Microbiome Testing: A Personalized Approach to Gut Health

Do you often feel drained, sluggish, or constantly tired? Like you’re running on empty—no matter how much sleep you get? 

The problem could be lurking in your gut.

Inside your digestive system lies a complex ecosystem of microorganisms that play a vital role in overall health and energy levels.

When you have an imbalance of gut microbes inside of you, you can start to lose your natural energy and vitality, not to mention experience some surprising health issues you may be misclassified as having other root causes.

Instead of guessing or making assumptions about what’s happening, what if you could know exactly what’s going on inside your microbiome—so you can make the right changes and see results fast? 

That’s what microbiome testing helps you do.

What is Gut Microbiome Testing?

A microbiome test (AKA: gut test) is a powerful tool that can provide valuable insights into the diversity, abundance, and presence of microorganisms (both “good” and “bad”) inside the gut. 

Because yes, there are “good” gut bugs! And they’re absolutely critical to keeping your energy high, your brain acuity sharp, and your internal organs performing at their best.

By understanding the complex interplay between the gut microbiome and overall health, you can take targeted steps to improve energy levels, increase natural vitality, and restore radiance to your skin and physical appearance.

The Connection Between Your Microbiome & Energy Levels

Your gut is home to trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and other gut microbes. 

Together, these microorganisms make up your microbiome – a complex ecosystem that plays a crucial role in digestion, your immune system, and overall health.

But did you know that your microbiome also plays a key role in energy metabolism? 

Researchers have discovered that the gut microbiome is intricately connected to the body’s energy balance, and that imbalances in the microbiome can lead to low energy levels, fatigue, and even chronic and life-threatening diseases.

Ready for some fun science facts?

Here’s how the gut microbiome influences energy levels.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). 

SCFAs are like fuel for your body. They’re made by “good” bacteria in your gut when they eat certain types of food like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. 

SCFAs are also key players in regulating appetite and promoting feelings of fullness, which can help prevent overeating and reduce cravings, and therefore lead to healthy weight management.

Neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine, play a key role in mood, motivation, and energy levels. 

Most people don’t realize this, but a large percentage of neurotransmitters are actually produced in the gut—not just in the brain, as many people assume. 

Therefore, when you have a strong, healthy microbiome, your body produces more of the neurotransmitters you need for natural energy and vitality. 

When you have an imbalance in these neurotransmitters, you can experience fatigue, depression, and other mental health and mood disorders.

Nutrients.

When there’s an imbalance in the microbiome, nutritional deficiencies can occur. Even micro-deficiencies can lead to symptoms such as digestive upset, skin issues, lack of motivation, brain fog, and poor memory recall. 

Some of the factors that lead to nutrient deficiencies are malabsorption (where your body literally can’t wring out the nutrients in the foods you eat) and parasites (which steal the nutrients before they can even get to the cells).

Inflammation.

Imbalances in the gut microbiome can lead to inflammation, which has been linked to fatigue and low energy levels. 

Chronic inflammation can interfere with the body’s energy metabolism, leading to feelings of fatigue and exhaustion, as well as unhealthy weight management.

So, how can you tell if imbalances in your microbiome are contributing to low energy levels and fatigue?

With gut microbiome testing.

Which not only tells you exactly what’s going on inside your digestive tract—it also helps you create a customized (and laser-focused) plan to correct the problem and quickly restore your natural energy. Plus prevent and even reverse risk of serious disease!

How Does Gut Microbiome Testing Work?

Most gut tests involve ordering a professional kit from a reliable source like Diagnostic Solutions or Genova, which then gets delivered to your home. 

We recommend a test that leverages a stool sample, as this type provides the clearest, most accurate results when compared with other kits like saliva, urine or blood tests.

Follow the simple instructions and ship back the sample to the lab. Yes, it’s legal to ship poop in the mail!

Generally, two to three weeks later, you’ll receive back the results of your labs that tell you exactly what’s going on inside your digestive system.

Ideally, you would partner with a functional health practitioner to then turn your test results into a concrete plan that may include:

• Lifestyle changes, including diet, stress management, sleep, and exercise
• Nutritional supplements, which often incudes probiotic supplements, digestive enzymes, vitamins, and other nutrients to restore
• Changing habits that are harmful to the human gut, including smoking, excessive alcohol, and consuming processed foods.

How Can Gut Tests Improve Your Health?

A microbiome test can help identify many issues related to your gut health. 

Some symptoms and diseases a gut test can help diagnose and manage include:

1. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
2. Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
3. Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
4. Food intolerances and sensitivities
5. Leaky gut syndrome
6. Gut dysbiosis
7. Candida overgrowth
8. Skin conditions such as acne, eczema, and psoriasis
9. Allergies
10. Gastrointestinal infections caused by bacteria, fungus, viruses, and parasites
11. Malabsorption issues
12. Digestive enzyme deficiencies
13. Pancreatic insufficiency
14. Liver and gallbladder dysfunction
15. Autoimmune diseases such as celiac disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and lupus

Because the microbiome acts as the engine of the body, addressing the true root cause can also help alleviate, or even eliminate mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

Slashing your risk of diseases including cardiovascular disease, obesity, Parkinsons, Type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s is another valuable result of addressing poor gut health.

Additionally, having a strong, healthy, and diverse microbiome helps with your natural immune response, as 70% of your immune system comes from the gut. 

If you are susceptible to colds, allergies, the flu, or other recurring ailments, focusing on your gut health can help you become more resilient to pathogens and reduce the length of time you’re down and out recovering from illness.

A gut test can help identify the underlying causes of these conditions and provide valuable information about gut health, gut microbiome composition, and nutrient absorption. 

