r/Microbiome • • Feb 22 '25

Rule change regarding microbiome "testing"

121 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

Thank you all for engaging in the r/Microbiome sub! This post is to notify everyone about a change in rules regarding GI maps, peddling services related to them, and asking for medical advice based on GI maps.

We will not be allowing posts asking for GI map interpretations from here on out (rule 7). Microbiome science is very much in its infancy, and we have very little understanding of how to interpret an individual's microbiome sequencing results. More specifically, we actually dont know what composition of microbes make up a healthy/unhealthy microbiome, both in presence/absence of microbes, and quantities of microbes. We know very little about the actual species within the microbiome. The ones we know more about are generally only more well studied only because they are easier to work with in the lab, not because they are more inportant. We have yet to culture most microbes in the collective human microbiome, meaning we also cant accurately identify many species via sequencing. There is also tons of genetic and functional variability within species, meaning we also cannot relate individual species to good/bad outcomes.

We also need to consider limitations of these tests. In as little as 24hrs, you can have a 100 fold change in many species. This means you can get incredibly different test results day-to-day, depending on many factors like sleep, excercise, diet, etc, within the last couple hours. Someone recently described microbiome testing as throwing a rock on the highway to predict traffic at all hours-- One rock wont tell us anything on the grand scheme of things. To be frank, these tests are also very cheap in their actual sequencing. Many of our most important microbes are in low abundance, which cheap sequencing and poor analysis fails to identify. Additionally, considering your microbiome has hundreds of species and thousands of strains, cheap testing often cant accurately differentiate between species. It is quite common for poor sequencing to misidentify or mis-classify closely related species or even genus'. A common example is Shigella being mistaken for Escherichia, or vice versa.

Many of the values that the microbiome tests predict are "ideal" are also totally arbitrary. We see major differences between different quantities of microbes within you over 24hrs, you vs your family, local community, country, and continent. However, no ideal microbiomes have been found, despite millions being sequenced at this point. There is tons of diversity in the global population, but there is no "ideal" values when it comes to microbes in your gut.

Secondly, we will be banning you if you are peddling services to others via this sub. We are an open and free discussion about microbiome science, and we use evidence when talking about the microbiome. People who claim to know how to interpret individual microbiome maps are either not knowledgable when it comes to the microbiome, or are lying to you, neither of which makes them trustworthy with your health. We will not allow this sub to be a place where people are taken advantage of and lied to about what is possible at this moment in microbiome science.

Finally, we want to remind you that this is not the place to ask for medical advice. Chat with your MD if you are concerned, nobody on here is more well versed than they are on specific symptoms. They will treat you accordingly. If you are seeking help for specific microbes, such as H. pylori, this is something your MD can test for. These results are accurate and interpreted correctly (not the case for GI maps), and will be significantly more affordable than GI map testing.

We aim to be a scientifically accurate, evidence-based sub, that provides digestible conversations about this complex science. These topics are not in line with our values.

We look forward to having everyone respecting these rules moving forward.

Happy microbiome-ing! :)


r/Microbiome • • Jun 29 '23

Statement of Continued Support for Disabled Users

75 Upvotes

We stand with the disabled users of reddit and in our community. Starting July 1, Reddit's API policy blind/visually impaired communities will be more dependent on sighted people for moderation. When Reddit says they are whitelisting accessibility apps for the disabled, they are not telling the full story.TL;DR

  • Starting July 1, Reddit's API policy will force blind/visually impaired communities to further depend on sighted people for moderation
  • When reddit says they are whitelisting accessibility apps, they are not telling the full story, because Apollo, RIF, Boost, Sync, etc. are the apps r/Blind users have overwhelmingly listed as their apps of choice with better accessibility, and Reddit is not whitelisting them. Reddit has done a good job hiding this fact, by inventing the expression "accessibility apps."
  • Forcing disabled people, especially profoundly disabled people, to stop using the app they depend on and have become accustomed to is cruel; for the most profoundly disabled people, June 30 may be the last day they will be able to access reddit communities that are important to them.

If you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks:

Reddit abruptly announced that they would be charging astronomically overpriced API fees to 3rd party apps, cutting off mod tools for NSFW subreddits (not just porn subreddits, but subreddits that deal with frank discussions about NSFW topics).

