Candida, Yeast Infection Blog 4U

Do you have candida?  That is always the question. Yes, you may have the symptoms, but do you actually have the condition.  Some of us are willing to get going on killing the candida without having any emperical data; but, it is always good to know if you have candida, how bad the condition is to start with, and where you end up. 

There are a couple of different tests that can be done.

1.  There is always a saliva test for candida.  Doctors are coming to realize more and more that saliva tests are a very accurate representation of what is going on in the body at that particular point in time.  Hormone tests for women are done with saliva and are very accurate.  There is also a saliva test for candida that can be done at home.  This test can be done through the candida cleanse and will usually indicate your progress.  The results for this test may actually be worse than when you started for the first 6-8 weeks, because it indicates active yeast in the system. As you start to kill the candida with a cleanse the candida will become more active as it is exiting the body, so the test will look worse. the saliva test actually correlates quite well with blood tests.

Here is how to do a saliva test for candida:

When you awake in the morning, before you put anything into your mouth, work up some saliva and spit it into a clear glass of water.  You may want to spit in the glass 3 or 4 times, just make sure you have enough saliva in the glass to cover the surface of the water.  You want to observe the reaction of the saliva in the glass about every few minutes for up to 30 minutes. If there are strings coming down from your saliva, if the water turned cloudy, or if your saliva sank to the bottom, you probably have candida You may want to put out a glass of water in the bathroom or on the nightstand the night before you wish to do the test just to remind yourself not to brush your teeth prior to spitting into the glass.

(Yes, we have seen people test negative for yeast with this test.  If you do NOT have a yeast concern, your saliva should stay at the top of the glass and will eventually dissipate.)

2.  Live Blood Analysis: If you can find a naturopathic doctor in your area that does live blood analysis, this is also a good option.  In Live blood Analysis, the doctor will take a sample of your blood and analyze it under a microscope.  The doctor should be able to see candida in the blood sample if your candida is leaking into your blood stream from the digestive tract.  You may also be able to see parasites, anemic conditions and other issues with the blood.  The only weakness with this is it will not indicate candida that is not in the blood stream.  If your candida issue is confined to the digestive system; the live blood analysis may not pick it up.

3. The last test must be performed by a diagnostic lab and will need to be ordered by a physician.  This blood test is a Candida Antibodies and Antigen panel.  It will pick up the current levels of candida in your body and may also give an indication of past infections.  What is nice about this test is that it will let you know what your actual levels of candida are.  This can give you an idea of how bad the issue is and how far you have to go to get well.  You can also repeat this test through the cleansing process and will know for certain when you are down to non-reactive levels of candida.  The Candida Antibodies and antigen Panel will measure IgG, IgA, and IgM and Candida Antigen levels in the blood.  If the Candida Antigen measure is over 592, you have a substantial candida concern.  Any measure under 300 is considered a negligible candida problem. US Biotek Laboratories, Inc can perform this test for you.  Their website address is: www.usbiotek.com, phone number is: 1-877-318-8728.

The test you choose is very dependent on your personal circumstances. Very rarely are any of these test covered by insurance.  I have listed the tests in order from the least expensive to the most expensive.

Hope this is helpful for you!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 1:47 am and is filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.