Does CCFM do gut testing on everyone?

Dr. Amy Nett: I would say that is 99.5 percent correct. I do have some patients that have been working with other functional medicine practitioners maybe for a couple of years, and sometimes they have just done so many gut tests, including stool tests, SIBO breath tests, and they still haven’t improved with different treatments, and if I recognize that their symptoms are suggestive of something like chronic inflammatory response syndrome, which is also known as mold-related illness. It’s been really pioneered by Dr. Shoemaker. If I start recognizing symptoms of that or metal toxicity, there are a few exceptions where I will skip the gut testing, but again, in probably over 99 percent of our patients who come to CCFM, we do gut testing. That is absolutely correct. As Chris mentioned, we’ve had patients who have come, saying, “I have high cholesterol and I have young kids, so I think I need to do something about this,” and we say, “OK, let’s start with gut testing.” They sometimes look at me like I’m crazy because they say, “No, I don’t have any digestive issues. I’m completely fine. It’s just my cholesterol,” but when we find SIBO, we treat it. Again, going back to Karen’s question, chronic infections cause inflammation, they elevated LDL, they cause dyslipidemia, so we know that you have to get at these core pieces, and gut issues don’t always manifest as gut symptoms.