Is It Time to Table the Salt? How Salt May Be Affecting Your Microbiome

When you consume foods high in salt, the food passes through your digestive system and into your intestines, where most of your nutrients are absorbed and released into your blood. Excessive levels of sodium in your bloodstream can have very harmful health effects. It can cause many serious conditions like hypertension, or high blood pressure. Hypertension is known as a silent killer because most people can live for years without experiencing any symptoms. However, if left untreated, hypertension can increase your risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack or stroke. More recently, salt intake has been linked to inflammatory conditions like Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and autoimmune disorders, and now the list even extends to our gut health.

Sep 15, 2019

10 Things Viome's Gut Test Can Reveal About Your Gut Microbiome

There’s a lot of tests out there that offer personalized diet recommendations. Viome’s food recommendations are supported by an in-depth analysis of your living microorganisms and their behavior on a molecular level. Think of it as the Instagram to your inner world—a snapshot of what’s happening inside your body, and each day we're getting a bigger picture. Curious to know some things this gut test can reveal about you? You may be more than a little surprised by what you find.

Sep 14, 2019

Is Gut Imbalance to Blame for Your Hormonal Changes?

Not surprisingly, the man who wrote “women age like fine wine,” forgot to mention the unpleasant changes many women experience as they age. Whereas, we like to believe women enter their more mature years as graceful and radiant creatures, the truth is many women are more likely to be experiencing waves of hot flashes that seem to frequent as quickly as they appear. Although there are many things to appreciate in life as we age - like wisdom and our growing families - mood swings and other biological changes don’t quite make the list.

Sep 13, 2019

The Neurodegenerative Disease: Alzheimer’s and the Gut Microbiome

The heartbreak of having a loved one struggle with Alzheimer’s disease comes not only from losing them after a difficult battle, but from watching with devastation as they slowly lose themselves. Alzheimer’s continues to be one of the most under-diagnosed and under-treated diseases in America, costing over 170 billion dollars per year in healthcare costs1.

Sep 01, 2019

Let’s Talk About Depression

It’s estimated that almost 20 million adults in the United States have experienced depression at some point in their life. Although feeling sadness and grief are normal human emotions, experiencing depression can be a life-threatening disorder - including putting your own life at risk. It can feel like living in a tower of solitude, isolated by an overwhelming ocean in a storm with no end in sight. For families, having a loved one suffering from this disease can feel like drowning, without hope in sight for what seems like an impenetrable condition. The economic burden associated with depression each year costs America over 210 billion dollars. That includes lost income at work, to the cost of medication, down to the costs associated with hospital visits. Ultimately, the greatest cost of mental health disorders are the number of lives that are taken each year, too soon.

Aug 19, 2019

Race to 2 Million: Join Us In the Battle Against Chronic Diseases

Viome’s mission has always been to make chronic illness optional – a goal we firmly believe is not only achievable, but within grasp when enough people care to solve the problem. Artificial intelligence requires a massive amount of data in order to identify patterns, especially when you factor in the many different activities that may cause the same disease in different individuals. We’re racing to 2 million gut microbiomes in an effort to unmask the mystery that clouds many chronic diseases including how individualized the activity of one’s gut microbiome truly is. Each month of our Race to 2 Million campaign we focus on a chronic disease and what we’re learning about it in relation to the gut microbiome. For the month of August, we’re zeroing in on depression.

Aug 19, 2019