A Suspicious Gut Microbiome: 19 Conditions Linked to Dysbiosis

Your gut can either be a fountain of youth...or the biggest drag on your health. When the ecosystem of 40 trillion microorganisms living in your gut are thrown into chaos, they can wreak havoc on your health. Microbial imbalance or dysbiosis is linked to all sorts of conditions. We aren’t the first to see that the gut is the epicenter of overall health – Hippocrates the ‘Father of Medicine’ famously stated over 2,000 years ago that, “All disease begins in the gut.” This statement is proving to be more true than anyone fully realized.

Jul 09, 2018

Can’t Lose Weight? 3 Ways Your Gut Bacteria Could Be to Blame

A diverse community of organisms means you have all sorts of bacteria that help with certain roles. The work is divided and you know how that saying goes: many hands make light work. So when you have a diverse group of just the right microbes – your energy production is up, your metabolism is running like a dream, and you feel fantastic. Scientists have found that certain gut microbes help shape your body and keep obesity at bay. A recent study on “intestinal microbiota alterations” in obese individuals suggests “it may be possible to intervene in obesity by targeting the gut microbiota.”1 One day we might even be able to lose weight by simply adding certain bacteria to the gut microbiome.

Jul 22, 2018

Let's Get Dirty! Why Being Too Clean Isn't Always Better

As a parent, you want your child to be happy and healthy. You go to great lengths making sure they have a safe environment, attend the right school, and have the best opportunities available to them. You try to feed your child right and make sure they get enough exercise. But there’s another factor equally as important as good diet and exercise, if not more important. We want to know, are you making sure your child is getting enough bacteria?

Aug 09, 2018

Improve Insulin Sensitivity With This Single Step

The struggle to lose weight and ward off disease has a lot to do with your insulin sensitivity. Insulin sensitivity can be defined as as, “how responsive your cells are to insulin". Improving it can help you reduce insulin resistance and the risk of many diseases, including diabetes. Improving insulin sensitivity is a goal to put at the top of your health goals. Why? It’s well documented that controlling your blood sugar levels is crucial to your overall health.

Aug 15, 2018

Are Antimicrobial Cleaning Products Making Children Fat? New Study Says Yes

Everyday household cleaners may be contributing to obesity in children by altering their gut microbiome, a new study says.

Oct 03, 2018

19 Science-Backed Ways to Improve Your Gut Health

You’ve probably noticed the monsoon of gut health advice flooding the internet. This surge was triggered by the discovery of the gut microbiota – or the 40 trillion microorganisms living in your gut. Researchers continue to uncover how this ecosystem plays a role in nearly every biological function in the body, which makes anyone concerned with their health ask the obvious question: How do you improve gut health naturally?

Oct 04, 2018

Pucker Up: Each Kiss Swaps 80 Million Microbes

When you lean in for a passionate kiss with your partner, you’re not just getting a surge of the love hormone oxytocin, you’re also exchanging about 80 million microbes. We’re not talking any ole kiss here – we mean at least a 10 second French kiss.

Feb 12, 2019

The Microbiome and Weight Gain: Everything We Know So Far

In our grandparents’ times, obesity was a rare occurrence. This has changed over the past four decades. According to the World Health Organization, obesity has almost tripled since 1975. Today, more than one-third of the world’s population is either overweight or obese. While this was more prevalent in first-world countries, it is now common in most parts of the world. Currently, obesity and being overweight kills more people than undernourishment.

Mar 04, 2019

How to stick to a diet according to Science

When beginning a new diet, what you are essentially dealing with is a change in habit. And as the 19th century, Scottish writer Samuel Smiles mentions. “ To uproot an old habit is sometimes a more painful thing and vastly more difficult than to wrench out a tooth.”

Mar 14, 2019

No Guts, No Glory – 9 Ways The Gut Microbiome Impacts Athletic Performance

What if one day athletes could inoculate themselves with microscopic organisms that made them run faster, jump higher, and recover like wolverine? Sounds like a Marvel movie doesn't it? But what if we were to tell you that every athlete is already covered in microbes living in and on them that can give them an edge over their competition?

Jul 05, 2018

A Suspicious Gut Microbiome: 19 Conditions Linked to Dysbiosis

Your gut can either be a fountain of youth...or the biggest drag on your health. When the ecosystem of 40 trillion microorganisms living in your gut are thrown into chaos, they can wreak havoc on your health. Microbial imbalance or dysbiosis is linked to all sorts of conditions. We aren’t the first to see that the gut is the epicenter of overall health – Hippocrates the ‘Father of Medicine’ famously stated over 2,000 years ago that, “All disease begins in the gut.” This statement is proving to be more true than anyone fully realized.

