Heartburn Testing in Leland, NC

Leland, NC residents get the same root-cause heartburn care as our Wilmington patients — without crossing the Cape Fear River. We mail advanced lab kits to your door, you collect samples at home, and your visits happen by telehealth. HeartburnReliefNC is a service of Wilmington Functional Medicine, and distance is not a barrier anywhere in Brunswick County.

Heartburn testing built for Brunswick County

Leland has grown fast, and healthcare options have not always kept up. When you have had heartburn for months, the usual run is a primary care visit, an antacid prescription, maybe a referral — and another drive across the bridge. Then the same conversation again.

We do the opposite. The part of care that actually produces answers is the lab testing, and every test we use is collected at home and mailed to the lab. There is no clinic queue on the other side of the river for you to sit in. You get the same testing we would run if you lived next door to our Wrightsville Ave. office.

How the 3-step protocol works from Leland

Step 1: A free discovery call

Fifteen minutes by phone or video, at no cost. You tell us your story — symptoms, medications, what you have tried. We tell you whether we can help and what testing would look like for you.

Step 2: Advanced testing at home

Your kit ships to your door. Depending on what your history points to, that may be a Comprehensive Stool Analysis, the Alletess 184 food sensitivity panel, an adrenal stress profile, or H. pylori testing. You collect the samples at home, mail them back in the prepaid packaging, and results typically come to us within 7 business days.

Step 3: Your personalized plan

A dedicated results review by video or phone, then a plan built around your numbers: which triggers to remove, how to heal the gut, and — when appropriate — a gradual medication step-down designed with your prescribing doctor. We never tell patients to stop medication on their own.

What we test and why it matters

Heartburn is a symptom. Underneath it, we usually find one or more specific drivers, and each one has a test that finds it:

• Comprehensive Stool Analysis — bacterial overgrowth, H. pylori, parasites, and digestive markers like elastase and calprotectin. A gut microbiome analysis, not a one-pathogen screen.
• Alletess 184 Food Sensitivity Panel — IgG and IgE immune responses to 184 common foods. Hidden sensitivities are frequent reflux drivers in our practice. This is not a standard allergy test.
• Adrenocortex Stress Profile / HU-Map — cortisol rhythms and stress hormones that shape gut motility, acid production, and lower esophageal sphincter tone.
• H. pylori testing — stool antigen and functional panels. In our clinical experience, conventional breath tests can miss strains when biofilm is present.

We look for the same root causes we see everywhere in coastal North Carolina: low stomach acid (hypochlorhydria), food sensitivities, adrenal stress dysregulation, SIBO and dysbiosis, eosinophilic esophagitis, and mechanical issues like hiatal hernia. The Comprehensive Stool Analysis page goes deeper on the most common test.

Why Leland patients choose telehealth

Between US-74/76 traffic at the bridges and everyday life in a growing town — school runs, commutes into Wilmington, jobs at home — an appointment across the river costs half a day. Telehealth removes that cost entirely. Your discovery call, your results review, and your follow-ups happen from your kitchen table.

What you do not lose is the personal part. You work directly with our practitioners — Dr. Mathew Bradshaw, DC, AFMCP, and Dr. Hilary Rutledge, DC, DABCI — who have more than 20 years of practice between them and have helped hundreds of patients. Your results review is a real conversation about your numbers, not a printout in an envelope.

Care anywhere in North Carolina

If you have family elsewhere in the Carolinas or the Triangle, the same model works for them too. Telehealth is available anywhere in North Carolina, and kits can be shipped to any NC address. Our remote testing page covers how mail-in testing works statewide, and our GERD guide explains the mechanism behind reflux.

New to functional medicine and wondering what the whole process looks like? Start at how it works or check the frequently asked questions.

What to expect on the other side of testing

Most people come to us frustrated. They have been told their scope was fine, or that their heartburn is just something to manage. What they want is an explanation. Testing gives us one: the specific infection, the specific foods, the specific stress pattern or digestive weakness behind their symptoms.

From there we build a care plan in plain language — what to change first, how long healing takes, and what milestones tell us it is working. If a medication step-down is part of your goals, we coordinate it gradually with your prescribing doctor so the transition is steady instead of sudden.

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

HeartburnReliefNC is a service of Wilmington Functional Medicine.