Your gut health can have rollover effects to other parts of your body. When your gut is happy and healthy, you may notice that other parts of your body feel happy and healthy too. And when your gut is grouchy and unwell, your body may feel pretty lousy as a result.
If you want to keep your whole self feeling good, taking care of your gut is key. But unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Your gut contains tens to hundreds of trillions of bacteria, which — when balanced nicely — create a happy, healthy gut. When imbalanced, however, this grouping of gut bacteria — known as the microbiome — can lead to painful or uncomfortable symptoms not only in your digestive tract but also throughout your body.
Gut health tests may be able to offer insights into what exactly is going on inside your digestive system — but are these tests really worth it?
[SEE: Best Foods to Eat for an Upset Stomach.]
What to Know About Your Gut Microbiome
Your gut hosts a complex community of millions of microorganisms, known collectively as the gut microbiome. While you may think of bacteria as a harmful germ that makes you sick, much of the bacteria in your gut is good for you — so long as you don’t have too many or too little of a certain strain. A balanced microbiome is a healthy microbiome, and this helps facilitate other actions in your body — such as digestion, controlling the immune system and working to reduce the risk of diseases like heart disease, diabetes and various cancers.
“The microbiome in general regulates many aspects of your body, from your immune system to your digestive process to even, some people believe, aspects in the brain,” says Dr. Rudolph Bedford, a board-certified gastroenterologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
Signs of Poor Gut Health
Imbalances in the gut microbiome can include temporary symptoms, like:
— Diarrhea
For some people, issues in the gut can also lead to bigger health complications, or increase your risk for developing more severe conditions.
Some digestive conditions people with poor gut health may experience or be at risk for experiencing include:
— Inflammatory bowel disease
— Colitis
Imbalances in the microbiome may also influence parts of your mental health, like symptoms of depression.
Because your microbiome has implications for so many other parts of your health, it’s important to take care of it — and keep it balanced. However, you might not know that your microbiome is unbalanced from symptoms alone. As mentioned, the microbiome can influence conditions ranging from IBS to depression — which have causes other than an unhealthy microbiome. Further, even if you do suspect your microbiome is to blame, you might not know which of the trillions of bacteria within it are causing your issues.
To help you better understand the inner-workings of your microbiome, you may consider taking an at-home gut health test, which is a test that evaluates the levels of different bacteria within your gut.
[READ: Top Foods to Avoid With IBS]
Should You Test Your Gut Health?
Ideally, a gut health test can give you insight on bacterial imbalances in your gut and enable you to make educated decisions about how to address them. In reality, Bedford says that not all tests live up to this promise.
“The hype of the microbiome research appears to have outpaced the evidence that underlies it, within the public and even in the academic spheres,” Bedford says.
Additionally, he adds that results may be confusing, hard to interpret or meaningless.
“Quite frankly, I don’t think any of us really knows what these home health tests mean one way or the other — in terms of the results that people are looking at and what they’re doing with these results,” Bedford says.
Still, that doesn’t mean patients can’t take these tests if they want to. Bedford says he notices patients who inquire about microbiome testing are usually those are having trouble with digestion or bloating or have IBS — which usually means they experience frequent constipation and/or diarrhea.
If you’re looking for answers about your gut health and want to explore at-home testing, it is important to first educate yourself on the pros and cons of at-home gut health tests, and to review your results with a doctor afterward, should you take one.
[READ The Best Home Food Sensitivity Tests]
Types of At-Home Gut Health Tests
Some types of at-home gut health tests include:
— Stool testing
— Blood testing
— Breath testing
Many companies ask you to prepare a sample of some type of bodily excretion — such as your stool, blood or exhaled breath — which you will then package and mail to them so that they can conduct the testing. Exact preparation details will be listed on the test kit you receive.
At-Home Gut Health Test Brands
Many at-home gut health tests say they are based in research, and their websites cite studies on the microbiome’s impact on health to back this up. Research on how the tests work — and the innerworkings of each companies technology — can be harder to understand. Many brands of at-home gut health tests partner with registered labs that use various types of RNA or DNA sequencing methods to evaluate your microbiome.
Some well-known brands of gut health tests include:
— Floré Gut Health Test
— Thorne Gut Health Test
— Tiny Health Gut Test
— Viome Gut Intelligence Test
Floré Gut Health Test
Floré uses metagenomics technology in its test. The company says its tests can detect more than 23,000 microbes in your gut, which include bacteria, fungi, yeast, parasites and viruses. To take the test, users will receive a test kit to collect a stool sample, which they will then mail to a registered lab for an analysis.
After you take the test, Floré will analyze your results and provide food and supplement recommendations to support your gut health.