Jul 09, 2018

Can’t Lose Weight? 3 Ways Your Gut Bacteria Could Be to Blame

A diverse community of organisms means you have all sorts of bacteria that help with certain roles. The work is divided and you know how that saying goes: many hands make light work. So when you have a diverse group of just the right microbes – your energy production is up, your metabolism is running like a dream, and you feel fantastic. Scientists have found that certain gut microbes help shape your body and keep obesity at bay. A recent study on “intestinal microbiota alterations” in obese individuals suggests “it may be possible to intervene in obesity by targeting the gut microbiota.”1 One day we might even be able to lose weight by simply adding certain bacteria to the gut microbiome.

Jul 22, 2018

Is The Gut Microbiome The Key To Curing Chronic Diseases?

Our gut microbiome is our most important human organ. This complex ecosystem of bacteria, viruses, fungi, archaea, and bacteriophages has been called the conductor of the immune–neuroendocrine system, home of the immune system, and even the second brain. In fact, the gut microbiome’s role in human biology is so widespread that scientists from nearly every specialty are checking for potential solutions within the gut. With chronic diseases on the rise across the world, the gut microbiome is now front and center in this epidemic.

May 20, 2019

Let's Get Dirty! Why Being Too Clean Isn't Always Better

As a parent, you want your child to be happy and healthy. You go to great lengths making sure they have a safe environment, attend the right school, and have the best opportunities available to them. You try to feed your child right and make sure they get enough exercise. But there’s another factor equally as important as good diet and exercise, if not more important. We want to know, are you making sure your child is getting enough bacteria?

Aug 09, 2018

Your Microbiome Can Impact Your Glycemic Response

In Viome’s latest breakthrough clinical research study, we found that the glycemic response to foods varies greatly based on each person’s unique gut microbiome. In this scientific paper published by our researchers, we describe the clinical study in which we compare how different foods affect blood glucose on an individual level.

Jul 01, 2019

The Microbiome Obesity Connection

Over the last few decades, researchers have been on a quest to find the root causes of obesity. With research on the gut microbiome rolling in on a regular basis, scientists have recently uncovered evidence that your gut microbes may also be partly to blame.

Jul 12, 2019

Improve Insulin Sensitivity With This Single Step

The struggle to lose weight and ward off disease has a lot to do with your insulin sensitivity. Insulin sensitivity can be defined as as, “how responsive your cells are to insulin". Improving it can help you reduce insulin resistance and the risk of many diseases, including diabetes. Improving insulin sensitivity is a goal to put at the top of your health goals. Why? It’s well documented that controlling your blood sugar levels is crucial to your overall health.

Aug 15, 2018

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

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

Understanding Your Viome Scores

Going through your app or website screens you might find yourself wondering – How did we get all those scores and why do they matter? Many keywords are defined in the app, and the results offer a brief explanation each, but here we are going to talk about how these different pieces are tied together. We are excited to share with you the scientific vision behind your Viome scores.

Jul 23, 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 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

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

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 12, 2019

The “Superfood” Conundrum: How Someone’s Superfood May Not Be So Super for You

If you follow health trends, you might notice the word “superfood” gets tossed around quite a bit. It seems like every month a new food is deemed super – like quinoa, broccoli, spinach, and blueberries. It’s not hard to see why: these foods are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals - and often times powerful natural anti-inflammatories. But one of the most common mistakes we make is assuming one superfood is a super food for all and frankly, our gut microbiome has its own opinion on that.

Sep 23, 2019

How Viome is Redefining the One-Size-Fits-All Health Industry

Like all revolutions, it started small: research began uncovering how individuals following a “healthy” diet experienced a wide variety of results. As time went on, it expanded as other studies unmasked nutritional status or dietary connections to a variety of diseases. Then came the discovery of the gut microbiome and the essential roles of microbes in digestion. This breakthrough shed light on why many diet trends missed the target for countless seeking weight-loss solutions.

Oct 11, 2019

Gut Health and Cancer

Incidences of cancer in America are on the rise, with your probability of being diagnosed in your lifetime greater than 1 in 3 - a statistic supported by the nearly 5,000 people who are diagnosed with some form of cancer each day. Although the number of cancer deaths has slowly been declining over the last 30 years (thanks to advancements in treatment) cancer mortality is still at nearly 40%, a number that is all too high.

Oct 01, 2019

Recent Links Between The Gut Microbiome and Cancer

Cancer research has come a long way in the last few decades. Although progress is often slow, taxing, and difficult to generate clinical relevance, the studies you read about today may very well be the tipping point for future therapies. Similarly, some studies have shown the gut microbiome may play a pivotal role in how cancerous conditions occur, creating a field of research that has left many scientists excited to explore.

