What’s the story behind GUT MICROBIOTA HOME KITS?

The human gut microbiota (Valdes, Walter, Segal & Spector, 2021) is the layer of so-called “friendly” gut bacteria that line our human digestive system. They play a role in everything from protecting us from disease, inflammation, our metabolism (energy levels) and, as it has recently been discovered, our mental health (Yarandi, et al, 2016) and ability to tolerate stress (Greenwood-van Meerveld et al., 2016). I have always found the microbiota interesting. It was the chosen topic of my undergraduate degree thesis “the human gut microbiota; friend or foe. ” I wanted to test my own gut microbiota to get to know my own friendly flora, so did a home test. What did I discover?

The Altas Biomed home testing kit- From https://atlasbiomed.com/uk/newmicrobiome

I tried out one of the most recent “mail out testing packs” in the market, choosing “ATLAS BIOMED” after reading reviews and picking the one backed by the most scientific evidence. I was sent a testing kit for home, which rather disgustingly involved taking a stool sample and sending it to them. So, despite feeling sorry for the postman, what outcome came from the test? What did the £110 test teach me? Was it worth the money?

What did I learn??

1. I have high microbiome diversity of 9/10 — that’s really good and quite rare (apparently).
2. My diverse gut microbiota is helping to protect me from obesity and disease.
3. I have good B vitamin levels- so I metabolise food efficiently but need more Inulin.

All of this could explain why I had to eat quite so much to gain weight in anorexia recovery as I have a very fast metabolism (not helped by being a very happy, optimistic and active person which increases my basal metabolic rate). But, how did I build up such a diverse microbiota? KNOWLEDGE and diet. There are two ways to boost your gut microflora.

1. Probiotics: This involves injecting or ingesting nutritional supplements which contain live cultures. When I was recovering from anorexia I lived on Activia yoghurts for deserts (low sugar, no sweetener (sweeteners- including “natural” (marketing word- does not mean healthy) sugar alternatives like Sucralose) live culture containing yoghurts). Probiotics contain live cultures which help to boost and add variety to the types of bacteria in your gut flora.
2. Prebiotics: This involves eating lots of FIBRE (both resistant and un-resistant starch). Fibre is the STARCH (carbohydrate stored in plants) in fruit and vegetables. The gut microbiota consumes this and produces something called Butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid. This Butyrate is said to help reduce inflammation, boost metabolism and improve mood.
3. Magnesium and B vitamins. I take Magnesium supplements and have milk fortified with B12 and Vitamin D. I do this to support my bones, but inadvertently have boosted my metabolism and helped support my metabolism-boosting flora further. I also eat lots of vegetables, seeds and nuts and wholegrains, all of which contain Magnesium and B vitamins.

I would definitely endorse using the home kit. I got a very detailed report, outlining every single bacteria in my gut and the role they played in health and also had a half-hour discussion with a nutritionist about how to improve this further. The kit was far from perfect as it didn’t talk about the role of the microbiota on mental health in enough detail, but I think as more research becomes available, this will grow. I would also highly endorse the Atlas Biomed blog, as it is very informed and well written. The gut microbiota is said to be of so much benefit to mental health that researchers are now looking into a new form of therapy “psychobiotics” for the treatment of depression and anxiety. Hopefully, with more scientific research, we will get to know our friendly foes even better and use this knowledge to treat brain health! Boost mental health through bacteria!

Thank you gut flora!!

References

1. Valdes, A., Walter, J., Segal, E., & Spector, T. (2021). Role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and health. Retrieved 13 September 2021, from https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/86eebd91-c9d5-37bb-bf54-cea5267076db/
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