Paleo? Keto? Vegan? What is the Perfect Diet for YOU?

With all the diets in the media today, and a new one popping up what seems to be weekly, it can be overwhelming trying to decide which diet is the best, and more importantly, which one is best for you. You might be eager to make a change and improve your health, but how do you know where to begin?

Jun 29, 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

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

What's in a Name? Why Are Microbes’ Names Always Changing?

Scientific names are a way for scientists to communicate with each other the most up-to-date information about exactly how a particular organism looks and behaves. Classification systems allow researchers around the world to communicate more effectively and with greater accuracy. But scientific nomenclature is constantly evolving as we learn and discover more.

Aug 27, 2018

Meet Guru - Viome’s Chief Technology Officer

“Holy sh*t!” Naveen said excitedly, after Guru told him he was looking for his next big project. Turns out, Naveen’s response was a bit of funny foreshadowing. This serendipitous phone call was the beginning of a series of events that resulted in Guru Banavar – a former Chief Technology Officer at IBM – joining the team at Viome. Today, Viome’s market leading product uses a stool sample to sequence and analyze the genes of a person's most important and accessible ‘organ’ – the gut microbiome. Combining metatranscriptomic technology and artificial intelligence, Viome delivers personalized nutrition advice aimed at increasing microbial diversity and balance – a key pillar of health.

Sep 27, 2018

Meet Vie - Viome’s Artificial Intelligence System

Vie is embedded in your Viome app – it is the hand-held version of our artificial intelligence system. After you take your Viome test, you get your very own personal AI assistant with Vie. Your recommendations are more than a list of foods you should eat, they are the culmination of trillions of data points that have been analyzed, cross checked, and reanalyzed again until Vie passes high standards of validity.

Jun 22, 2018

The Mind-Gut Connection – How Your Gut Microbiome Controls Your Behavior

The microbes that live in your gut actually influence your feelings and behaviors. Your gut is home to trillions of bacteria and other microbes that directly communicate with your brain along the gut-brain axis, also known as the vagus nerve. We initially thought the brain was doing most of the talking in this relationship, but new gut microbiome research indicates that your microbes are quite chatty.

Nov 30, 2018

A Guide to Your Viome Results

You've received your Viome test results… Now what? 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.

Dec 10, 2018

A Guide to Your Viome Recommendations

Here you’ll gain insight about the process and what goes into your personalized Viome recommendations. We cover the approach we take and some of the scientific principles we use when determining your food recommendations.

Dec 10, 2018

Heal Your Heart Through Your Gut: Understanding the Gut-Heart Connection

The old saying may be true, maybe the way to a man’s heart really is through his stomach. Studies show that gut health and heart health are intricately linked and the key to a strong heart might lay within your gut.

Dec 17, 2018

Your Baby’s Miraculous Microbiome – Set Them Up for Life

So, you might not have considered that your baby isn't the only new member of your family. With your baby comes the beginnings of an ecosystem of microscopic organisms. Colonies of bacteria cover your baby at birth and continue to grow and diversify through breastfeeding, with every kiss, snuggle, and new encounter. These microbes are establishing new homes on your baby’s tiny body and while this might make you a nervous to hear – it’s actually good news!

Feb 01, 2019

Paleo? Keto? Vegan? What is the Perfect Diet for YOU?

With all the diets in the media today, and a new one popping up what seems to be weekly, it can be overwhelming trying to decide which diet is the best, and more importantly, which one is best for you. You might be eager to make a change and improve your health, but how do you know where to begin?

Jun 29, 2018

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

Your Gut Reveals Your Age

Got a gut feeling? Well, you might just be right! Did you know that humans have been around for 200,000 years? 98% of our existence has passed with an average life span between 19 – 25 years. Now isn’t that shocking! Yet, the exponential growth in science and medicine over the last two centuries has increased our life expectancy vastly. Researchers in the past decade or so, have been looking into factors that determine aging, longevity, and ability to adapt to environmental influences. One such factor that is associated with aging, is the microbial composition of our gut. Now, this might sound strange. But scientists will now be able to age you if you were to handover your stool sample to them!

Mar 14, 2019

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

How The Microbiome Affects Athletic Performance

Every human has trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi living inside and on them in multiple microbial ecosystems known as microbiomes. When it comes to athletes specifically, their gut bacteria plays an even more significant role in how well they perform and how quickly they recover. Gut microbes are responsible for the way in which our bodies break down carbohydrates, fiber, protein, and for regulating the body’s energy. These microbes influence the body’s inflammatory response, stress resilience, neurological function, and even impacting mental strength—all of which are important to athletic performance.

