Where Is My Microbiome Located?
Your microbiome is primarily located in your gut and contains trillions of microbes. A healthy microbiome is the best friend, part power converter, part engine, and pharmacy.
Understanding your microbiome is your first step if you want to optimize your health, heal chronic disease, or know which foods are right for you.
Using kit offered byΒ Viome, at-home test kits help start the data-gathering process.
Viome uses a meta-transcriptome sequencing technique to identify all microorganisms living in your gut, from bacteria and viruses to fungi, yeast, parasites, and bacteriophages. Viome recommendsΒ personalizedΒ foods and supplements to optimize your microbial function with this data.Β
Here are 10 surprising discoveries about the microbiome that Viome has uncovered.
“Healthy” Food Isn’t Always Healthy
People often tell you to eat your greens and nuts because they help reduce inflammation. It isn’t always the case.
Spinach,Β bran, rhubarb, beets, nuts, and nut butter contain oxalates. We now know that oxalate-containing food can be harmfulΒ unlessΒ you have the microbes that can metabolize it into a non-harmful substance.
30% of Viome customers lack the microbes to metabolize oxalates properly. In other words, “healthy foods” like spinach are not healthy for these people.
It looks like not everyone should follow Popeye’s food plan.
“Antioxidants” Aren’t Always Good for Everyone
Like oxalates, polyphenols in foods are usually considered very healthy, but you may not get the full benefit unless you have the appropriate microbes that use specific polyphenols.
One example is a substance found in these foods called ellagic acid. Viome can detect whether your microbiome metabolizes ellagic acid and converts it into urolithin A. Only urolithin A has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Without the microbes to do this conversion, you will not benefit from the ellagic acid in foods.
Nuts, walnuts, raspberries, pomegranate, blackberries, pecans, and cranberries contain Ellagic acid.
After analyzing tens of thousands of people, Viome reports that only about 50% of them benefit from eating more foods containing ellagic acid.
Are You Overeating Protein?
When you think of a high-protein diet, you might think about Paleo,Β Keto, and high-performance diets.
Protein helps build muscle and provide energy, but it can cause inflammation and decrease longevity if you overeat.
Viome studies your microbiome to see if you are overeating protein that feeds bacteria that break down protein, like Alistipes putredinis and Tanneralla forsythia. Viome also checks if these bacteria make harmful substances like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, p-cresol, or putrescine. These substances can damage your gut lining and lead to conditions like leaky gut.
Can “Healthy Foods” Cause Heart Disease?
Bacteria can convert choline in certain foods into trimethylamine (TMA), associated with heart disease, when absorbed into your body and converted to TMAO.
However, TMA conversion doesn’t happen in individuals unless they have the appropriate bacteria in their microbiome.
Viome can see the TMA production pathways and many gammaproteobacteria that do this conversion.
What foods contain choline? A small sample is a liver, salmon,Β chickpeas,Β split peas, eggs, navy beans, and peanuts.
Before you decide to go full-on pescatarian or paleo, you may want to check if your microbiome is producing TMA with that salmon or steak.
Too Much Iron Can Cause Inflammation
Minerals likeΒ iron in your food canΒ promote the growth of pathogens like Escherichia, Shigella, and Salmonella in certain inflammatory microbial environments. Maybe it wasn’t just that raw chicken that gave you food poisoning, but your toxic microbiome made you sick.
On the other hand, you could become anemic when you don’t have enough iron, leading to weakness and shortness of breath.
When thinking about how much iron is suitable for you, look at the data.
Stress and Anxiety Appear in Your Microbiome
Our gut and brainΒ are connected via the vagus nerve. A large majority of neurotransmitters are either produced or consumed by our microbiome. Surprisingly, 90% of all serotonin (a feel-good neurotransmitter) is produced by your gut microbiome, not by your brain.
When you have a toxic microbiome that’s producing many toxins like hydrogen sulfide, the lining of your gut starts to deteriorate into what’s known as a leaky gut.
Think of a leaky gut as your gut not having healthy borders or boundaries. When this happens, all kinds of diseases can emerge. When the gut barrier breaks down, it starts a chain reaction, causing low-grade chronic inflammation, which has been identified as a potential source of depression and higher levels of anxiety and many other chronic diseases.
Ensure your diet promotes a healthy microbiome to get the most out of your meditation and reduce your stress levels.
Your Microbiome Affects Your Energy
If you want more energy, get your microbiome back into balance.
Your microbiome is responsible for calorie extraction or creating energy through pathways like the Tricarboxylic acid cycle. Our bodies depend on the energy that our microbiome produces.
How much energy we get from our food is dependent on how efficient our microbiome is at converting the food into energy. High-performing microbiomes are excellent at converting food into energy β great for athletes who need extra energy but suboptimal for those with sedentary lifestyles. And if the microbes can’t or won’t metabolize the glucose (sugar) that you eat, it will be stored as fat.
Got Joint Pain? Your Microbiome Can Tell You Why
Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a key pro-inflammatory molecule made by some of your microbes. If your microbes are making too much LPS, it can wreak havoc on your immune system and put it into overdrive. When your immune system goes on the warpath, your joints and other body parts often suffer collateral damage.
Perhaps balancing your microbiome is a better solution than reaching for the glucosamine.
Consider your microbiome as the top general of your immune army. It puts your immune system through basic training and determines when it goes to war.
Ideally, your immune system wins the quick battle and gets some rest, but if your microbiome keeps it on constant high alert, the long, drawn-out war can result in chronic inflammation and diseases.
Are you getting older, or is your microbiome just making youΒ feelΒ older because it keeps giving warnings to your immune system, ultimately leading to chronic pain?
If you have any condition ending in “-itis,” it’s possible that the inflammation from your “-itis” will be reduced when you balance your microbiome.
The Link Between Low Stomach Acid and Chronic Disease
There are bacteria in your mouth and parasites and fungi in your food. The acid in your stomach helps protect you from them. The acid in your stomach helps protect you from these things.
When you have low stomach acid, bacteria from your mouth bacteria make it down to your GI tract. This invasion is associated with, and a risk factor for, autoimmune disease and inflammation in the gut.
We’re beginning to learn that low stomach acid is perhaps one of the major causes of chronic disease.
What kinds of things cause low stomach acid? Stress and antacids like Nexium, Zantac, and Prilosec.
Carbs Can Be Protein Precursors
As long as your microbiome is up to the task, carbs aren’t as bad as you think.
The key is whether your microbiome can transform the starches you eat into amino acids.
Our microbiome comprises 20% of our Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s), and it will adapt to make this vital BCAAs for us in almost any way it can.
Essentially, your microbiome is hooking up carbons and hydrogens into different formulations of BCAA’s, depending on what you feed it. The microbiome is excellent at adapting and pivoting based on your diet and environment.
Get Personalized Data on Your Microbiome Health and Be Your Own #Healthhero
There is a lot of new information about the microbiome and its importance to your quality of life, so it’s essential to put the health of your microbiome first.
As I share with my patients daily, you’ll have a healthier life when you have a healthy microbiome.
Viome is the only company with the technology to help you identify what your microbiome is doing. Viome’s metatranscriptomic technology and cutting-edge artificial intelligence enable you to manage your microbiome health.