And worse, blind redditors & blind mods [including mods of r/Blind and similar communities] will no longer have access to resources that are desperately needed in the disabled community.

Why does our community care about blind users?

As a mod from r/foodforthought testifies:

I was raised by a 30-year special educator, I have a deaf mother-in-law, sister with MS, and a brother who was born disabled. None vision-impaired, but a range of other disabilities which makes it clear that corporations are all too happy to cut deals (and corners) with the cheapest/most profitable option, slap a "handicap accessible" label on it, and ignore the fact that their so-called "accessible" solution puts the onus on disabled individuals to struggle through poorly designed layouts, misleading marketing, and baffling management choices. To say it's exhausting and humiliating to struggle through a world that able-bodied people take for granted is putting it lightly.

Reddit apparently forgot that blind people exist, and forgot that Reddit's official app (which has had over 9 YEARS of development) and yet, when it comes to accessibility for vision-impaired users, Reddit’s own platforms are inconsistent and unreliable. ranging from poor but tolerable for the average user and mods doing basic maintenance tasks (Android) to almost unusable in general (iOS).

Didn't reddit whitelist some "accessibility apps?"

The CEO of Reddit announced that they would be allowing some "accessible" apps free API usage: RedReader, Dystopia, and Luna.

There's just one glaring problem: RedReader, Dystopia, and Luna* apps have very basic functionality for vision-impaired users (text-to-voice, magnification, posting, and commenting) but none of them have full moderator functionality, which effectively means that subreddits built for vision-impaired users can't be managed entirely by vision-impaired moderators.

(If that doesn't sound so bad to you, imagine if your favorite hobby subreddit had a mod team that never engaged with that hobby, did not know the terminology for that hobby, and could not participate in that hobby -- because if they participated in that hobby, they could no longer be a moderator.)

Then Reddit tried to smooth things over with the moderators of r/blind. The results were... Messy and unsatisfying, to say the least.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/14ds81l/rblinds_meetings_with_reddit_and_the_current/

*Special shoutout to Luna, which appears to be hustling to incorporate features that will make modding easier but will likely not have those features up and running by the July 1st deadline, when the very disability-friendly Apollo app, RIF, etc. will cease operations. We see what Luna is doing and we appreciate you, but a multimillion dollar company should not have have dumped all of their accessibility problems on what appears to be a one-man mobile app developer. RedReader and Dystopia have not made any apparent efforts to engage with the r/Blind community.

Thank you for your time & your patience.


r/Microbiome • • 10h ago

Scientific Article Discussion The Relationship Between Depression, Poor Sleep, and the Microbiome

15 Upvotes

Has anyone here experienced the connection between depression, poor sleep, and the microbiome? What helped you turn things around—medications or dietary changes?

I had a colonoscopy and an upper endoscopy; the colonoscopy came back clear. But I have ileitis in the ileum and tissue fibrosis (my body has healed the underlying cause), and my calprotectin levels are normal. I don’t have Crohn’s disease, IBS, ulcers, or erosions.

I had Helicobacter pylori in my stomach, which was successfully eradicated.

I don’t experience any mental fogginess. However, I have a persistent state of low mood and depression accompanied by anhedonia.


r/Microbiome • • 1h ago

Would the data from a G.I. map allow me to accurately choose what what Kefir/yogurt and which bacteria strains that my body specifically needs, and so I don’t just buy ignorantly?

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• Upvotes

r/Microbiome • • 8h ago

our gut bacteria produce chemicals that communicate with our body.

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2 Upvotes

r/Microbiome • • 10h ago

How to recover from heavy tetracycline use?

1 Upvotes

I took tetracycline for acne for 1 year back in 2019, now I have bad gut issues such as severe bloating, severe constipation, can’t eat too much fibre. I wish I could go back in time and never take it and just live with the acne. But now I have to figure out how to recover.

Do I take probiotics? I heard some people say it’s a waste of money since they don’t colonize or they are dead. How to pick a good strain? Do they need to be refrigerated?

