Greetings. New Zealand naturopath, Eric Bakker, author of Candida Crusher and I’m the formulator of a range of products called Canxida. Thanks for tuning in. I got a question here today from a lady called Pauline Berry from Kent in the UK. It’s in England. Pauline is asking me if hair testing is valid for Candida diagnosis.
Pauline, that’s a really good question and it’s one I get asked from time to time if that is okay. It’s an interesting email you’re sending me here. You’ve got lots of different questions here regarding testing. Another thing that you point out is about immune testing. You’re confused about doing saliva or blood tests regarding immune response to determine Candida. That’s not a valid way to determine if you’ve got a past or a present Candida infection because there are many reasons why you can get these inappropriate antibody responses relating to Candida infection.
Hair testing is very valid when it comes to analyzing toxic metals in the body and minerals and it’s a valid science and there are many different labs around the world that are very expert in determination. A hair tissue mineral analysis is an excellent science. I’ve got a lot of friends that are really good in this particular field and learning how to read these reports, looking at the potassium/sodium ratios and the zinc/copper balances, what kind of levels of mercury a person may have in their body. But when it comes to determining a yeast infection from hair analysis, to me it’s a little bit sort of foreign and bizarre to think that you can actually determine allergic responses or the presence of microorganisms from hair testing. I mean to me it’s almost a little bit like holding one of those little pendulums over an apple to give you a “yes” or “no.” “Can I eat this food? Yes or no.” What a load of crap. What kind of science have we got involved with that? You may as well pull a Ouija board out and start walking around the room and asking if there are spirits in the room and junk like this.
This is what gives natural practitioners a bad name, I believe, in my opinion. When you’ve got these weird bizarre kinds of testing that people really actually believe in. While I have no doubt there will be valid means of testing, there are also plenty that border on the sublime to the ridiculous. I really think that hair testing to determine a yeast infection is a ridiculous notion.
The other things in your email, you’re asking specifically about Candida determination from hair testing. Remember when we’ve got a person who potentially thinks that he or she has a yeast infection, they may not have a yeast infection at all. Many people go onto blog sites or on YouTube. They’ll actually start listening or reading information and think, “Yeah, that’s what I’ve got.” Because of all the signs and symptoms they’ve got. But they may have any one of a hundred different things or even a thousand different things. So when you go to a person specifically for a Candida test determination, it’s either going to be a “yes” or “no,” and that’s not going to give you a lot of other information there. It’s junk information. It’s quite useless.
Other testing that is more valid in my opinion, which I’ve a lot of experience with and can vouch for how well it works in a clinical sense, is comprehensive stool testing, Pauline, in your situation because of the way you describe all your digestive symptoms. You’ve got like gas, bloating, constipation one minute and diarrhea the next and you’ve got headaches, fatigue, joint pain, you’ve got all these different symptoms here. And you’ve been sick for quite some time.
My recommendation is to do a comprehensive digestive stool test, including parasitology. Three stool samples concurrently on three separate days and that’s going to give you a huge amount of information. You may not have Candida. You may have a very low amount of beneficial bacteria, which is very common these days. Regardless of how many probiotics you take. You may have all kinds of other imbalances there. You could have a problem with one of your pancreatic enzymes. It may not be producing sufficiently.
Before you start running off and getting a hair test done for Candida determination, think more about a stool test to give you a broader picture and potentially shine the light in the area where it’s quite dark or murky. I’ve always been told that if you want to find something, look around the room. If you still can’t find it, put new batteries in the torch and look in all four corners of the room because most people will look in one or two corners. They don’t look around the whole room. And if you really can’t find anything, turn the flippin’ light switch on, so you can have a much better look and throw the torch away. The light switch, I think, is the stool test.
The flashlight with faulty batteries is something that you’re looking at apparently is a hair test for Candida determination. Be careful about people who claim they can diagnose Candida accurately. I’m not saying I can do that, but what I’m saying is I can show you with the stool test, we can get a much broader picture and show you potential things that are a problem and may not be Candida related at all.
That’s my take on it. I hope that answers your question, Pauline. Do I think that hair testing is valid for Candida? I think it’s a lot of bologna and I think you should avoid it. Hair testing is a valid science, but not really determination of a yeast infection.