Cost: $299
Thorne Gut Health Test
Thorne’s Gut Health Test uses metagenomic sequencing, a type of sequencing that looks at your DNA, to evaluate your microbiome through your stool. Users receive a test kit to collect a stool sample, which they then mail to a registered lab for analysis. Users will also complete a digital health questionnaire.
The company sends you a virtual copy of your results, which will include insights on your intestinal permeability, presence of gut dysbiosis — which means imbalance — and your gut’s ability to produce micronutrients such as folate, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and niacin. The company says that results will be accompanied with with “meaningful insights and recommendations to improve your health and wellness,” which can include personalized recommendations for dietary changes, supplements to take and lifestyle suggestions.
Cost: $198
Tiny Health Gut Test
Tiny Health offers microbiome tests for babies, children and adults. To take the test, users first receive a test kit. Then, they collect a stool sample using tissue paper — meaning, wiping after they go number two — which they will package in a special zippered container, place back into your test kit and mail to a registered lab for an analysis.
The company says their tests can identify over 120,000 bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoan parasites. It uses shotgun metagenomics to look at the microbiome, which is a type of metagenomic sequencing that looks at all DNA in a sample as opposed to targeting specific areas. However, the company alerts users that these results are meant to “educate you about the microbes in your body for wellness purposes,” and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice.
Cost: $249
Viome Gut Intelligence Test
Viome Gut Intelligence Test uses metatranscriptomic sequencing, a type of sequencing that looks at RNA, to evaluate your microbiome through your stool. To perform the test, Viome gut test users receive a collection kit to gather a stool sample, which is then sent to a registered lab for processing. Users will also complete a digital health questionnaire.
Once test results are complete, the company will send you:
— A digital copy of your “health score”
— Food recommendations list
— Supplement recommendations
— Probiotic and prebiotic recommendations
— Access to the Viome app and AI features
If you decide to take Viome’s recommended supplements or biotics, these will come at an additional fee.
Cost: $279
[Read: Antibiotics Wrecked My Gut: What to Do Next]
Prescription Gut Health Tests
If you want to learn more about your gut with the confidence of a doctor’s prescription, you may consider taking a breath test for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. SIBO is a digestive health condition that, as its name implies, is characterized by an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. These tests have been studied to be effective at diagnosing SIBO through use of glucose hydrogen or lactulose hydrogen breath testing, and researchers have recommended the tests for diagnosing SIBO in a range of patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic GI conditions. Also, and in contrast to many of the at-home stool tests, some SIBO breath tests are listed as Food and Drug Administration-approved medical devices.
Breath tests — such as the Trio-Smart Breath test — can be conducted in a doctor’s office or ordered online to take at home, so long as you have a doctor’s prescription.
If you want to order a test online, you can fill out an order form for the Trio-Smart Breath test, on which you will input personal information, insurance information and prescriber information. Both you and your doctor must sign this form to receive the test.
For the test, you will receive a test kit with a special bag and mouth piece. Following instructions on your kit, you will exhale through the mouth piece to inflate the bag with your breath. Then you will follow instructions to package and mail the test to a lab for evaluation.
After you take the test, you can review the results with your doctor to get personalized medical advice for your condition.
“Based upon that test, we’ll try to help adjust your gut bacteria either by giving you a type of antibiotic to essentially decrease the volume of certain bacteria within your system, which may help you deal with the symptoms you might be having, such as the bloating or the persistent loose bowel movements or the constipation,” Bedford says.
He adds that at times, he will order stool tests for patients too, but this is typically limited to experiences with diarrhea if there are unanswered questions about the person’s diagnosis.
When to See a Doctor for At-Home Test Results
If you decide to take an at-home gut health test, it’s a good idea to discuss your results with your doctor afterward — even if they didn’t recommend the test in the first place. Being open about your test with your health care team enables them to better interpret the results and best take care of your gut health.
Lisa Jones, a registered dietitian based in Philadelphia, says she at times works with telehealth clients who express interest in at-home gut tests, or who might have received a recommendation to take one from another practitioner. To best support her client’s interests and health goals, Jones suggests interpreting results alongside a physician and within the context of their overall health and nutrition goals.
“I always recommend using the results as a conversation starter with a health care provider, who can help translate that information into meaningful changes to your eating habits, based on your overall health goals,” Jones says.
She adds that it’s also important to help patients set realistic expectations about their results.
“These tests might give you some interesting clues about your gut, but they’re not the full story,” Jones explains. “They won’t provide a complete diagnosis or tell you exactly what’s going on with your digestion. I like to remind patients that these tests are just a piece of the puzzle — they’re a starting point for further conversations with a health care provider to really get to the root of things.”
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Should You Take a Gut Health Test? originally appeared on usnews.com