Oct 13, 2019

Meet Your Second Brain: The Gut Microbiome and Your Digestion

If you’re an avid reader of the Viome blog, you might have read some interesting news about the gut-brain axis and mental health and behavior, but you might not realize how connected it is to normal digestion, too. The gut-brain axis is “bidirectional” which means messages and signals are sent both from the gut to the brain via the vagus nerve, and from the brain to the gut. That means, your gut microbes might be telling your brain what to eat, but your brain is also telling your gut when to start digesting and how quickly it occurs. The messages being sent to your GI tract are just as important as the ones being sent from it – but these interactions may affect you in several different ways.

Oct 10, 2019

Foods for Gut Health? Separating Facts from Myths

If your first inclination in gut health discussions is to think of food, it’s for a good reason. The best way you can optimize your health is through the nutrients you put into your body. Of course, the immediate advice always remains the same – 1. avoid alcohol 2. avoid processed sugar and 3. limit fatty junk food intake - But what comes next? Is it really as simple as “eat healthy?”

Oct 23, 2019

Host Metabolism: How Your Gut Microbes Are Calling the Shots

Despite all this talk on “metabolism,” it tends to be one of those words that everyone uses – but doesn’t actually know what it is. Sure enough, the way many talk about their metabolism is similar to an organ, giving it a specific function tied to many tissues. In truth, metabolism is so much grander, and yet so specific to each organism. Each and every cell, in every living organism – plant, animal, bacteria… - has its own metabolism that plays into a larger, all-encompassing energetic state.

Oct 28, 2019

The Case of the Blood Sugar Disease: A Brief History of Diabetes

Despite how it seems, diabetes used to be a very rare condition. It also represented primarily incidences of type 1 diabetes, over the more common type 2. But rates are climbing with 30 million Americans currently diagnosed with diabetes, and another 84 million right on the cusp of developing it. Between the two, that accounts for more than a third of the American population. It might be near impossible to encounter an adult who hasn’t heard of diabetes.

Nov 01, 2019

Do You Know Your Skin-Care History? 5 Facts You Didn’t Know About the Beginnings of the Beauty Industry

We’ve officially entered National Healthy Skin Month this November and with new research linking the health of the skin microbiome with the health of the gut microbiome – what better time to quiz you on your skin-care history!

Nov 13, 2019

Fighting Cookie Season: Sugar and Your Gut

Joining together with friends and family and eating a little extra before the winter-time blues set in is not only normal but can often bring a sense of happiness and contentment. Some of the biggest ways in which people fall off the wagon of their new “trendy diet” are by making extremely stringent dietary restrictions. Viome knows there’s more to health than just a strict diet – it’s about embracing a healthy lifestyle, and sometimes that includes a little flexibility here and there.

Nov 19, 2019

Are You Feeling Those Wintertime Blues? So Is Your Gut!

In spring and summer, when we walk outside and catch some rays, that sunlight is causing all sorts of beneficial biochemical reactions in your skin. You might be familiar with UV rays – those things that sunblock is supposed to protect you from – but did you know that they also play an important role in keeping you healthy?

Dec 02, 2019

From Microbe to Man: Viome's Clinical Research Initiatives

Our scientists run an extensive clinical research program that is extremely focused on developing science-based personalized nutrition algorithms towards treatment, prevention, and reversal of chronic diseases. As we all know, the current medical system focuses mostly on managing symptoms, without ever curing chronic diseases. This is the main reason why Viome was formed, to finally understand the root causes of chronic diseases and design precision diets for every person, so we can all live a long and healthy life.

Dec 02, 2019

3 Ways Your Gut Microbiome Can Impact Sleep

You’ve heard it in the news and you’ve heard it online – getting more sleep is one of the hottest health trends being talked about. Although making sure you stick to a healthy sleep schedule and aim for 8 hours a day is more than just your typical health “craze”, there is a lot more to managing your night-time routine.

Dec 15, 2019

Top 5 Ways to Spot a Fad Diet

There are a lot of great reasons why you should improve your diet, and managing your weight is absolutely one of them. But whatever your reason for starting your weight loss – or weight gain – journey, determining what dietary changes to incorporate into your routine can seem overwhelming. It may also seem like it’s common sense to figure out which foods you should be eating and which to be avoiding. Unfortunately, bad advice is just about everywhere you turn, with so many sources telling you what dietary practices are right and wrong. You might find that you’re confronted with conflicting advice every which way you turn. Much of the advice you hear is most likely contributing to the use of Fad Diets – trendy and often ineffective ways to lose weight or improve your health.

