I also did a Doctor’s Data stool test which showed that she had yeast overgrowth. I advised the antifungal protocol and the mother recently sent photos to say that the daughter is doing very well. The mom also asked whether she could or should take maintenance pro- and prebiotics. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Dr. Amy Nett: I’m a little perplexed as to why they did the stool testing if they don’t want to treat the yeast overgrowth, so that’s a little bit tricky and it might be worth having a discussion. I think she can definitely safely take probiotics. Prebiotics, yeah, I would have her take prebiotics also. Because presumably, those are going to have some preferential improvement on the GI bacteria rather than, you know, really feeding the yeast specifically. So potentially, by doing something like, you know, do the PHGG, maybe that partially hydrolyzed guar gum, because that’s been associated with increased levels of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus, so maybe by improving the beneficial bacteria in the colon, maybe that’ll help with the balance and sort of naturally decrease the yeast overgrowth. So sometimes it is a little bit tricky when you do testing and you see something to treat and then patients say, “No thanks. I don’t really want to treat that.”