To solve your constipation or your child’s constipation, you need to figure out what is causing constipation in the first place.  There are tests that can be run that will help you to figure out what is the root cause of chronic or functional constipation.  If you are looking information on how to figure out the root cause of your constipation, my article Finding the Root Cause of Constipation will help you to figure out some of the things to look for so you can decide which tests you need to try to get run.

X-Ray

The first test most doctors run for constipation is an X-ray.  If you are unsure if you or your child is constipated or if you are concerned about a blockage, ask your doctor to do an X-ray to see what kind of back up or blockage you are dealing with.  Often a second X-ray is done after doing a clean out to make sure that the cleanout was effective.

The first X-ray shows a constipated child and the second shows a child after being cleaned out.

There are concerns from having to many X-rays run due to radiation so I would be cautious about having multiple X-rays done for constipation.

Anorectal manometry

Anorectal manometry uses a catheter and a balloon to look at the nerves and muscles of the anus and rectum. It tests sensations and pressure in the anus and rectum. The catheter is attached to a computer that records the pressure.   Anorectal manometry tests whether children have normal sensation and are using their muscles correctly to hold and pass stool. It also helps to diagnose a condition called Hirschsprung disease and congenital megacolon.

If your child is a chronic withholder, this is a test to request because they might have muscles that contract instead of push, causing them to appear to withhold when they are not able to properly push out their stool.  This will also help determine if your child gets the sensation to push which many children with chronic constipation struggle with because they either have congenital megacolon or Hirschsprung’s Disease where the nerves didn’t travel fully down the child’s rectum during the first trimester or their colon is so stretched out from being chronically filled with stool that they lose sensation of having to go.  For more information on withholding, please read my article, Solutions to Stool Withholding in Children Without Using Miralax

Endoscopy

An endoscopy can show if you have Celiac. Celiac is known for causing diarrhea but it can also cause constipation.  Blood tests for Celiac or not always accurate so a negative blood test does not mean that you do not have Celiac, the only way to be sure if you do or not is through an endoscopy.  For more information on Celiac and constipation, please read my article Is Gluten Causing Your Constipation? or if you are concerned for your child, Is Gluten Causing Your Child’s Constipation?

Colonoscopy

A colonoscopy can determine if you or your child has Crohn’s disease or Ulcerative Colitis.  Symptoms can include constipation, diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, fever, rectal bleeding.

If you need to do a clean out for either of these procedures, please read my article How to do a Clean Out For Colonoscopy Prep or for Constipation without Miralax or How to do a Clean Out for Your Constipated Child

MRI

An MRI can show if your child has a Tethered Cord.  If your child has had constipation from birth,

• Hairy patches, dimples, fatty tumors on the lower back or lesions
• Foot deformities
• Spinal deformities
• Leg weakness
• Abnormal gait, walking on the tips of toes, wearing the tips or side of one shoe
• Low back pain
• Scoliosis
• Urinary irregularities
• Constipation

If you see these issues, then it is good to ask your doctor to look into tethered cord.

Often it is difficult to get a standard doctor or gastroenterologist to run the tests that you need run to help with constipation.  Finding an Integrative, Functional or Holistic Doctor who will help you get to the root cause of your constipation can be a big help.

If you can not find a doctor who will help you then there are other options to be able to get the labs run that you need to have run.

I have partnered with True Health Labs to offer testing to help you figure out why you, or your child, is constipated.  You can order these tests directly from True Health Labs without going through your physician.

Many of my readers contacted me expressing frustration that they would go to their doctor and ask for Celiac, Hypothyroidism or other blood or stool test, and their doctor would not be willing to order the tests for them.  This delayed, or even prevented them, from figuring out the root cause of their constipation is.

It can be difficult to convince your doctor to order these tests when you are struggling with constipation.  Many doctors are under the impression that and even if you can convince your physician to order thyroid testing, they often only order a TSH test, which does not tell you if hypothyroidism is a root cause or contributing factor in your, or your child’s constipation.