Dec 22, 2019

Celebrating the Greatest Scientific Discoveries of the Last Century

We’re approaching more than just a new year - we are entering a very new decade! The roaring 20’s are back with a vengeance and this time they have a hundred years’ worth of advancements in modern medicine. We thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of the greatest scientific discoveries that have happened over the last century and which direction we think science is going in the next decade. In truth, it is nearly impossible to prioritize the best advancement for each decade, but we took our best shot. Take a look at what we picked:

Dec 31, 2019

Why RNA, and Not DNA: How Viome Assesses Microbial Activity

As a health and wellness platform, how we generate our results is a common question among users and the public alike. If you’re considering changing your lifestyle to embrace a healthier diet, it’s important to find a reliable guide you can trust. This is why Viome has worked so hard to develop a novel and scientifically reliable way of analyzing your samples. When we embarked on this path, we sought to ensure we were using state of the art technology. By combining innovative gut microbiome sequencing technology straight from the Los Alamos National Labs with a highly specialized machine-learning model, we’ve created one of the most advanced platforms to analyze your gut microbiome activity. There are many things that set us apart from our competition, whether it be the advanced algorithms we use, our world-class team, or our determination to redefine the healthcare industry. This includes our technology– and why we choose to examine RNA over DNA.

Jan 12, 2020

The Cost in Healthcare No One is Talking About (Hint: It’s You)

The ugly truth about poor health is that it doesn’t just wreak havoc on our bodies - it can also put a significant amount of stress on our finances. The costs associated with poor health can range from an increase in doctor’s visits to expensive prescription drugs, and can even result in extended hospital stays from chronic conditions.

Jan 19, 2020

Parkinson’s and the Gut Microbiome: A Steady Start to a New Era of Research

Facing a Parkinson’s Disease (PD) diagnosis can be terrifying. This neurodegenerative disease has seen a steady increase over the last century, often with life-changing symptoms. However, efforts to understand the cause of the disease has created a dynamic movement of truly exciting new research.

Feb 19, 2020

What Your Poop Says About You

For a company that analyzes your gut microbiome based on a sample of your stool, we’ll be the first to admit just how special your poop is. Although you might take your bowel movement for granted, there is an unfathomable amount of information you can gather from it. How you go, how frequently you go, and the appearance of your stool are all things that can say a lot about your digestive health – and it can speak volumes about your overall health as well.

Feb 20, 2020

TMI on TMAO? How Your Diet Impacts Your Heart Health

Americans have been facing an uphill battle against cardiovascular disease for the last forty years. Every 37 seconds, a person dies from cardiovascular disease in the United States, with nearly 650,000 deaths from heart disease each year. A staggering number – translating to nearly 1 in every 4 deaths that can be attributed to cardiovascular events. Yet, there are many ways people can begin to take control over their heart health today. Scientists have found strong associations that dietary and lifestyle changes can significantly strengthen the heart, lessening the impact of many cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Feb 26, 2020

FACTS ABOUT FADS: 4 Ways Trendy Dieting is Hurting Your Health

So even though we all know the hottest fad diet out there may not be here to stay, why is it that we gravitate towards them anyway? Do we really believe that whatever diet one celebrity follows will work just as well for us? And are these fad diets really helping us in our weight loss journey or could there be a darker side lying just beneath?

Mar 12, 2020

Supporting Your Immunity Through Your Gut Microbiome

The latest science illustrates that our innate immunity relies on a healthy gut microbiome. So, how do you support your gut microbiome to help strengthen your immunity? We asked our scientists, researchers, and physicians at the Viome Research Institute to share the research papers and articles which they have been following on ways to boost immunity and the gut-immune system connection, with links throughout this blog to help you learn more.

Apr 09, 2020

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Bariatric Surgery

There are dozens of ways an imbalanced gut microbiome can affect us, and it varies from individual to individual. Diet, lifestyle, environment, age, gender – all of these can alter the gut microbiome balance. When compromised, the most immediate effects can be seen through our digestion and even heighten our risk for weight gain.

Apr 13, 2020

High-Priced Beauty Products vs. Beauty from the Inside Out

New evidence shows the foods we eat affect inflammation in our body and that skin conditions could be a direct result of this internal inflammation. If saving money on skincare solutions and getting your whole body to work for you in all areas at the same time sounds like a good deal, read on.

Apr 23, 2020

Gut Microbiome Health and Cellular Health are the Keys to Optimizing Physical Performance

It's becoming clear that a cornerstone of great health and stronger immunity is through the right food and nutrition which helps nourish your gut microbiome, as well as your human cells, right down to the mitochondrial and molecular levels. People are becoming more conscious of this relationship. But, lesser-known is that your gut and your cellular health also play a fundamental role in fitness.

Jul 08, 2020

How Athletic Performance is affected by your Gut Microbiome, Cellular, and Mitochondrial Health

Imagine a world where you could mimic the most elite athletes’ microbiome and cellular health to improve your athletic prowess. Does this sound like science fiction? Maybe. But, what if we told you that every athlete is covered in and full of microbes that provide an edge over their competition, and has a unique cellular and mitochondrial health profile that helps them produce energy, moderate inflammation, and recover?

Jul 09, 2020