Gut Health Testing in Greenville, SC
Gut Health Testing at IHP Greenville. Dr. Hendry, DAOM — functional medicine, root-cause diagnostics, personalized care. Call (864) 365-6156.
"Dr. Hendry has been working with me to heal my GI tract. 100% improvement in how I feel, taking 1/4 of my blood pressure meds, and am no longer taking cholesterol meds."
— Karen Hill · January 2025 · Google Review
H. pylori infects approximately half the world's population and is associated with GERD, gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, iron deficiency anemia, and elevated stomach cancer risk — yet it is not included in a standard annual physical workup. A colonoscopy would not detect it. The GI-MAP PCR stool panel I use detects H. pylori with antibiotic resistance markers, identifies parasites, quantifies fungal overgrowth, maps microbial diversity, measures calprotectin for intestinal inflammation, and measures zonulin for barrier integrity. This is the investigation that explains what structural imaging cannot see: the functional and microbial environment where most GI-related chronic disease actually originates.
How Gut Health Testing Works
Gut health testing at IHP uses comprehensive stool analysis (GI-MAP or similar PCR-based panel) measuring: gut microbiome diversity and dysbiosis markers, commensal bacteria levels, pathogen screening (H. pylori, parasites, fungi, bacteria), digestive enzyme markers (elastase, fat), intestinal inflammation markers (calprotectin, lysozyme), and intestinal permeability markers (zonulin, anti-gliadin IgA). Results guide a targeted gut restoration protocol.
Conditions Treated with Gut Health Testing
Comprehensive GI-MAP Testing vs. Standard Colonoscopy
A conventional gastroenterology workup typically leads to colonoscopy — a structural examination that identifies polyps, cancer, inflammation, and anatomical abnormalities. A colonoscopy cannot assess microbiome composition, pathogenic organisms (H. pylori, parasites, fungal overgrowth), digestive enzyme sufficiency, intestinal inflammation markers, or gut barrier integrity. A patient with IBS, fatigue, brain fog, and food reactions may have a structurally normal colonoscopy and be told everything looks fine. The GI-MAP stool test used at IHP measures all of these functional parameters using PCR-based detection. It identifies H. pylori with antibiotic resistance markers, parasites, fungal overgrowth, bacterial dysbiosis patterns, calprotectin (intestinal inflammation), and zonulin (leaky gut). This is not a replacement for colonoscopy when structural disease is suspected — it is a complementary investigation that reveals the functional and microbial environment that structural imaging cannot see. Most IBS, food reactivity, and systemic gut-driven conditions are functional, not structural, and require functional testing to investigate properly.
Research & Evidence
The gut microbiome's role in systemic health is one of the most rapidly advancing areas of medicine. Sonnenburg and Bäckhed (2016) in Nature documented how microbiome composition influences immune function, metabolism, and neurological health through multiple mechanisms including short-chain fatty acid production and vagal nerve signaling. Research on intestinal permeability (Fasano, 2012, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences) established the leaky gut model's role in autoimmune disease, demonstrating that intestinal barrier dysfunction precedes and contributes to autoimmune activation.
Your First Appointment
No special preparation required for stool testing — samples are collected at home. Dr. Hendry provides the test kit and instructions at your consultation. Results are available in approximately 10–14 business days.
Why Dr. Hendry for Gut Health Testing
Dr. Hendry's functional medicine training in the gut-brain-immune axis and the microbiome gives him the clinical expertise to interpret comprehensive gut health panels and implement evidence-based gut restoration protocols.