True Health Labs was created by Dr. Brady Hurst to make lab testing affordable and directly available to those who are uninsured, underinsured, whose doctor refuses to order tests and those who simply wish to make their own healthcare choices.  True Health Labs uses leading national laboratories, which are fully CLIA accredited including LabCorp and Quest.

There are over 2,000 locations across the USA and many locations internationally where you can go and get your blood drawn or other lab test run.   There are restrictions on which tests you can order if you are a resident of NY, NJ, MA or RI.

If you have questions about your lab results, True Health Labs doctors can help you understand your results.

Your lab results are confidential unless you want to share them with your health care practitioner.  True Health Labs doesn’t bill insurance but you can file with your insurance company if you would like.  When insurance is used, any abnormal results will be reported to your insurance company.  More information on insurance is available on the True Health Labs website.

Some of the tests that can help you determine the cause of your constipation are:

Complete Thyroid Panel

TrueHealthLabs.com has created the Complete Thyroid Test Panel to give you deeper insights into the complexity of your thyroid health.

Since everyone’s thyroid health is different, this comprehensive panel helps provide information to help you and your practitioner develop a customized treatment plan that works specifically for you.

The Complete Thyroid Test Panel reveals imbalances that are otherwise not tested in routine lab tests and helps better identify the root cause of thyroid dysfunction.

What’s being tested in this panel:

• TSH
• Total T4
• Total T3
• Free T4
• Free T3
• Reverse T3 (rT3)
• T3U
• Free T4 Index
• TPO and Anti-TG Antibodies (Hashimoto’s Screen, thyroid antibodies

For more information on Hypothyroidism and how it can cause constipation please read my article Constipation Caused by Less Than Optimal Thyroid Levels

Complete Celiac Disease Panel

(Click above link to be directed to this test on True Health Labs website)

This test panel is designed to screen for a potential autoimmune attack to the lining of the gut, also known as celiac disease.

What’s Being Tested:

• Endomysial Antibody IgA
• Immunoglobulin A (Total IgA)
• Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA
• Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) IgG

Gluten Sensitivity/Celiac Disease Panel

(Click above link to be directed to this test on True Health Labs website)

What’s Being Tested:

• Endomysial Antibody IgA
• Immunoglobulin A (Total IgA)
• Tissue Transglutaminase (IgG + IgA)
• HLA DQ2 + HLA DQ8 Genetic Test for Celiac Disease
• Gliadin Antibodies IgG + IgA

For more information on Celiac and Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and how they can cause constipation in you or your child, please read my articles Is Gluten Causing Your Constipation? or Is Gluten Causing Your Child’s Constipation?

DNA Stool Test for GI Tract Health

(Click above link to be directed to this test on True Health Labs website)

The GI Effects Comprehensive Stool Profile can reveal important information about the root cause of many common gastrointestinal symptoms such as gas, bloating, indigestion, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and constipation. This stool analysis utilizes biomarkers such as Calprotectin to differentiate between Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and irritable Bowel Syndrome.  In addition, Genova’s GI Effects test can be used to evaluate patients with a clinical history that suggests a gastrointestinal infection or dysbiosis.

Gut microbes are codependent with one another and with their human host, and the health of one affects the other. A sizeable volume of research associates a dysbiotic, or imbalanced gut microbiome with multiple disease states both within and outside of the GI tract. The diverse metabolic activities of the microbiome ultimately impact the human host, and the activities of the human host ultimately affect the health of their microbiome.

For more information on gut microbes and how they can cause constipation, please read my articles Most Effective Probiotics for Constipation Relief or Best Probiotics for Constipation in Children

Leaky Gut Test – Lactulose and Mannitol

(Click above link to be directed to this test on True Health Labs website)

The Leaky Gut Test (or Intestinal Permeability Test) is a noninvasive gastrointestinal test that measures small intestinal absorption and barrier function in the bowel. Malabsorption and increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut) can be associated with chronic gastrointestinal imbalances.

How Does the Leaky Gut Test Work?

The Leaky Gut Test requires you take a baseline morning urine sample (done at home). Once completed, you will be required to drink a mixture of two non-metabolized sugars, lactulose, and mannitol. After six hours, you will collect an additional sample of urine. The lab will measure how much lactulose and mannitol was excreted.

