GUT PROGRAM
Your gut sets your energy ceiling.
It digests your food, absorbs your nutrients, and defends most of your body. We run a full stool analysis of how well you digest and absorb, the balance of your microbiome, and the inflammation in your gut lining. Then we correct what we find through food, targeted nutrients, and microbiome support, with a physician guiding every step. When it runs cleanly, you have energy and clear thinking. When it does not, the problem rarely stays in your gut. The fatigue, the brain fog, the skin and mood you blame on everything else often start here.
Available to North Carolina residents.
Two ways in
Order the test, or work it with me.
Want the read and a written plan? Order the test. Want it found, fixed, and proven with me alongside? That is what membership is for.
Get the read.
GI Effects, a la carte
$546 all in
GI Effects $399 at cost + physician fee $147
- GI Effects Comprehensive Profile: one stool sample, five readings
- Physician interpretation by Dr. Tagge
- A written protocol built against your findings
- HSA / FSA eligible
The test and your plan. No ongoing commitment.
The relationship.
The Precision Partnership
$150 / month
Labs at cost. The gut typically remodels over about twelve weeks. A re-test proves what moved.
- A comprehensive video intake, then monthly check-ins
- Direct messaging access throughout
- Testing ordered at cost as your plan evolves, no markup
- Your protocol updated as the data comes in
- However long the work takes. Some seasons run three months, some longer
The rate rises as the practice grows. You keep the rate you join at. Questions first? Start with a free Precision Call.
Prefer the lab’s own documentation? Learn more about GI Effects.
Why it matters
Why the gut comes first.
The gut is the absorptive surface for every nutrient and supplement you take, and a large share of your immune system lives in its lining. It signals your brain, your metabolism, and your skin. So when something is chronic, the gut is the foundation to read first, both to get to the root and to get your performance back. Here is how a struggling gut shows up.
- Persistent digestive symptoms (bloating, irregular stools, reflux).
- Food reactions that have crept in or expanded.
- Skin issues (eczema, rosacea, acne) that resist topical treatment.
- Mood instability, anxiety, or brain fog without obvious trigger.
- Autoimmune flares or persistent low-grade inflammation.
The stakes
Most chronic problems start here.
Your gut is the absorptive surface for every nutrient and every supplement in your plan. A large share of your immune system lives in its lining. Gut dysfunction rarely stays in the gut.
The inflammation moves into the rest of the system. The nutrients you eat stop landing the way they should. The metabolic signal that should be coming from butyrate-producing fermentation goes quiet. What shows up as fatigue, brain fog, weight resistance, or unexplained skin trouble is often the gut talking upstream.
The outcome
What changes when the source is found.
- The inflammatory load comes down. Calprotectin moves on a repeat panel.
- Digestion and absorption restore. The food and the supplements start landing.
- The butyrate-producing fermentation that drives GLP-1 and insulin sensitivity comes back online.
- Bloating, irregularity, and post-meal fog fade as the actual cause gets handled.
- Energy holds. The system stops working against you.
These are targets we measure toward, traceable to findings on your panel. Not a cure. Not a guaranteed outcome. The repeat panel is how we know it’s actually moved.
What it measures
Five readings from one sample.
The readings interact. I don’t read any one of them in isolation.
Infection
Read first. It changes everything else.
Whether a true pathogen or an opportunistic organism is present, and at what level. An active infection changes the entire plan, so I settle this question before anything else. The panel includes a sensitivity report when treatment is warranted, so the right agent is matched to what's actually there.
Inflammation
Whether the lining is irritated.
Calprotectin and secretory IgA tell us whether the gut lining is inflamed and whether your mucosal immune defense is intact or worn down. A weakened defense leaves the door open for opportunistic organisms.
The microbial community
Which species are present, which are thin.
Structure, not a scorecard. Which keystone species are present, which are missing, whether the balance has tilted toward inflammatory patterns. Read in context with the rest of the panel, not as an isolated diversity score.
What they produce
The metabolic lever the gut is supposed to be running.
Your gut bacteria ferment fiber into short-chain fatty acids, the most important being butyrate. Butyrate fuels the cells lining your colon and signals your metabolism directly. When butyrate-producing fermentation is intact, that signal reaches the receptors that release GLP-1 and improve insulin sensitivity. A gut that produces little butyrate is losing a metabolic lever, not just a digestive one.
Digestion + absorption
Whether the food is even landing.
Pancreatic elastase and fat absorption markers tell me whether your enzymes are producing enough and whether food is being absorbed properly. If digestion is adequate, I do not add enzymes you do not need. If it isn't, I know exactly where the gap is.
Why it changes care
A decision tree, not a list.
Most gut testing produces a list of organisms and a diversity score. This produces a decision tree.
An inflammatory marker that stays elevated while metabolic markers improve points away from food and toward a structural source. A microbiome that looks imbalanced but is still producing normal butyrate is a targeted problem, not a collapse, and it gets a targeted fix rather than a blunt one. When an organism does need treatment, the sensitivity report tells us which agent it will actually respond to, and treatment is only initiated when the full course can be completed.
Inside the Partnership
Remove. Restore. Rebuild. Repair.
The sequence is deliberate. Some supports are safe from day one. Others are staged until after the inflammation and any infection are cleared.
Remove
Clear what's driving the problem first. An active infection, a food trigger, a maintenance medication that's destabilizing the system. Some of the rebuild work waits until this step is done.
Restore
Restore digestion upstream of absorption. Pancreatic enzymes if elastase is low. Stomach acid support if indicated. The food you eat starts landing.
Rebuild
Rebuild the community with targeted prebiotics and probiotics. Matched to what your panel showed thin, not a blanket strain pack from the supplement aisle.
Repair
Repair the mucosal lining once the inflammatory load is down. Compounds the lining can actually use. Layered in last because most of them don't do their job while infection or inflammation is still in the picture.
The panel
A testing panel
A snapshot. Yours to keep. Includes the lab work and a physician’s interpretation. The right move when one read is the question.
The relationship
Precision Partnership
Direct access to Dr. Tagge for ongoing care. Whatever panel makes sense, whenever you need it, read in the context of the story you’re building together. The right move when one read isn’t the question.
Become a memberCommon questions
Questions worth asking first.
Where to next
The pillar
Gut and immune health
Why the gut is the source of so much chronic inflammation, and what reading it actually tells you.
Read the pillarThe panel
GI Effects
Stool-based read on infection, inflammation, the microbial community, what they produce, and digestion and absorption.
See the panelThe writing
Gut essays
Long-form writing on the microbiome, leaky gut as it is and is not, and the gut-immune-brain axis.
Read the writingRead what’s there. Treat what’s driving. Restore the system.
Start with a Precision Call.
No charge. No card. No pressure.
The Precision Health Report
The science of optimizing your biology, sourced and translated, with no hype. A weekly report from Dr. Tagge.
Get the weekly report