Robert Whitfield MD describes the SHARP program, which uses genetic testing to measure detoxification capacity and functional tests for gut health, inflammation, and hormone balance. The approach identifies inherited limits on how much toxins your body can process before triggering chronic inflammation, then addresses issues before surgery rather than after.
So our program, Sharp, which I wrote a book about, really looks at your genetics, because each of us inherits a certain set of genes from our parents, and those allow us to detoxify. If our detoxification ability is exceeded or the bucket becomes too full and spills over, you get chronic inflammation symptoms. And that's what we see. We do gut testing to look for things like sibo to look for bacterial. I'm sorry, fungal overgrowth, parasitic overgrowth. We look at metabolism testing because we're trying to get better ideas about how their body's coping with inflammation. And those are not really, in our experience, found on the traditional CRP incent rate. So we're looking at different chemical reactions. And then, of course, we're looking at hormone balance. I have a lot of patients that come in with thyroid problems, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone imbalance. And that makes them feel, um, you know, even at an early age, like they're going through menopause. They have maybe decreased energy levels or decreased libido just because everything is so off.
So basically, my understanding is that you're not only the surgeon, but you're looking holistically at the person's whole system.
We have a whole team that runs that part of the program that's, you know, that's really a functional program to help people recover. But we don't try to do it after surgery. We're trying to work on it on the front end before you ever have.