If Leaky Gut Syndrome is NOT present, the large lactulose molecules should remain in the GI tract and thus test low in the urine. If the count is high in the urine, Leaky Gut Syndrome should be considered.

Possible Causes of Leaky Gut:

• Intestinal infection
• Ingestion of allergenic foods
• Trauma
• Toxic chemicals
• NSAIDs such as aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen etc.

How Can The Leaky Gut Test Help?

The Leaky Gut Test is extremely important when beginning restorative treatment plans. As intestinal health improves, the lactulose/mannitol ratio should improve.

What’s Being Tested in this Panel?

• Creatine
• Lactulose
• Mannitol
• Total Urine Volume
• Includes: Mannitol/Lactulose Drink

For more information on leaky gut and constipation, please read my articles Restore for Constipation in Children and Healing the Gut and Healing the Gut from Chronic Constipation and Laxatives

Food Allergy Test

(Click above link to be directed to this test on True Health Labs website)

Your body attacks food as a foreign invader similar to the way it attacks bacteria and viruses. It does this to make sure the food is beneficial and not harmful. Food allergy testing is used to identify foods that the immune system over reacts to. This over-reaction produces inflammation which is known as the “silent killer” because the longer it occurs, with little or no symptoms, it can promote disease in every cell of our body. Food allergy testing can help you remove foods that promote inflammation and help you add foods that are safe to eat.

Food Allergy Test- Delayed Food Allergies

This food allergy test targets not only the triggers of immediate (IgE) allergic reactions, but also of possible sources of delayed (IgG) reactions — the so-called “hidden allergies” or difficult to recognize allergies whose effects may not show up for hours to days after exposure to an antigenic substance. Traditional skin testing for allergies only identifies IgE reactions and provides no information concerning delayed food allergies.

What To Do With the Food Allergy Results.

This particular test comes with a personal guide that helps you plan daily meals and snacks so that you can avoid the offending foods and still maintain a great diet. Most IgG food allergies need to be avoided for 6-12 months before attempting to add them back into your diet.

What’s Being Tested:

Alfalfa Almond Apple Apricot Asparagus Avocado Banana Beef Blueberry Broccoli Buckwheat Cabbage Cane Sugar Carrot Casein Celery Cheddar Cheese Chicken Chocolate Clam Cod Coffee Corn Corn Gluten Cottage Cheese Cow’s Milk Crab Cranberry Cucumber

Egg White Egg Yolk Garlic Gluten Goat’s Milk Grape Grapefruit Green (string) Bean Green Pepper Honey Kidney Bean Lactalbumin Lamb Lemon Lentil Lettuce Lima Bean Lobster Mushroom Oat Olive Onion Orange Oyster Papaya Pea Peach Peanut Pear

Pecan Pineapple Pinto Bean Plum Pork Raspberry Red Snapper Rice Rye Salmon Sardine Sesame Shrimp Sole Soy Spinach Strawberry Sunflower Seed Tomato Trout Tuna Turkey Walnut Wheat Yeast (Food) Yogurt Zucchini Potato, Sweet Potato, White Total IgE

For information on how dairy can cause constipation, please read my article Is Dairy Causing Your Constipation?

Organic Acid Test

(Click above link to be directed to this test on True Health Labs website)

Organic acids are byproducts of our metabolism. High amounts of these organic acid byproducts can cause ill-health. Knowing which metabolic processes to improve is essential to living well and reversing chronic disease.

This Organix® test also looks for metabolic byproducts of several bacteria and yeast.