May 05, 2019

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

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

Are We On Our Way To Personalized Medicine? Scientists Dive Into the Impact of the Gut Microbiome On Drug Response

Although many factors do drive how we metabolize drugs, scientists are diving deeper into how our gut microbiome may be contributing to our responses. With new research continuously unmasking the complex relationship between our food and our gut microbiome, scientists are beginning to theorize there may be more going on with our drug metabolism, too. The microorganisms that thrive in our GI system may be impacting how drugs are broken down, triggering changes in how these drugs react in our body. This field of research, called “pharmacomicrobiomics,” seeks to understand how individuals respond differently to drugs and determine potential efficacy and side-effect changes based on interactions with our gut microbiota.

Jul 29, 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

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

Healthy Glowing Skin From the Inside Out

At Viome, we talk a lot about your gut microbiome and its role in your health, but did you know that we have a number of other microbiomes found all over our body? The colonies found on our skin make up the skin microbiome, giving us another example of how beneficial microbes are to maintaining our health and wellbeing. These colonies play an integral role in protecting our skin. They shape how our skin looks and feels – acting as protectors of the skin barrier against outside pathogens and toxins.

Sep 16, 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

Did You Know Gut Microbes Can Affect Cancer Treatment Response?

The gut microbiome is vital to our overall health – it's part pharmacy, part powerhouse, and part immune system. Scientists have also found that certain gut microbes determine whether or not you'll respond to disease treatments and drugs well. Meaning, one day in the future it could be possible to manipulate the gut microbiome so you respond to treatments better.

Oct 02, 2019

What's in a Name? Why Are Microbes’ Names Always Changing?

Scientific names are a way for scientists to communicate with each other the most up-to-date information about exactly how a particular organism looks and behaves. Classification systems allow researchers around the world to communicate more effectively and with greater accuracy. But scientific nomenclature is constantly evolving as we learn and discover more.

Aug 27, 2018

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

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

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

Could Your Gut Microbiome Hold the Answer to New Antibiotics?

If someone were to ask you what an antibiotic is, you might be able to give them a pretty good description of a drug that can kill bacteria and heal an infection. You might even go on to describe how antibiotics are used in various ways like topical ointments, oral supplements, or even intravenously. You may even know that many of the antibiotics we use today are made from fungi, such as penicillin and amoxicillin. But – you might not know that discovering new antibiotics has been steadily declining over the last 60 years – with only 3 new drugs out for market in the last twenty years. Many pharmaceutical companies have deemed them not financially profitable, limiting the discovery of new drugs. Not only that, but antibiotic resistance has changed how effective many of these antibiotics are.

Nov 18, 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 Types of Personalized Nutrition Companies That Aren’t Being Honest With You

We get it. Viome isn’t the only company to use the words “science-based, personalized nutrition”. The internet is saturated in companies claiming to offer recommendations based on your body type, a questionnaire, or your DNA. Although technology today is racing at the speed of light, most likely these companies are falling short on what they promise: offering limited “personal” options or generalizing their results in a manner that doesn’t quite add up.

Dec 16, 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

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

10 Ways to Invest in Your Health

It has been amazing to witness people all over the world in the past few weeks quickly adjust to new ways of living, working, and creating new routines to keep healthy. With these changes, we’re also given an opportunity to invest in ongoing wellness for ourselves and our families and create new healthy habits together. Over the next few weeks, Viome will be providing tips on eating the right superfoods for you in affordable, more convenient ways, and how to support your gut microbiome to improve your overall wellness.

Apr 03, 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

17 Grocery Shopping Tips to Make Your Life Less Stressful—and More Healthy

Grocery shopping in ordinary circumstances can be a little tricky, if not at times overwhelming, and certainly expensive. These days, what you put on your shopping list is becoming increasingly important for your at-home comfort and health. What was once a fairly mundane chore has morphed into a complicated task. You may be concerned about not only about cooking meals that your family will enjoy, but also being able to give them the right superfoods and nutrients they need to support their wellness and immunity.

Apr 20, 2020

Gut Health is the Key to Optimizing Physical Performance

It's clear that a cornerstone of great health and stronger immunity is a healthy gut. People are becoming more conscious of this relationship. But, lesser-known is that your gut also plays a fundamental role in fitness. This system does more than simply breaking down nutrients. It produces hormones like testosterone and estrogen, and neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. It also influences inflammation levels. All of this is important to athletic performance.

Apr 22, 2020