Do I take fermented foods like yogurt, kimchi, kefir, etc? I’ve heard people say that they will just contribute to bloating but also that they can help repopulate your microbiome. Is this true?

If anyone has some advice, or links to some scientific articles for further reading, it would be greatly appreciated.


r/Microbiome • • 14h ago

Need some advice

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2 Upvotes

r/Microbiome • • 17h ago

Peptides that have helped with their gut problems?

3 Upvotes

I am in my fifties and on the slender side. I've had a number of returning c diff infections, h pylori and after have had the worst motility issues. Have tried Linzess etc. with no luck. My health has been ruined because of my past infections. I know they are doing lots if research on peptides not just for weight loss but for inflammation. My question is, has anyone found one compounded or not that has given a positive gut health result?


r/Microbiome • • 23h ago

Suffering from bad breath and it makes me depressed

7 Upvotes

A year ago I started suffering from bad breath and it was the exact moment I started suffering with GERD and LPR.

I try to manage my GERD as best as I can but it’s really hard to be restrictive with my diet especially because I have a history of ED.

I’m on PPIs which help IMMENSELY for the pain, not so much for the LPR tho. I’m wondering if the lower stomach acid cause by the PPIs might be the culprit for my bad breath? I heard it could cause SIBO?

I’m insanely lost and I can’t socialize anymore because my BB is that intense. Of course my dental hygiene is on TOP, I even got complimented by few dentists, so I know it comes from the stomach.

Today I started an oral probiotic with K12 and it seems to calm everything down, but I’m not going to scream victory yet because it’s too early.

Could you help me on what I could do? Of course I should manage my GERD/LPR but it seems impossible


r/Microbiome • • 1d ago

Metronidazole and accutane destroyed my gut

3 Upvotes

I have made a couple posts about my situation on here but I keep getting kicked out of my accounts :/ this is kind of like an update/continuation of what im experiencing.

anyways basically 2 months ago i was put on a one week course of oral metronidazole while i was also on accutane. i stopped taking the accutane about a month ago after the gut symptoms got really bad. i was not told anything about this antibiotic and i hate myself so much for trusting random doctors and not researching it before taking it. i would take bv over what im going through now ANYDAY.

at the beginning of all of this i just had really bad bloating, trapped gas, and this annoying pocket pressure feeling under the corners of my ribs. the bloating has gotten better, except now my sides and along the bottom of my ribs there is this raw, burning, stretched feeling that is so uncomfortable its almost unbearable. my upper abdomen and into the sides of my back feels so tight. ive also been having very soft/mushy stools and a clear mucus/liquid dripping out of me when i strain. they are still formed for the most part just very irregular and different from what ive ever had.

it is the worst its ever been right now, and by the 2 months mark i believe i should be seeing improvement rather than worsening symptoms. ive gotten to the point where i cant take it anymore so im trying to get in with a gastroenterologist but its taking forever and im going on vacation next week so im worried i will have to wait until after to get seen and be miserable my whole trip. i just want to know what is going on inside of my body and if it will get better because i feel like ive messed up my life for good and its especially frustrating because ive never had gut issues or stomach problems before this.

this horrible flare up started happening last week when my primary doctor gave me the ortho spore probiotic to try. im suspecting some kind of overgrowth, but im not sure. the raw tight feeling is along where my large intestine is and i dont really have clear symptoms of ibs or an ibd. im thinking maybe SIBO or cdiff? h. pylori? but idk if that would explain the location of my discomfort because my lower abdomen feels fine for the most part. lmk what yall think.


r/Microbiome • • 2d ago

Does the B420 strain-alone arm count as significant in Stenman 2016?

2 Upvotes

After seeing “clinically studied for body fat” plastered on half the probiotic shelf, I sat down with the Stenman et al. 2016 EBioMedicine paper on Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis 420 (B420). The numbers are more nuanced than the shelf claim.

ITT showed no significant between-group differences on the primary outcome. In PP, B420 alone vs placebo for relative change in body fat mass was -3.0%, P=0.28, N=24 (other arms N=35-37, which is why they ran a factorial). LU+B420 hit -4.5% / -1.4 kg, P=0.02 vs placebo, overall ANOVA P=0.095. The post-hoc factorial for B420 came out at -4.0%, P=0.002, which is where most “statistically significant” marketing claims trace back to.

