There is usually a reason your gut feels this way, even when a colonoscopy comes back clean. We help you find it so you can feel great again.
If you recognized yourself in even a few of these, you are in the right place. These symptoms are common, they are real, and they are worth investigating.
A colonoscopy checks the structure of your gut. IBS is what doctors call a functional disorder, meaning the problem is in how the gut works: how it moves, digests, and signals. A scope cannot see any of that. So you can feel awful, get perfect results, and both are real. The workup was not wrong. It was looking in the wrong place.
The second piece is the gut-brain loop. Your gut and your nervous system talk constantly, in both directions. Stress throws off digestion, and a struggling gut feeds anxiety right back. Treat only one side and the other keeps dragging you down. We work on both.
Digestion does not start in the stomach. It starts in the mouth, with chewing and a calm, unhurried state. Most of us, myself included, are guilty of eating between tasks or rushing a meal in front of a screen. From there, the stomach churns food and bathes it in acid, enzymes from the pancreas break it down further, and a vast intestinal lining absorbs the nutrients. When any part of that chain is off, you feel it as bloating, gas, discomfort, and changing bowel habits.
GI symptoms are almost never caused by one single thing. Stress, food reactions, an imbalanced microbiome, past infections, low digestive capacity, and impaired movement all layer on top of each other. That is why a one-size answer rarely works, and why we look at the whole picture.
A few common root causes we look for:
An imbalanced gut community (dysbiosis). The bacteria and organisms in your gut affect digestion, immunity, mood, and inflammation. When that balance tips, symptoms follow.
Bacteria in the wrong place (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO). Sometimes bacteria that belong in the large intestine drift up into the small intestine and start fermenting food too early, which drives bloating, gas, and irregular bowels. We identify it with a simple breath test.
Food reactions. Allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances are three different things. Sensitivities in particular can be subtle and delayed, showing up hours or days later, which makes them hard to spot on your own. Triggers are also deeply personal, shaped by your genetics and your microbiome.
Reflux, known medically as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), is more than simply too much acid. In some people it is actually the opposite problem: too little stomach acid, which slows digestion and lets pressure build in the stomach until acid gets pushed up where it does not belong. Reflux also involves the tone of the valve between your stomach and esophagus, how often that valve relaxes when it should not, how quickly the stomach empties, and inflammation in the esophagus itself. That is why a single acid-blocking pill does not always solve it.
Here is the part most people are never told. A scope can look completely normal in a large share of people who genuinely have reflux, and how bad the heartburn feels does not reliably match how much damage a scope can see. So a clean endoscopy is good news, and it does not mean nothing is going on. A broader, root-cause look at motility, food triggers, and the gut-brain connection can add real value.
A structured, sequenced framework used across IBS, SIBO, and reflux, rather than simply escalating a medication dose when symptoms persist.
In practice, each step is personalized. Removing means identified trigger foods, confirmed overgrowths or infections, and irritants like alcohol and certain over-the-counter pain relievers. Replacing means digestive enzymes and, when clinically appropriate, targeted acid or bile support. Re-inoculating means the right probiotics and prebiotics for your results. Repairing means specific nutrients for the gut lining, chosen and dosed by your physician. Re-balancing means sleep, stress, movement, and the nervous-system side of the gut-brain connection.
Root-cause gut care is not one test or one diet. It is a thorough look at the whole person, then a plan built around what we actually find.
Childhood history, antibiotic exposure, stress, sleep, and diet all shape your gut today. We take the time to hear the whole story, and a careful exam adds clues.
Foundational labs come first: blood count, metabolic panel, inflammatory markers, and celiac testing. When warranted, we go deeper: GI-MAP or GI Effects stool analysis, SIBO breath testing, and markers like calprotectin and pancreatic elastase.
An easy at-home transit check shows whether food is moving through you too slowly or too quickly. Concrete information, no equipment needed.
Your plan is personal: a targeted food strategy, digestion and microbiome support, stress and sleep work, and easy tracking so we can adjust as you improve.
Imagine sitting down to a meal without running the math on how your stomach will react. Leading the meeting, taking the trip, saying yes to dinner with friends, without your gut writing the schedule. That is the goal: real answers, a clear plan, and the freedom that comes with finally understanding your own body.
Start with a free Meet & GreetA plain-English guide to gut health, common symptoms, and how a thorough, root-cause evaluation actually works. A good place to start before your Meet and Greet.
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Download the guide (PDF)Structural tests look for visible damage or disease. They do not evaluate how well the gut is actually functioning, including digestion, movement, microbial balance, and gut-brain signaling, which is frequently where the real problem lives. A clean scope is good news, and it also means the answer is somewhere a scope cannot see.
An allergy is a fast, immune-driven reaction that can be dangerous. A sensitivity is a delayed, lower-grade reaction tied to gut health that can cause a wide range of symptoms. An intolerance means the body lacks an enzyme or reacts to a specific compound, like lactose, rather than mounting an immune response. Each is identified and handled differently.
SIBO stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. It happens when bacteria that belong lower in the gut move up into the small intestine and ferment food too early, causing bloating and gas. We evaluate it with a simple at-home breath test that measures the gases those bacteria produce.
No. A low-FODMAP diet removes certain carbohydrates that ferment in the gut (FODMAP is the medical shorthand for them). It is a diagnostic tool used for a limited period, then foods are reintroduced one at a time to find your real, individual triggers. The goal is the least restrictive diet that still keeps you feeling well, not permanent restriction.
Sometimes, but never abruptly and never without your physician. Long-term acid-blocking medication has real benefits and some possible downsides worth discussing, and certain conditions like Barrett's esophagus mean staying on it is the right call. Any change should be a gradual, supervised taper worked out together.
It looks at the balance of gut bacteria and yeast, digestive enzyme function, inflammation markers, and signs of gut-lining permeability. Those are things a standard blood panel does not assess, and they often explain symptoms a routine workup cannot.
No. Thrive is a cash-pay practice, which lets Dr. Mohammadi spend real time getting to the root of your symptoms instead of a rushed visit. You always know the cost before you book. Some patients use health savings account (HSA) or flexible spending account (FSA) funds, and specialty labs are billed separately by the lab.
Care is fully virtual by secure video for patients located anywhere in Arizona or Indiana. To begin, book a free 15-minute Meet and Greet, a relaxed conversation to see if we are the right fit.
Start with a free 15-minute Meet and Greet. Tell us what you are dealing with, and we will show you what a real root-cause plan could look like.
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