Torwen:
Hellow and welcome back to the Ideal Nutrition podcast. My name is Torwen Eerkins, and I’m joined by my co-host Aidan Muir. Today we want to give you our thoughts on whether it is worth testing your gut microbiome. The obvious place to start is what is your gut microbiome? So, it’s the community of trillions of bacteria, fungi and other microbes that live in your digestive tract. Specifically, your colon. And they play a lot of roles.
They help with digestion, nutrient absorption, immune function, and gut lining health. They can also influence things like mood and metabolism. Now, when we talk about testing your gut microbiome, the aim is often to analyse the types and amounts of these organisms present in your gut. So, what beneficial bacteria have you got? What potentially harmful bacteria have you got? What is the ratio of these things?
Aidan:
So, when we look at the theoretical benefits, one is that you could identify gaps or issues to address. This is more specific to the bacteria side of things. An example I have often used is IBS. With IBS, there are certain imbalances that are quite common. Like some population groups of bacteria are often a lot lower in those with IBS. And some are a lot higher. That would immediately make you think, could we just address those gaps? And it looks pretty promising.
I have a lot of thoughts on where we’re at today. You can see how there’s potential there, right? You can see how specific targeted approaches could address those issues in a very individualised way. Rather than focusing on what people have in common, you could ask what this person lacks. That could then lead to tailoring certain probiotic and prebiotic choices. This could be through food or through supplements.
It could also theoretically identify certain risk factors. These are unrelated to IBS, but linked to dysbiosis. Dysbiosis is an imbalance of the microbiome. That could relate to other GI issues or other metabolic conditions. Another example is identifying parasites. Another benefit is it could be helpful for tracking over time.
Torwen:
If you look at what microbes are present, you can also look at the balance between them. Then, if you do interventions and track again, you can see what changes have been made. So, these are theoretical benefits. When we look at the types of tests available, there are limitations. Some have positives, and some are a bit limited.
So, we’re going to run through a few that are available and share our thoughts on each. In terms of the most common one I’ve seen available to the public, you can buy it, give a stool sample, and get a result. It’s what we call 16S rRNA sequencing. It looks at bacteria only. It gives you a broad overview of bacterial groups in your microbiome by analysing a certain gene. Now, this is pretty affordable. It can be good for general patterns, but it is limited in detail.
Aidan:
The other one is metagenomic sequencing.
Torwen:
Yeah, that’s one of the other ones.
Aidan:
Do you want to go through that as well?
Torwen:
Yeah. This one’s a bit more advanced. It looks at all of the genetic material in your sample. So it shows more. It shows bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microbes. It can also show their metabolic functions in your body. That is much more detailed. It’s a lot more comprehensive. It’s a lot more expensive. It shows more of the potential function of those microbes in your body, rather than real time activity. Which can be hard to see.
The last one I’ll add is what we call QMP. That’s quantitative microbiome profiling. It measures more of a microbial load. Again, looking at a stool sample. What’s the amount of bacteria in a gram of your stool? This can give you more of an idea of the abundance of species in your body. So, regular testing might show whether you have normal or abnormal levels of these species. It might also show whether it’s overgrowth or undergrowth. But it’s still early stage clinical trials though. Not many labs offer this.
Aidan:
Yeah. When I was going through specific companies and what tests they do, I didn’t see that one very often. I saw a major company, Zoe. They do metagenomic sequencing. Another major company, Viome, do RNA sequencing. Some companies definitely use those tests. They also have different pros and cons. Do you want to go down the company route? Or do you want to talk about other stuff?
Torwen:
I don’t think so. Alternatives to testing. Or whether we think, like we said, we gave the benefits of testing. Do we think it’s always necessary to test? What else can we look at for gut health? For me personally, it might not be the first thing I would recommend. A lot of other things can give you an indication of overall gut health.
A structured symptom, food and symptom diary can help. You could also start with fibre introduction. You can focus on diversity, probiotics, and prebiotics. Then you can see how you improve symptoms before doing microbiome testing.
Aidan:
That does lead to another point. Is there anywhere where you think testing would be useful?
Torwen:
I probably would if there’s been ongoing issues. There’s no clear reason. We’ve ruled out more sinister things. There’s still no clear reason. Maybe you’ve tried eliminating foods. You’re still not feeling great. Then I would probably say, yeah, it may be worth doing a test.
Aidan:
Yeah, absolutely. I can say that as well. And particularly if it comes back with stuff you can action. That is the main one. That’s where I’d use it.
Now I’m going to go a tiny bit broader. There can be a world where these are even more useful in the future. I’m indirectly working with a company that is doing this stuff. I wouldn’t be indirectly working with them if I thought these were terrible. So, I found this pretty interesting through that. I suppose it’s another reason people will find benefit. It can also support overall engagement. I’ll go one direction, then come back.
The one direction is sometimes people make fun of a certain company’s microbiome testing. They say it always comes back telling them to eat more fruits and vegetables. With this other company I’m working with, I saw somebody’s test literally yesterday. It was super detailed. It talked about all of the bacteria and all of these things. They did retesting and a bunch of stuff to improve accuracy. They also tested with a bunch of different companies.
They wanted to see how accurate it was. With this specific company, they had a form. It said what he’s already doing well. It made it seem like he was doing certain activities tied with having a good amount of lactobacillus, for example. It also said his microbiome is set up to tolerate resistant starch well. It had features showing he basically doesn’t eat resistant starch. So, one of the feedback points was to have resistant starch.
Some of the other feedback was to have more probiotic rich foods. Another thing was he needs more variety. It was actually skewed towards two specific populations. It’s interesting because that does go back to eating more fruits and vegetables. Resistant starch is good for most people, right? Most people should have some form of probiotic coming in.
Ideally that comes through food. If not, supplements can be targeted. People should also have diversity in their diet. I’ll tell you what though. This guy is going to do those things. Maybe not as much as he should. However, he’s going to take steps. I’m pretty confident of that.
Torwen:
Yeah. That’s actually some pretty actionable things you can be doing. That is a positive. Coming back to it, when you have clients motivated by data, this can be another thing to track. They might want to improve gut health. Gut health is hard to track apart from symptoms. So if we have something that gives accurate information, why not?
Aidan:
Absolutely. I think, in the least woo-woo way possible, another thing was on there. I’m giving feedback to this company. It said he’s a carb specialist. I’m like, let’s take that out. The rest is great.
Torwen:
Almost there.
Aidan:
Absolutely. I’m obviously not naming the company. I don’t want to platform anyone. Alternatives to testing are also worth mentioning. I think you covered it. Improving diet in general is a good idea. Fibre intake matters. Variety matters. Exercise and stress management matter. Identifying intolerances through elimination style stuff can help. I would do that in the majority of cases. I’m also not opposed to getting data just for the sake of data.
And that can make sense if you have tried other stuff too. That is probably a key takeaway. It’s where we’re at in the research. I would never want to be super anti this stuff. Because I think there’s heaps in the future with this. People have to be out there doing this for progress. So, this has been episode 238 on whether it’s worth testing your gut microbiome. As always, if you could please leave a rating and review, we would massively appreciate that.