Articles

What Is Stool Analysis And Why It Is Needed?

by Kriben Govender Health Advisor
Today, the advanced technologies allow testing with the help of variety of samples collected from human body. Most of the cases blood samples are required for diagnose any diseases but sample of saliva, urine, stool, semen, etc. are also proven beneficial in detecting various health issues.

A stool analysis is a series of test where stool sample is used to diagnose certain type of conditions that affects your digestive tract, cause chronic illness and neurological dysfunction. These conditions include infections causes from viruses, parasites or bacteria, cancer, or poor nutrient absorption. For stool analysis, a sample is collected in a clean container and sent to the laboratory where it will analyzed with the help of chemical tests, microscopic examination and microbiologic tests. In stool test, the doctor will check the color, consistency, odor and presence of mucus in the sample. The stool culture is mainly done to check the bacteria which may be causing an infection.

Why Stool Analysis Is Done?

There are different reasons for testing stool analysis that includes:-

  • Useful for identifying the diseases of digestive tract, pancreas and liver. There are certain types of enzymes evaluate in the stool and help to know the proper functioning of the pancreas.

  • Helpful in finding the cause of symptoms affecting the digestive tract including bloody diarrhea, prolonged diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, bloating, loss of appetite, cramping, fever, etc.

  • To find colon cancer

  • To check parasites like Giardia or pinworms

  •  Cause of an infection from bacteria, fungus or virus

  • To check the reason for poor nutrients absorption by digestive tract.

What Can Affect The Test?

There are many reasons that can affect the result of test or you may not be able to have the test in certain situations:-

  • If you are taking medicines like antibiotics, barium, iron magnesium, etc. then it can affect your stool analysis report.

  • Contaminating stool sample with blood from menstrual period or urine or chemical found in toilet paper can again create a problem in your test report

  • Exposing the stool sample in air or room temperature or delay in sending the sample to a laboratory within in 1 hour of collection.

Usually, the process of collecting these samples is a painless but it can be awkward or unpleasant for the patient because it include the elimination of bodily waste and include body parts that people prefer to keep private. This is a reason sometimes these samples are collected at home and brought to the medical office or laboratory. But they are also collected at medical facility like clinic, doctor’s office, hospital, etc.

If you are also interested to analysis your gut microbiome or gut health then you can go with stool analysis test.  With the help Stool Analysis you can discover the types of bacteria present in your gut and tailored your diet according to it. This will help in promoting your general well-being, sports performance and quality of life.

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About Kriben Govender Freshman   Health Advisor

11 connections, 0 recommendations, 39 honor points.
Joined APSense since, November 15th, 2017, From Victoria, Australia.

Created on Oct 10th 2018 05:28. Viewed 386 times.

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