Hi there.
I'm Eric Bakker.
I'm a naturopath from New Zealand and I'm the author of a book called Candida Crusher
and formulator of the range called Canxida.
Thanks for tuning into the video today.
Today, I've got a question here from a patient, "What is the Candida immune complex test?
Does it work and do you recommend this test?"
I've often said it before.
You can get paralysis from analysis.
In my mind, after working with Candida patients for a long, long time, one of the best tests
to do is the stool test, not the immune complex test.
The immune test, there are various ways you can do this.
You can get little home kits.
You can check the blood itself.
You can check the saliva.
And we're checking for different kinds of antibodies.
These are often what we called ELISA tests or enzyme linked immunosorbent assay tests.
But we're checking for different kinds of antibodies.
We've got IgA, IgG, IgE, so these are basically immunoglobulins.
Some are immediate markers, some are delayed markers, and some are going to represent the
more immediate presence of Candida in the blood or in the saliva.
Others are going to be maybe a past or a delayed reaction to a Candida organism.
I find these tests to be quite particular and very inaccurate in many situations, so
I don't usually recommend this kind of testing for people.
I think a stool test is a way better test because it gives you a lot more information
that's not just relevant to Candida, but also to SIBO or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth,
that so commonly is there in association with a yeast infection with patients.
Stool testing is far more comprehensive and a much more accurate way to determine what
level of gut dysfunction the patient really has.
And as naturopaths, our core focus is on improving the gut with people, and that test is really
the best test you can do.
The comprehensive stool analysis is the best test.
Stool testing also will be a culture.
A good test will actually culture for yeast and look at doing microscopy, so looking through
a microscope, and looking for visual signs of yeast bloom in the stool.
Microscopy and stool culture.
It's a way more accurate, more balanced way to determine Candida.
I want you to remember that Candida and a lot of bacteria don't like hanging around
in the bloodstream for too long because there are a lot of white blood cells that hang around
there that tend to really jump on them straight away.
And also, the chemicals or cytokines that are produced by blood cells tend to attack
Candida and also the metabolites of Candida, when it dies, what it's broken down to, and
the converted form of Candida to the more invasive or spore form.
So the blood is an area where a lot of toxins don't last long, including heavy metals, a
lot of poisons, carbamates and pesticides and organochlorines and these sort of sprays.
They don't last long in the bloodstream.
They get tucked away into organs.
They get tucked away into bone marrow or different parts of the body that form more long term
stores for these kind of poisons, bacteria and viruses and things like that.
Blood is very hit and miss testing.
Even the serum can be hit and miss testing.
The plasma component of blood.
Urine is more a reflection of a more acute problem rather than a long-term chronic problem.
Stool is a way better way to gauge the overall health of the patient.
As I mentioned, not just for Candida, but their overall health.
Because the gut health is a reflection of the overall health of the person.
Checking a few antibodies here or there, to me, is too narrow in its approach for testing.
And it can also be inaccurate.
What does all this mean?
What am I trying to tell you?
I'm trying to tell you don't waste your money on a Candida immune complex test.
I don't do it.
I used to do it.
I don't do it anymore.
It's a waste of money.
Spend your money on a comprehensive stool test.
SDSA times three.
Spend money on one really good test upfront if you've got a chronic problem, and don't
waste your money in the interim on all these tests along the way.
I gauge a patient's ability to contract a yeast infection more on their exposure to
antibiotics than anything.
So if you come to me as a patient and say to me, "Eric, I've had antibiotics in the
past or recently."
Bang, Candida.
That's what I'm going to think of right away.
That to me, along with signs and symptoms, is what I really look at carefully for the
patient in terms of my way of diagnosing and also what I'm going to do in terms of treatment.
And then if the case is chronic, I'll say, "Let's do a stool test upfront."
And then we may repeat the test in 6 or 12 months to see what's really going on.
And that's also clever because it's test and measure.
We've tested you.
We put a treatment plan into place, the Candida Crusher treatment plan, and then we measure
the response down the track to see how effective we've been.
Testing is good.
Stool test is expensive, but it's well worth it.
Especially, if you've been sick for a long time.
You can get a test done easily.
At EricBakker.com, check out the lab test at the top there.
Read that page.
Testing is not hard to do.
I've got many patients who do it.
Please keep an eye on yeastinfection.org and check out my Canxida site for a really good
product line for treating chronic yeast infections.
Thanks for tuning in.