Candida Test UK

Our Candida test and treatment programme is designed to identify and target Candida Albicans: a specific strain of the yeast family known as Candida.

The first key step in treating Candida is to find out whether you actually have Candida. There are a wide range of conditions linked to Candida overgrowth, and having the symptoms isn’t enough evidence to diagnose you with it. You need to take a specific test that detects the organism.

Our Candida Test forms part of our microbiome gut testing range. We all have small amounts of Candida Albicans in our bodies. It is in the skin, genitals and particularly the digestive tract and does not cause a problem at all at small volumes. However, if the yeast grows excessively (a yeast overgrowth) problems begin. When Candida Albicans overgrows in your gastrointestinal tract, it can affect the way your body absorbs nutrients, resulting in the symptoms in the panel to the right.

Immune conditions like diabetes, or drugs like steroids, antibiotics or oral contraceptives can all trigger Candida overgrowth, in addition to lifestyle choices like smoking or eating too much sugar. Many IBS patients also have an underlying Candida Albicans yeast or fungal overgrowth, and food intolerances often come hand-in-hand with an overgrowth of Candida Albicans.

Primary symptoms of Candida

Thrush – bladder and urinary tract infections
Digestive issues – bloating, constipation, or diarrhoea
Fatigue, brain fog – concentration lapses, ringing in the ears
Muscle joints and aches
Cravings for sugar, bread, marmite or balsamic vinegar
Thinning hair
Vaginal infections in women
Jock-itch in men
Athletes foot in women and men

If you are experiencing some of these symptoms and want to book a home test, we recommend the Organic Acids test from Genova Diagnostics.

You can order this test directly from us.

What Are The Best Types of Candida Test?

Because several other conditions can in effect mimic Candida Albicans, you need to be 100% sure which condition you have.

Candida Test UK

Comprehensive Stool Tests

Stool tests can identify Candida overgrowth (and much more besides) as long as Candida is present in the large intestine. In fact, for intestinal Candida, the only reliable test is a stool test.

A culture is prepared from the sample which shows the species (i.e. Candida), strain (subspecies, i.e. Albicans) and cell count (amount present). Based on this, a trained nutritional therapist can recommend the best antifungal therapy.

However, if your stool test doesn’t show a Candida overgrowth in your large intestine, remember that you may still have one elsewhere in your body. A comprehensive stool test is still a good idea, because it reveals a lot of other useful information about your gut, like levels of beneficial flora and potentially harmful ‘bad bacteria’. Interestingly, certain types of bacteria are often found alongside Candida overgrowth [source]. Stool tests can also reveal parasites, viruses or bacteria that can give Candida-like symptoms.

Lastly, if you test positive for intestinal candida, we can use the stool test to highlight the best supplements for you to take to eliminate the specific strain of yeast or bacteria you have.

Not sure if this is the right test for you?

Candida Spit Test

A Candida spit test is an unreliable and inaccurate way to look for evidence of Candida in your saliva. We’re not sure where the Candida spit test came from, but because it’s free, easy and quick, it’s become popular.

The test is simple to carry out. As soon as you wake up, fill a glass with bottled water. Don’t use tap water because it contains impurities that might skew the results. Before brushing your teeth or eating or drinking anything, spit into the water. Over the next hour, check it every twenty minutes to look for signs Candida may be present in your saliva. These can include strings of saliva coming from the surface, a cloudy substance resting at the bottom of the glass, or specks of saliva dotted throughout the water.

The spit test is unreliable and unscientific, with no research to back it up. If you have stringy, cloudy spit, that simply means that you have mucus in your saliva. Mucus can be evidence of an infection, but not always, and it’s certainly not specific to fungal infections. Early in the morning, your mucus is thicker because you’re slightly dehydrated after a night’s sleep, so a Candida saliva test is likely to give you a false positive result.

Dr Crook’s Candida Questionnaire

When we take your health history, if we suspect you have Candida overgrowth we base our line of enquiry on Dr. Crook’s Candida Questionnaire. This is far more useful than a spit test.

Below is a key part of the questionnaire. Basically, the more antibiotics and/or specific other drugs you have taken over the course of your life, the more likely it is that you’ll have a Candida overgrowth:

Have you taken tetracyclines (Sumycin, Panmycin, Vibramycin, Minocin, etc)?
Have you taken any other antibiotics for acne for one month or longer?
Have you, at any time in your life, taken other ‘broad spectrum’ antibiotics for respiratory, urinary, or other infections (for two months or longer, or in shorter courses four or more times in a one year period)?
Have you taken a broad spectrum antibiotic drug?
Have you, at any time in your life, been bothered by persistent prostatitis, vaginitis or other problems affecting your reproductive organs?
Have you been pregnant?
Have you taken birth control pills?
Have you taken prednisone, Decadron or other cortisone-type drugs for more than two weeks?

Organic Acid Urine Tests

This is a very sensitive but simple urine-based test for Candida. It provides evidence of Candida via elevated organic acid yeast markers (such as arabinose). A urine test does not show exactly where the candida is in your GI tract, but if you take a stool test too, and this is negative, we could deduce that the Candida was most probably in your small intestine.

IgG Antibody Candida Blood Tests

Blood tests identify antibodies which show an immune response to Candida. A positive result shows an invasive Candida infection that has gone beyond your gut. This test is included in a comprehensive IgG food sensitivity test panel or via an expanded Candida Test. The results can help you detect an ongoing Candida infection and treat it as early as possible.

If your IgG levels are elevated, this might indicate a past or ongoing Candida infection. If your IgM levels are elevated your infection is ongoing. However, if your IgM levels are not elevated and your IgG levels are, your candida infection is not ongoing.

If the IgA levels are elevated, then, your candida infection is superficial.

