What is Gut Microbiome Health Test?
This Gut Health Test is a gastrointestinal test to detect microorganisms that impact our gut health.
These microbes might hinder normal intestinal health, or contribute to dysbiosis with symptoms such as bloating, indigestion, constipation, inflammation, or compromised immune system.
Using stool samples, it maps the gut microbiome with several techniques including Automated Chemistry / Immunochemistry, Quantitative PCR (qPCR), Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Chemiluminescence Immunoassay (CLIA).
What does a gut microbiome test measure?
This test measures the following:
Pathogens: toxins from bacterial, parasitic, and viral pathogens including C. difficile, Campylobacter, E. coli, Salmonella, Giardia, Adenovirus, Norovirus.
H. Pylori: different virulence factors to determine severity of infection.
Normal bacteria for everyday health: bacteria that help support the gut health including those from probiotics, Lactobacillus, and E. coli.
Opportunistic bacteria: different forms that cause dysbiosis, overgrowth or are potential triggers of auto-immune diseases.
Fungi/Yeast: several strains including Candida.
Parasites: different protozoa and worms.
Potential Autoimmune triggers: such as Citrobacter, Klebsiella, Proteus.
Who should check gut health?
Anyone with the following symptoms should check:
Chronic, serious gastrointestinal problems
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
Inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS)
Suspected H. pylori and other bacterial, viral or fungal infections
Gut dysbiosis and intestinal permeability
Auto-immune diseases
Small intestinal bacterial growth (SIBO)
How to test for gut health?
Simply order the microbiome test kit, collect the sample at home, ship it for to our world class CLIA-certified labs, and find out your results in a few days.
The kit will provide easy-to-use sample collection supplies and you will receive a report that you can share with your doctor. With a stool sample, it's fairly simple and straightforward how to test for leaky gut health at home.
Be informed, read more...
Learn more about Leaky Gut from Harvard Health here.
The National Institute of Health suggests eating plenty of fruits and vegetables to keep gut health in check.
Q: Can I purchase the test across US?
A: Except New York and New Jersey our tests are available in all 48 states. State regulations in NY, NJ do not allow us to ship the test kits to their residents.
Q: What does the kit contain and how do I use it?
A: The kit contains stool collection supplies, instructions on how to collect the samples, and a form requesting basic information including date and time of collection. The directions are fairly straightforward and easy to follow.
Q: How long does it take to receive the results?
A: Normally you will receive the kit in about 3-5 business days with a prepaid return envelope (for orders within US).
After you ship the sample and it is received by our lab, you get the results within 10-12 business days (due to large number of markers, this test requires longer than our usual turn-around time of 5-7 days).
For orders outside US, we provide the necessary paperwork for cross-border shipping.
Q: What should I expect from the report?
A: The report with your test results will be easy to understand and will have all the necessary details.
It will mark whether you are negative or positive for any of the bacteria, viruses or fungi and what are their levels.
It will specify what are the expected low and high ranges.
The report will also include several pages explaining the markers in an easy-to-read language.
Detailed explanation of your results and instructions make it easy how to test for leaky gut from home.
Q: Can I use my insurance to pay for the test?
A: You can use HSA (or FSA/MSA/HRA) accounts to pay for the tests since these are prescription tests (for further confirmation, please check the IRS publication#969).
You can login and download an itemized report anytime to submit to your insurance.
We do not have the capability to process the insurance claim. Since insurance plans vary for individuals we can not guarantee your HSA payment will always be processed by your plan.
We suggest talking to your insurance provider if you have any questions.
Q: How reliable are my tests and how do I ensure my results are accurate?
A: Measuring leaky gut is an emerging field. The test quantifies bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites using PCR (a technique widely used for testing COVID19).
This is a leap forward from older methodologies that report only positive or negative.
Reference ranges for the test are developed using known positive, diseased samples to construct cut off values that distinguish disease-causing amounts of pathogenic and opportunistic microbes.
Reference ranges for the pathogens were correlated with an FDA cleared assay for GI pathogens.
To minimize any variations in your results, we have partnered with CLIA-certified labs that are regulated by the states, as well as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Many tests from these labs are FDA approved to ensure they meet the proper regulatory requirements.
Additionally, the College of American Pathologists (CAP) requires inter-laboratory tests to ensure the ranges established by each lab do not drift or are not out of acceptable ranges.
This is done by regularly testing reference samples between different labs.
Finally, the labs test thousands of samples for different age groups and health conditions, and have well established reference data to compare your results against this large pool.
Q: Can you recommend a therapy if my numbers are high or low?
A: Unfortunately, no. As a lab test provider we can only test and report out data from your sample.
We are not authorized to provide any medical recommendations. But we strongly encourage you to discuss the results with your doctor for next steps.
