A word from Dr. Richard S. Lord, PhD: of Metametrix

Richard S. Lord, PhD, director of the Department of Science and Education at Metametrix Clinical Laboratory, has helpfully posted a reply to the post on his 'GIfx' presentation video posted in this blog recently. At the moment (until someone investigates), it seems likely gut dysbiosis may be a factor (or the factor) in some metabolic body odor cases, especially the fecal/gas/sewage/garbage/rotten egg/etc type that seems the most common type. Metametrix specialise in gut dysbiosis testing, and other metabolic types of testing. Thank you from the community Dr Lord, for taking the time to post.

Metametrix GIfx test will likely give society the best definition of 'dysbiosis(es)' yet, and the most up-to-date understanding of gut ecology so far, although the test has not been available that long, so it is very early days. They detect the state of the gut ecology using DNA detection of microbes in stool samples. This will likely become the standard way to test stool samples for microbiota evaluation. The old fashioned way, still probably commonly used, meant having to 'culture' microbes from stool samples in the lab. The advantages of DNA testing are explained on the GIfx site

Having noticed this new posting of the presentation, I can add that a publication is now being prepared to report our finding of distinct groupings of predominant genera among the patient stool specimens that have been examined. Specific genera tend to appear at high levels as one of three clusters. When any one of the clusters dominates the fecal bacteria population, higher incidences of opportunistic bacteria are found. This finding represents another step in the unfolding story of what specific patterns constitute states of dysbiosis.

From routine clinical evaluations of patients, we are amassing a very large database of results using the DNA-based methods to analyze stool specimens. Doctors who use the testing are learning how to evaluate the significance of each abnormality (such as the presence of a parasite of pathogen) in relation to the total picture, including the balance of predominant anaerobic bacteria.
This is an exciting time for scientist and clinicians who have long sought to understand how the billions of microbes that live within us contribute to human health and disease. Stay tuned as the story continues to unfold.

Richard Lord