Heartburn Testing Near Charleston, SC

Charleston, SC is about two hours south of our Wilmington practice, but you never need to make that drive. We ship advanced heartburn testing kits to Lowcountry homes, you collect samples yourself, and visits happen by telehealth. HeartburnReliefNC is a service of Wilmington Functional Medicine, and we work with patients across the Lowcountry and coastal Carolinas.

Root-cause care for the Lowcountry

If you have been managing heartburn with daily antacids or a long-term PPI, you already know the pattern. The medication quiets the burn. The question of why it is happening never gets asked.

We ask it, and we answer it with testing. Everything we use — stool analysis, food sensitivity panels, adrenal stress testing, H. pylori panels — is collected at home and mailed to the lab. From Mount Pleasant to West Ashley, from Summerville to James Island, your care looks the same: kits to your door, results reviewed with you, a plan in plain language.

How the 3-step protocol works from Charleston

Step 1: A free discovery call

Fifteen minutes, no cost, by phone or video. You describe your symptoms and history. We tell you what we think is driving the problem and whether testing makes sense for you.

Step 2: Advanced testing at home

Your kit ships to your address with prepaid return packaging. Based on your history, testing may include the Comprehensive Stool Analysis, the Alletess 184 food sensitivity panel, an Adrenocortex Stress Profile or HU-Map, and H. pylori testing. Lab results typically return within 7 business days.

Step 3: Your personalized plan

A dedicated results review visit — video or phone — where we walk through every marker, followed by your care plan: triggers to remove, gut healing steps, and a gradual medication step-down designed with your prescribing doctor when appropriate. We never tell patients to stop medication on their own.

What we look for

Heartburn in the Lowcountry has the same drivers we see everywhere else, and each has a test that finds it:

• H. pylori infection — stool antigen and functional panels. In our clinical experience, conventional breath tests can miss strains when biofilm is present.
• Food sensitivities — the Alletess 184 panel measures IgG and IgE responses to 184 common foods. Charleston's food culture is worth keeping; the point is finding which specific foods are yours to pause, not banning the whole table.
• Low stomach acid — surprisingly common in reflux, and the opposite of what acid-suppressing medication assumes.
• Stress dysregulation — cortisol rhythm testing shows how stress hormones are affecting digestion and the lower esophageal sphincter.
• Microbiome imbalances — SIBO, dysbiosis, parasites, and digestive markers like elastase, all covered by the Comprehensive Stool Analysis.
• Hiatal hernia and EoE — mechanical and inflammatory causes that testing can flag for follow-up.

More detail lives on our stool testing page and in the GERD condition guide.

Why a Wilmington practice for Charleston patients

We are close enough to know the coast and honest about the distance. Our practice home is on Wrightsville Ave. in Wilmington — roughly two hours up US-17 — and our practitioners, Dr. Mathew Bradshaw, DC, AFMCP, and Dr. Hilary Rutledge, DC, DABCI, have helped hundreds of patients over 20-plus years of practice. Telehealth makes the geography irrelevant for day-to-day care.

The only logistics question is sample handling, and the kits are designed for it: shelf-stable collection materials, clear instructions, and prepaid overnight return packaging to the lab. Collect at home, drop it in the mail, and results come back to us — typically within 7 business days.

What happens after testing

Your results review is where the numbers turn into a plan. We walk through your microbiome markers, your immune reactions to foods, your cortisol curve, and any findings like H. pylori or low elastase. Then we set priorities: what to change first, how to heal the gut lining, and what progress should look like at each checkpoint.

Medication changes are handled carefully. If you want to reduce a PPI, we build a gradual step-down plan with your prescribing doctor, because stopping suddenly causes rebound that can feel worse than the original symptoms. For questions we hear often, see our FAQ, or start with how it works.

Wilmington Functional Medicine · 5046 Wrightsville Ave., Suite 200, Wilmington, NC 28403 · (910) 444-9438

HeartburnReliefNC is a service of Wilmington Functional Medicine.