Ordering a test for Candida Albicans

Candida Tests at Home

There are many different ways to test for Candida overgrowth.

At IBS Clinics, we provide three options:

A Comprehensive Stool Test, which gives an in-depth picture of your gut health and identifies levels of Candida in your large intestine.
The Organic Acids Test, which shows levels of Candida ‘metabolites’ (byproducts) in your urine.
The Antibody Candida Blood Test (as part of the York Premium Food Intolerance Test), which shows how your immune system is reacting—or has reacted in the past—to Candida in your body.

If you want to take a Candida Test at home, we recommend that you do a Comprehensive Stool Test alongside either the Organic Acids Test or the Antibody Candida Blood Test.

The Comprehensive Stool Test gives an all-round picture of the health of your gut. This is important because the symptoms of Candida overgrowth are also the symptoms of many other conditions. Because the Comprehensive Stool Test reveals parasite infections, potentially pathogenic bacteria and microbial imbalances too—which can also produce the symptoms of Candida overgrowth—it’s a powerful tool.

Doing one of the other tests alongside the Comprehensive Stool Test helps us to create the strongest treatment plan. Because there’s no one test that can definitively diagnose you with Candida overgrowth, clinicians use a variety of tests together with evidence from your health and symptom history to determine whether you have Candida overgrowth and how best to treat it.

However, one test will still reveal useful information about your symptoms and form a sound basis for a treatment plan.

While it’s up to you to choose which Candida Test to take, we can help you decide on the best one for you. Contact us on info@ibsclinics.co.uk for support.

Each one of our tests is different, so you’ll need to read the instructions that come with the kit for specific details, but the general process is:

Order your test from our shop (or contact us if you need help choosing the right test).
Follow the test instructions.
Return the test (the test provider will tell you how in the instructions).
Wait for the results. Some results are shipped overseas, so wait times vary.
If you’d like a consultation with us to take you through the results, book one in advance.

Resolving C Albicans

We recommend a variety of supplements to assist your body in controlling Candida Albicans. These include probiotics and nutrient compounds that increase your natural immune defences by raising SIgA. They also work to secure the integrity of your gut lining.

In some cases we will work in alignment with a GP who may have prescribed antifungal drugs. You can also buy antifungals over the counter at pharmacies to treat thrush.

We also recommend supplements to reduce the yeast and large doses of probiotics or ‘friendly bacteria’ to help to crowd it out. If your Candida is obstinate or longstanding, we may also suggest biofilm disruptor supplements as your Candida may have built biofilms (a kind of wall around itself) to evade your immune system.

We may also ask you to eliminate sugar, cakes and biscuits from your diet. You should also minimise foods containing yeast, like bread and pizza, and drinks like beer and wine.

This IBS Clinics phased approach takes 8-12 weeks. It’s effective in the long term because it builds your immune system in the background while actively fighting the Candida. We aim to make this the only anti-Candida treatment you will ever need.

Candida Test NHS

As far as we’re aware, the NHS doesn’t carry out Candida stool analysis in the UK. If your doctor suspects that you have a Candida infection (candidiasis) in your mouth, anus, skin, or anywhere where it’s visible, they usually diagnose it by sight and will probably give you a prescription for an antifungal agent, like Nystatin or Fluconazole.

Many doctors and specialists insist that because Candida is ‘normal’ (it’s not a pathogenic microbe), it doesn’t cause any problems, unless it escapes from the gut and invades other parts of your body. This is called ‘systemic candidiasis’, and usually only happens if someone has AIDS or a compromised immune system.

But research has found that antibiotics can cause Candida overgrowth in your gut, even if you’re healthy. In fact, studies carried out as far back as the 1980s have shown that by killing off the bacteria that would usually keep Candida ‘in check’, certain antibiotics allow it to run riot [Source].

Recent research has revealed that all kinds of people can get Candida infections, and people on steroids, very young or very elderly patients, diabetics, or people with chronic alcoholism, malnutrition, or any chronic debilitating disease are more likely to suffer from them [Source].

The reality is that there is no perfect test for Candida overgrowth. That’s because it’s not a pathogen: The amount present, and the general context of your gut makes it a friend or a foe. However, a Comprehensive Stool Test will reveal the level of Candida in your gut, along with information on the rest of your gut environment. It will also reveal levels of potentially pathogenic bacteria, parasites, other types of fungus and various markers of digestive and immune function.

Candida Test Kits

There are many testing companies in the UK that will send you a home test kit for Candida. You can choose from stool, blood or saliva tests.

Candida blood tests

Candida blood tests detect the antibodies in your blood that your body makes to create your immunity to Candida. The test recognises when levels of these antibodies are higher than normal, reflecting high levels of Candida. Some tests also recognise that your antibody levels have been high in the past. They may or may not show whether you have an additional, current overgrowth too.

Our Antibody Candida Blood Test (as part of the York Premium Food Intolerance Test) detects both current and historical Candida overgrowths.

Candida urine tests

Some health practitioners like to test urine for evidence of Candida overgrowth. Candida urine tests look at the waste products that your gut microbes (bacteria and yeasts) release into your body. Practitioners can then link levels of those substances—known as ‘metabolites’—to your symptoms.

We use the Organic Acids Test to look for evidence of Candida overgrowth in urine.

Candida saliva tests

A Candida saliva test done in a lab is very different to the one you do at home by spitting in a glass of water.

If your doctor suspects you have a Candida infection in your mouth (known as oral candidiasis or oral thrush), they may send a sample of your saliva to a lab to be analysed. However, most doctors will diagnose oral thrush by looking for the signs on your mouth and tongue.

How To Order The Best Test for Candida?

At IBS Clinics we offer all three types of at home Candida Test. If you need help choosing the right one for you, contact us on info@ibsclinics.co.uk.

Or read more about Candida Albicans here.

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