Dr. Robert Whitfield (MD) explains why stool testing and food-sensitivity testing remain central to assessing gut health, and argues that emerging metabolomics and expanded genetic testing offer a way to detect cellular-level abnormalities that standard blood tests miss. He names specific metabolites (glutathione, palmitic acid, spermidine, GABA) as examples that may help characterize inflammation and cellular status.
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That combined with. We look at stool testing because a lot of gut health issues are intimately associated with this food sensitivities. I look at all those tests, plus we have some new things coming that look at metabolomics. Metabolomics is probably the thing that will help us get beyond the testing that so many people come to me and say, oh, Dr. Whitfield, all my blood work's normal. Right? I've heard. I hear this all the time. And they just come with reams of paper or blood work. Those tests, Alex, haven't changed since I've been alive and I'll be 55 next week. So it's not one of those things where as especially we're actually helping. So when we look at metabolomics and these new things that are coming, like more genetic testing now, you can start to pull back, you know, the curtain, if you will, to understand what's going on at a cellular level. Looking at how glutathione levels are in the body, palmitic acid, spermidine, gaba, all these things will become important in establishing your inflammation.