What’s Being Tested:

FATTY ACID METABOLISM Adipate Suberate EthylmalonateCARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM L-Lactate* Pyruvate Beta-HydroxybutyrateENERGY PRODUCTION Citrate cis-Aconitate Fumarate Isocitrate Alpha-Ketoglutarate Succinate Malate HydroxymethylglutarateB VITAMIN MARKERS Alpha-Ketoisovalerate Beta-Hydroxyisovalerate Alpha-Ketoisocaproate Alpha-Keto-Beta-Methylvalerate XanthurenateMETHYLATION MARKERS Methylmalonate FormiminoglutamateNEUROTRANSMITTER METABOLISM Vanilmandelate Quinolinate Homvanillate 5-hydroxyindoleacetate Kynurenate Picolinate*

ANTIOXIDANT MARKERS p-Hydroxyphenyllactate 8-Hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine* DETOXIFICATON INDICATORS 2-Methylhippurate Orotate Glucarate Alpha-Hydroxybutyrate Pyroglutamate Sulfate BACTERIAL-GENERAL Benzoate Hippurate Phenylacetate Phenylpropionate p-Hydroxybenzoate p-Hydroxyphenylacetate Indican Tricarballylate L.ACIDOPHILUS (PROBIOTIC) D-Lactate* CLOSTRIDIAL SPECIES 3,4 Dihydroxyphenylpropionate YEAST/FUNGAL D-Arabinitol* Other- Creatinine

If you or your child have been on Miralax, I highly recommend taking the Organic Acid Test.  For more information on Miralax and how it impacted my son and many other children, please read my article Is Miralax Safe to Give to My Child?

Occult Blood Stool Test

(Click above link to be directed to this test on True Health Labs website)

What’s Being Tested:

• Occult Blood

A fecal occult blood test looks at a sample of your stool (feces) to check for blood. Occult blood means that you can’t see it with the naked eye. Blood in the stool means there is some kind of bleeding in the intestines. This bleeding may be caused by a variety of conditions, including:

• Polyps
• Hemorrhoids
• diverticulitis
• Ulcers
• Colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease

Blood in the stool may also be a sign of colorectal cancer, a type of cancer that starts in the colon or rectum. A fecal occult blood test is a screening test that may help find colorectal cancer early, when treatment is most effective.

Intestinal Parasites Stool Test

(Click above link to be directed to this test on True Health Labs website)

Parasite infections do no just cause gastrointestinal symptoms, an increasing number of parasite cases have full-body complaints that are not traditionally associated with parasites, such as:

• Urticaria
• Reactive arthritis
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Asthma
• Constipation in individuals who are immune-compromised or whose intestinal flora is chronically imbalanced

Genova’s Comprehensive Parasitology test uses the most advanced procedures to identify a wide range of protozoal parasites, including amoebae, flagellates, ciliates, and microsporidia. Samples are carefully analyzed by highly trained technicians using computer-enhanced microscopy, new staining procedures, and advanced immunoassay techniques.

What’s Being Tested:

Yeast Culture Stool Test

(Click above link to be directed to this test on True Health Labs website)

What’s Being Tested:

• Yeast Culture (stool)

Find out if an overgrowth of yeast is contributing to your issues with yeast infections, gas, bloating, digestion, constipation, diarrhea, IBS and more. Overgrowth of harmful yeast and fungi in the gastrointestinal tract can occur due to frequent antibiotic use, auto-immune conditions, oral-contraceptives, and diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates just to name a few.

Have a new FSA or HSA account? Both can be used for any True Health Labs lab test.

“I probably would have never known the underlying cause of my illness without the testing done by True Health Labs.” Barbara L.

“Dr. Hurst was extremely patient and thorough in reviewing my lab results over the phone with me.” Maureen B.

“You have been very responsive to my e-mail questions.” Samantha T.

“I am truly impressed with the services you offer!” Nathan A.

“Thank you SO much for all your help!! I am very impressed with your above and beyond customer service. Many companies would have just told us to figure it out ourselves. I worked for many years in customer service, and for an online company, I am truly surprised. We will definitely do all our noninsured lab work through you because you have gone the extra mile for us.” Jo-Anne G.

I would like to invite you to join my Facebook groups People Against Miralax or Natural Constipation Solutions for more information on how to treat constipation and for support on your journey.

Disclaimers

This post contains Affiliate links

*DISCLAIMER, I AM NOT A DOCTOR OR MEDICAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. ALL IDEAS DISCUSSED AND DESCRIBED IN THIS POST ARE MY OWN AND ARE NOT MEANT TO TREAT OR DIAGNOSE. IF YOU HAVE A MEDICAL CONDITION PLEASE SPEAK WITH YOUR DOCTOR.