By addressing these underlying issues, you can naturally regain your energy, vitality, and joy for life—while adding many happy, healthy, and active years to your lifespan. 

What Does Gut Microbiome Testing Show You?

The best way to understand what your microbiome test is telling you is to consult with a functional health practitioner (like me!)

Not only will we help you understand exactly what’s going on in your gut, but we also help you create a completely personalized protocol to restore balance inside your microbiome.

In general, though, here’s what will likely show up on your microbiome test results.

Bacteria

Microbiome testing can help you identify imbalances in your gut microbiome, such as an overgrowth of harmful bacteria or a lack of beneficial bacteria. 

Armed with this information, you can take targeted steps to restore balance to your microbiome and improve energy levels, natural vitality, and radiance. 

For example, if your microbiome test reveals an overgrowth of harmful gut microbes, you may need to take steps to reduce inflammation and promote the growth of beneficial bacteria. 

You may also discover you’re lacking certain strains of helpful bacteria, which is critical to know in order to curate a protocol plan for your unique health situation.

The human gut is complex—and depending upon what your personal test reveals, your protocol plan could include:

• Dietary changes, such as increasing your intake of fiber-rich foods.

• Lifestyle changes, such as  reducing your consumption of processed foods, sugar, and alcohol, all of which can disrupt the balance of your gut microbiome and lead to inflammation.

• Supplementing your nutrition with prebiotics, probiotics, or postbiotics.

A quick dive down into the “biotics” rabbit hole before we move on to the next tip…

PREbiotics – prebiotic supplements contain types of fiber that gut bacteria need to thrive, but we as humans just can’t digest. They ‘eat’ the prebiotics and turn them into postbiotics.

PRObiotics – probiotic supplements and food sources contain live bacteria your gut needs for balance.

POSTbiotics – postbiotics are essentially the “leftovers” produced by good bacteria after “eating” prebiotics that help fuel your intestinal cells, feed the good bacteria and help keep the population of bad bacteria at manageable levels.

Having a combination of all three “biotics” is critical to maintaining a healthy, strong microbiome.

Fungi/Yeast

Candida is a yeast commonly found in our digestive tract. Too much of it can cause issues such as gas, bloating, constipation, and skin irritation.

Candida thrives on toxins in your body, especially radioactive elements like radon that often comes from your water source. 

That’s one of the reasons people have a hard time getting rid of candida, because even if they’re drinking reverse osmosis water, or some other filtered water, the filtration system isn’t getting the radioactive elements out. 

Pro Tip: Look at the fine print of your water purification system to see if it gets out radioactive elements like radon and uranium.

Parasites

There’s a lot of myths about parasites, like, “they only live in the tropics or under-developed countries”. But the truth is, they’re right here in first world countries. Even in metropolitan cities.

Parasites live in our beloved pets, in bodies of water (lakes, streams, rivers), and in our food sources. For example, when we swallow the parasite eggs in our food, they hatch inside of us, then travel throughout the body causing damage.

In fact, here’s a picture of a round worm (nematode) parasite I recently discovered in my lunch!

A recent study out of Australia indicated that some species of fish are 100% infected with Nematodes, which supports the argument that consuming raw fish may not be a good idea. 

Parasites  also get transferred from other humans. 

Common symptoms of a parasite infection include unexplained tiredness, nutritional deficiencies, abdominal discomfort, or anemia. 

On a gut test, you can see exactly which parasites are inside you right now. 

Another thing to know is that parasites are like a trojan horse. 

Remember that Brad Pitt movie?

Hey! Eyes down here. I know you’re just staring at Brad Pitt right now!! Me too as I write this. 

Anyway… in mythology, the “trojan horse” was left behind by the Greeks as they pretended to flee from the Trojans. The Trojans, thinking they had won, rolled the horse into the city as a victory trophy. 

What they didn’t know, is the giant wooden horse was actually a vessel full of soldiers. That night the soldiers crept out of the horse, and opened the gates of Troy so the whole Greek army could get inside and claim victory.

Parasites do the same sort of thing (although I have yet to see one with six pack abs).

Parasites hold onto toxins, like metals, mycotoxins and industrial chemicals. 

If you try to detox your body without removing parasites, you’ll never have a victory because the toxins are still hiding inside of the parasites.

When you kill parasites, they release their toxins into your body, continuing the cycle of making you ill and zapping your energy. 

It’s a vicious circle that most practitioners don’t know how to handle. You’ve got to carefully remove toxins and parasites in the right order so that you get permanent results. 

That’s why you need to work with a qualified practitioner who can give you the right supplement protocol and plan to mop up the toxins as the parasites die off.

It’s also why you need to start with gut health when doing a detox protocol.  

Start with eliminating parasites, bacteria, and fungus, out of your gut, then move onto moving the toxins out of the deep cellular spaces all over your body. 

Microbiome tests are a powerful tool for gaining insight into the complex ecosystem of microorganisms living in the human gut. 

Once you have a clear understanding of your microbiome, you can take targeted steps to improve gut health through diet, lifestyle changes, and supplements. 

Until you truly understand what’s going on inside your body, trying to detox and address nutrient deficiencies is like shooting in the dark. 

Microbiome testing provides a roadmap to better gut health and improved wellbeing.

While there are now companies that offer at-home stool test kits, most of my clients get the best value from when they get a consult to decipher the results—and create a customized protocol solution.

The deeper you dive into your gut health the more you’ll want to understand about the test results you receive. 

When you work with a functional health practitioner like me, you’ll not only learn how to read your gut test results but also find ways to fix the problems before they get worse.

Let’s see if we’re a good fit – take your first step here.

You can schedule your no-risk, no-obligation discovery call with me and my team of functional medicine experts today.

Take Good Care,