GI-MAP Results Arrived at Exactly the Right Time

What Mookie’s illness, a missing gut bacterium, and a low immune marker taught me about health optimization.

A few weeks ago, I ordered a GI-MAP, not because I was sick or had symptoms, but because I check my gut once a year for optimization. The results usually take about 2-3 weeks to come back and in the time I was waiting for my results, my cat, Mookie got sick. If you’ve been following along, you know the story.

My sixteen-year-old cat suddenly stopped acting like herself. She became irritable, hid under the bed, and growled when she ate. Something was clearly wrong. Over the next several weeks, I found myself spending an unexpected amount of time thinking about gut health, immunity, inflammation, microbiome diversity, and the relationship between symptoms and root causes. Mookie was improving, but, we had to go back to the vet for labs. Now her bloodwork is showing that her kidney parameters are on the higher end of normal, but, her inflammation markers are normal. The vet was actually amazed at how good her labs looked. He said keep doing what I am doing. She is unfortunately on an antibiotic for her gums. We both feel she is too old for anethesia. This story is still evolving.

When my GI-MAP results arrived, there were a few findings I wasn’t expecting and one of them reinforced something I’ve believed for years: optimization is often less about fixing what’s broken and more about supporting what’s missing. In this article, I'll walk through what stood out, why it matters, and the simple changes I'm making to support and optimize my gut microbiome.