A while back I started using an over-the-counter probiotic supplement, sourced from Walmart. After all, my wife was taking a significantly more expensive one, even had a subscription, and it seemed like a low-risk health insurance policy. If you aren't familiar with probiotics, this Wikipedia article will get you up to speed.
Then more recently I made changes to my diet in an effort to better manage blood sugar as reflected in the A1C test. Presumably this "cleaned up" diet would result in a healthier me, right? Only what if my dime store probiotic was not effective and I wasn't getting all the nutrients? And what evidence was there that probiotics were even usable by the body in my case? I knew that people who had to take heavy antibiotics were at risk of damaging their microbiome, that crucial collection of microorganisms in the gut, but where was the external metric of gut health? I had only gotten diagnostic blood workups that said zilch about that party going on downstairs. Plenty of people "feel better" after taking OTC (over the counter) supplements but between the placebo effect and confirmation bias, my comfort level is higher with quantitative measurement.
So I went to my favorite collection of opinion pieces these days, Medium.com. Searched on "probiotics." Found a 2017 article where the guy had run DNA tests on his own microbiome both before, during and after a course of probiotics. How was this magic performed? Did he have a gene sequencer in his townhouse? Unfortunately this aspect of the experiment nuts 'n bolts was not forthcoming.
Over to DuckDuckGo (a search engine that purports not to track or steer your searches) where I looked for microbiome testing. I mean, we run DNA analysis on dogs that we adopt and our human ancestry, surely an apparently critical component of one's health can be examined in a similar fashion. Bingo! Such a thing does exist. I share this now in advance of ordering a test kit (but coordinating with my doctor so he can assist in result interpretation). If you have already done this testing or decide in the future to do so, please chime in.
Not the only company but seems to be well established:
uBiome Microbiome Testing
[not well reviewed by all users: DNA Testing Choice review, uBiome]
Then more recently I made changes to my diet in an effort to better manage blood sugar as reflected in the A1C test. Presumably this "cleaned up" diet would result in a healthier me, right? Only what if my dime store probiotic was not effective and I wasn't getting all the nutrients? And what evidence was there that probiotics were even usable by the body in my case? I knew that people who had to take heavy antibiotics were at risk of damaging their microbiome, that crucial collection of microorganisms in the gut, but where was the external metric of gut health? I had only gotten diagnostic blood workups that said zilch about that party going on downstairs. Plenty of people "feel better" after taking OTC (over the counter) supplements but between the placebo effect and confirmation bias, my comfort level is higher with quantitative measurement.
So I went to my favorite collection of opinion pieces these days, Medium.com. Searched on "probiotics." Found a 2017 article where the guy had run DNA tests on his own microbiome both before, during and after a course of probiotics. How was this magic performed? Did he have a gene sequencer in his townhouse? Unfortunately this aspect of the experiment nuts 'n bolts was not forthcoming.
Over to DuckDuckGo (a search engine that purports not to track or steer your searches) where I looked for microbiome testing. I mean, we run DNA analysis on dogs that we adopt and our human ancestry, surely an apparently critical component of one's health can be examined in a similar fashion. Bingo! Such a thing does exist. I share this now in advance of ordering a test kit (but coordinating with my doctor so he can assist in result interpretation). If you have already done this testing or decide in the future to do so, please chime in.
Not the only company but seems to be well established:
uBiome Microbiome Testing
[not well reviewed by all users: DNA Testing Choice review, uBiome]
