I'm Dr. Brian Lacy, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic. I treat a number of different interesting conditions at the Mayo Clinic. I focus primarily on motility disorders and functional gastrointestinal disorders of the GI tract. That would include some of the most common functional GI disorders such as dyspepsia, gastroesophageal reflux disease, gastroparesis, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic constipation, pelvic floor disorders, and achalasia.

One of the things that sets Mayo Clinic aside, especially in my field of functional motility disorders, is that we have testing available that's not available elsewhere. Thus, when somebody comes in with symptoms of dysphagia or difficulty swallowing, we have a variety of tests, including esophageal manometry or EndoFLIP that can make an accurate diagnosis. We have the opportunity to really carefully analyze and study gastric function. So for patients with symptoms of dyspepsia or gastroparesis, we can really identify the root cause which can change therapy. And certainly a great example would be those patients with symptoms of persistent constipation who may have failed therapy elsewhere. We can really identify again the root cause for why they have constipation and using advanced technology, implement an individualized treatment program that should improve symptoms.

I'm oftentimes asked about what's, what's really changed in the last decade in terms of our approach to functional gastrointestinal disorders and mental disorders. And really within the last 10 years there have been some amazing changes. These changes involve a better understanding of why these disorders occur. We can analyze patients in terms of genetic issues. We understand what role the gut microbiome plays. We understand how stress and patient's life can affect GI tract function. And that's all important to understand because now we can target that gut microbiome and modulate and change it to improve gut symptoms in patients with IBS as an example. We understand the disorders of visceral hypersensitivity and can use a number of different medications and therapies to improve chronic pain and patients with dyspepsia and gastroparesis. And finally, we have a better selection of drugs and diets that can improve patients and their symptoms of constipation or IBS or dyspepsia or gastroparesis.

One of the great things about Mayo Clinic Jacksonville is that we have a core group of physicians who focus all of their time and energy on patients with motility disorders of the GI tract and functional gastrointestinal disorders. At this time, I think we have a number of great opportunities to help patients that aren't available elsewhere. We're involved in three separate medication research studies that will be available for patients with gastroparesis that should help improve their symptoms. We frequently are asked to see patients from other health care providers because symptoms that they report overlap multiple disciplines and multiple boundaries. And so we're oftentimes asked to see patients with complex functional bowel disorders where they have overlapping symptoms of reflux and dyspepsia and constipation and IBS and persistent pain. And these symptom complexes can oftentimes be overwhelming to health care providers. And we're fortunate that we have a treatment approach that can employ health care providers across disciplines to focus on symptoms of pain, to address dietary concerns, to address maybe some underlying psychological distress, to discuss their symptoms of bloating and pain. And by using this kind of multimodal treatment approach with the use of multiple health care providers, oftentimes we're able to come up with a plan that really helps patients.