The zonulin to trunk fat correlation was only significant within the LU+B420 arm (r=0.424, P=0.01), not within B420 alone (r=0.297, P=0.16). That points to the gut-barrier hypothesis (tight junctions, endotoxin translocation, low-grade inflammation) riding on the fiber more than the strain in isolation, at least on the correlational side.

My context is a WonderBiotics B420 capsule a friend put me on a couple months back. It pairs B420 with a lemon flavonoid extract (eriomin) rather than polydextrose, so I’m not technically on the Stenman protocol, and I’d guess most people on commercial B420 products aren’t either.

Caveats worth stating: DuPont funded, DuPont owned the strain at the time (DuPont N&B merged into IFF in Feb 2021), single trial, 6 months, overweight BMI 28-34.9, mixed-sex adults 18-65. The 2020 Nutrients review (Uusitupa et al., same DuPont group) summarizes follow-ups, mostly still preclinical.

Hard to tell from the literature how much of the B420 story is strain-specific vs. just an adequate-dose probiotic co-administered with fermentable fiber.


r/Microbiome • • 3d ago

Anyone else with periodontal disease notice gut discomfort after treatment?

10 Upvotes

I’m a daily kimchi/kefir/yoghurt eater with a big variety of fiber sources and I recently got diagnosed with severe periodontal disease. To call the procedure to get it under control is an understatement.

That said, about 3 days after treatment my intestines started feeling like they did the first time I tried improving my gut biome. I’m about 4 days on and I still feel very….bubbly.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is my microbiome leveling up again?


r/Microbiome • • 3d ago

Has anyone had digestive enzymes actually help with bloating after meals?

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20 Upvotes

r/Microbiome • • 3d ago

Green Banana Flour differences?

3 Upvotes

I've been buying Johnny Good Nature's green banana flour from Amazon since everyone recommends it. But it's insanely expensive and often unavailable so I'm also looking at other brands like Nutricost, MRM Organic, and Blue Orchid. They all list Organic Green Banana Powder as their only ingredient but they have wildly different amounts of fiber content per serving on their labels. Do they all have roughly the same amount of resistant starch or no?


r/Microbiome • • 3d ago

Tributyrin 500mg: erratic start with tension/clarity, now worsening agitation, tachycardia and dysphoria crashes. Anyone else?

4 Upvotes

Hey everyone, wondering if anyone here has had an erratic or fluctuating response to tributyrin.

I started taking Deva tributyrin at 500mg about a week ago. It is just the standard liquid softgel without any prebiotic blends or extra ingredients. Right from the start, the first few days were pretty erratic. I did get some very positive windows, mostly towards the end of the day, with great mental clarity, anxiolytic effects, and better energy. But earlier in the day leading up to that, I was dealing with disorganized thinking (which happens to me occasionally anyway), physical tension, and a surprising amount of irritability.

Around day 5 or 6, things started shifting in a distinctly worse direction. I have noticed a crescendo of symptoms: restlessness, irritability getting much more intense, a bit of tachycardia shortly after taking the pill, along with brain fog, headache, and nausea. Then by late afternoon or evening, I hit a pretty rough crash with pronounced dysphoria.

Has anyone else hit this kind of wall after starting tributyrin? Did it eventually settle down if you stuck with it, or did you have to space out doses to every other day? Since it comes in a liquid gel, splitting the capsule is not really an option.

Would appreciate hearing from anyone who experienced something similar.


r/Microbiome • • 4d ago

Can post antibiotics make me feel like this?

3 Upvotes

Hello,

I was admitted to the hospital a few weeks ago for a UTI that turned into sepsis and went into Kidneys. I was in Rocephin IV in they then sent me home with azithromycin and cefdinir.

The courses were 3 and 5 days but since I finished the course I have felt horrible fatigue insane amounts of fatigue and vision changes. gut issues like constipation and just insane Brian fog and not feel like myswlf at all. Very prone to anxiety and overstimulation now outside


r/Microbiome • • 4d ago

Disentangling microbiota-dependent and -independent impacts of antibiotics on host physiology | Nature Microbiology - Oct 2026

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nature.com
2 Upvotes

Disentangling microbiota-dependent and -independent impacts of antibiotics on host physiology | Nature Microbiology


r/Microbiome • • 4d ago

Can I mix husk with yogurt?

