this as the most important part of getting better is an accurate diagnosis. Once you have that, there are many steps to resolve it and it's not an easy road. Essentially, you have to adjust your diet - and this is the hard part as it really depends what the problem is to determine what your diet should be. If you have SIBO, you need to avoid a lot of healthy foods like broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic etc. If you have Candida you need to avoid all sugars and most carbs. If you have fatty liver (and many with gut issues do) you should eat lots of broccoli and cauliflower - but that clashes with the advice for SIBO! If you have oxalate issues, you need to avoid many spices, some vegetables, chocolate and more. If you have histamine issues you need to avoid all aged foods. It's a bit of a nightmare, to be honest!

 

You really need to get professionally diagnosed which, unfortunately, requires one of the expensive tests which are sent to the USA. I don't know which providers in Bangkok offer this service. One diagnosed, you need to adjust your diet accordingly. There might also be a protocol such as antimicrobials or antibiotics or antifungals.

 

If your wife is looking at simply rebuilding her gut, she might want to look at one of the really good probiotics. This one is probably the best I have seen as it's pure and a high dose:

 

https://www.customprobiotics.com/d-lactate-free-probiotics.html

 

Most probiotics will barely shift the needle.

 

I hope this helps and if you have any questions, fire away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[flyingtlger]

I used to eat a S.A.D (perfect acronym: Standard American Diet) and I was always have stomach problems and got sick from one thing or another.

I quit fast food, sodas, refined sugar and flour products, all processed foods, started cooking all my meals, started eating whole foods, organic fruits and vegetable as much as possible, drank 12 glasses of water and all my ailments went away....

[MeaMaximaCulpa]

You could try to contact Dr Torsak, he is both a "normal" MD pluss a functional medicine doctor: https://www.healingpassion-asia.com