2 Upvotes

Can I mix dry physilium husk powder with yogurt and mix it and let it thicken, then consume? Or will that interfer in some way?


r/Microbiome • • 4d ago

Scientific Article Discussion 4 rounds of antibiotics in 3 months

3 Upvotes

Hello there! Is anyone here who took this amount of antibiotics in this very short time! My husband 27, normal health, took azythromicin 1000 mg in august, 3-4 pills of tavanic in septembrie, then a round of 7 days of claritromicine, and now 5 pills of clindamycin. I ve read so many horror stories here about C.diff. And i am afraid for him not to take it.
Thanks.


r/Microbiome • • 4d ago

Does liposomal iron feed methane sibo?

2 Upvotes

I have methane sibo and gut dysbiosis i took liposomal iron and felt quite bad wondering did it feed my dysbiosis?


r/Microbiome • • 5d ago

Which microbiome study changed how you think about the field?

10 Upvotes

I’m trying to separate solid findings from early signals. Which result do you think holds up best and which popular claim still looks more like correlation than causation? If you share a paper, a line on why it stood out and any limitations would be great.


r/Microbiome • • 6d ago

Kimchi: does it really help with seratonin production in the gut

47 Upvotes

I bought some wildbrine kimchi and been consuming it daily. It is oh so spicy


r/Microbiome • • 6d ago

Why the gut never gets healed?

51 Upvotes

Okay, hear me out. I’m not saying that everything is gut-related, but I strongly suspect there’s a connection.
I’ve seen four alternative practitioners, and pretty much all of them were useless.
I’ve had gut issues all my life, which were also influenced by my CPTSD and unhealthy lifestyle choices. I grew up around mentally ill people and was kidnapped as a child. I’m mentioning this because my early experiences had a significant impact on my lifestyle and eating habits.
I ate tons of sweets, consumed a lot of dairy, and drank 1.5 litres of Coke every day for 10 years. I feel like this must have taken a toll on my gut health.
I was eventually diagnosed with lactose intolerance (but tested negative for fructose malabsorption).
Stool tests didn’t detect H. pylori, but they did show low levels of lactobacilli, despite having taken probiotics for years.
In 2021, I changed my diet: I gave up gluten and dairy, drastically reduced my sugar intake, and started eating mostly freshly prepared meals.
Despite all these changes, I’m still struggling with gut issues and histamine related problems, particularly when my allergies flare up.
I’ve been wondering whether it could be SIBO, although I never experience significant abdominal distension or a noticeably swollen belly after eating.
I know there’s no quick fix, and I’m not expecting one. But it’s frustrating, especially because I also struggle with allergies and hay fever.
Has anyone experienced something similar or found a way to get to the root of their gut issues?


r/Microbiome • • 6d ago

Resolved raw onion sudden sleepiness with apple cider vinegar

39 Upvotes

Hi! When I moved to the US from Europe, I noticed that eating raw onion made me fall asleep after 10-15 minutes. Like narcolepsy, I sleep 20-30 minutes and when I wake up it feels like a hangover migraine. I feel groggy and sad. Sautéed onions, leaks, spring onions, shallots and raw garlic have the same effects with varying degrees of tiredness. Because of that I avoided all alliums as much as possible which made it very difficult to go to certain restaurants or to eat at workplace catered events. I was the difficult one at friend’s dinner parties. Also some restaurants don’t mention onions or chives because it’s like salt or pepper to them. I’m grateful I can cook!

Painful for 15 years. One day by accident I realized that if I drunk kombucha, it could lessen the symptoms. Doing more research, I read somewhere that apple cider vinegar (ACC) might help. One tablespoon or I take 2 ACV pills before the 1st bite works like a charm!

I wonder if people may have a clue of what is at play in the microbiome. How do you explain this?


r/Microbiome • • 6d ago

Anyone ever try homemade enteric coated kefir pills?

3 Upvotes

I’m wondering if there might be additional benefits to taking kefir in pill form.