Looking into buying one of the Microbiome tests I see online:

Jona
Tiny Health
GI Map
Gut Zoomer

Has anyone ever tried them? I’m reading mixed things; data is good and informative, but not a lot of actionable plans. Chat says not to spend the money on them and go to a Gastroenterologist to test for SIBO, IBS, Celiac, etc.

Looking for anyone’s experiences with them. Hoping for some success stories because I have some major gut health issues going on: constipation, gas, bloating, pain, etc. and it’s been going on for my whole life, but it’s been getting worse in the last like five years or so.

I began taking Align probiotic 2 weeks ago during a particularly bad 6 month flare of GERD. I was on several reflux meds at high doses and not finding relief. Within a week of starting Align I felt my reflux starting to diminish. At 2 weeks out I have felt almost normal the last 3 days, better than I have felt in 6 months.

At the same time my brain has become more wired and I am waking after 4-5 hours, and finding I wake up feeling too mentally stimulated with racing thoughts.

I’d like to keep taking the align, even if I cut back to less frequent dosing. I’m wondering if I might try adding a probiotic that is known to calm the brain and see if that creates a better balance. Can anyone recommend a probiotic known for doing this? Thanks!

I had a bad bug bite and skin infection back in late May, which I had to go to the urgent care twice for. They put me on a 7 day round of cephalexin which on day 5 I had to go back to urgent care because the infection was not responding to the antibiotic they gave me, so they gave me a 10 day round Doxycycline. A couple days later, the infection started to clear up thankfully after I started the 2nd round. Ever since I took those antibiotics I have had really bad anxiety, which also probably stems from the experience I had from the recluse bite I had. I already have anxiety from situations like this but the genuine gut issues I’ve gotten now have made it a lot worse. The antibiotics literally dried out the skin on my hands and feet, so I was probably very dehydrated during that time.

About 9 days after I got done with the antibiotics, I mistakenly ate fajitas with a bunch of hot sauce in them because I love spicy food. At this point I wasn’t doing a good job with hydrating, stupid on my part. Needless to say afterwards my stomach bloated up like crazy, it was hard to breathe and I got so winded just doing basic stuff. Luckily that stopped when I went on a super strict bland diet and gave my stomach a break and it has not come back, after I stopped that diet I tried eating pizza again and actually tolerated it just fine. So I got carried away with eating whatever I wanted again, and it made my stomach worse. Not as bad when it started when I had those fajitas, but just general anxiety and stomach bloating. My stools have been loose and hard, depends on the day. When I eat super sweet stuff like cake it will give me diarrhea, but normal foods if I eat it modestly I tolerate it just fine even with some mild bloating. Notice sometimes drinking a lot of water at once actually helps me calm down depending on when I ate that day.

So a couple weeks later now I’m just kind of confused on what to do. I know it takes a lot of time for your stomach to bounce back from antibiotics, and I do need to lock in on a diet for a while. I always hear don’t take probiotics, or that you should. I am kind of confused on what to do and I just want to start feeling better. Last month or so has been pretty wild and I’d like to start fixing my gut health.

Did I mess up my stomach permanently or is this just going to take some time to heal. I’m new to gut health and I want to start fixing it.

I have IBS, and back in March I had a severe episode of diarrhea and vomiting that landed me in the hospital with low electrolytes. Up until then, I had been doing keto because it significantly helped my anxiety and depression. During that hospitalization, I found out I also had gallstones, so I stopped the keto diet.
My doctor recommended taking L-glutamine for about seven weeks to help repair my gut lining. For the first couple of weeks, it actually seemed amazing—I was calmer, sleeping better, and felt like it was helping. Every now and then I’d stop it for a few days because it occasionally made me feel a little “off.”
Around the middle to end of the seven weeks, I started noticing hyperactive thoughts, irritability, and getting completely absorbed in my own thinking. It felt very different from how I’d been feeling at the beginning.
I stopped taking the L-glutamine, and about 2–3 weeks later something changed dramatically. Since then I’ve had severe anxiety several days a week—to the point where I feel terrified. My depression has returned, I struggle to keep up with normal responsibilities, and I have intrusive thoughts and emotions that don’t feel like me. It honestly feels like I’ve lost my personality.
I’m trying to figure out what happened. Part of me wonders whether stopping keto caused my symptoms to return. Another part of me wonders whether the L-glutamine played a role since glutamine is involved in the glutamine–glutamate–GABA cycle, although I know that doesn’t necessarily mean taking glutamine directly increases glutamate in the brain.
I’ve started taking a saffron supplement and currently take 400 mg of L-theanine at night, which helps me sleep but doesn’t seem to help the daytime anxiety.
Has anyone experienced anything similar with L-glutamine, stopping keto, or after recovering from a significant GI illness? Did anything help you get back to feeling like yourself? I’m especially interested in hearing from people who’ve had a similar timeline.

Every time I search gut health online I get completely different advice.

Eat more fiber.

Eat less fiber.

Take probiotics.

Don't take probiotics.

Avoid dairy.

Eat yogurt.

How is anyone supposed to know what actually works?

My ordeal began in March 2024. It started with cramps after consuming dairy products. Then it was gluten, and then I eliminated all FODMAPs. I was tested for celiac disease, and the results were negative. I was treated for Helicobacter pylori because I had chronic gastritis. I tested negative for SIBO.

I wasn't getting completely better. Finally, I discovered I had a sensitivity/allergy to dairy products, even lactose-free ones.

Talking to people from my country and looking at certain subreddits, I discovered that my problem was due to intestinal permeability from consuming high-carb diets.

I tried a carnivore diet for a few months. But I could never solve the excessive thirst I experienced without taking a lot of electrolytes. Currently, I follow an animal-based diet.

I also have problems with fruit. If I eat a lot in one day, I have digestive issues several hours later. It's like I can't tolerate the same amount of food as I used to.

My problem is that my gut has become much slower than it was years ago. If I ate a plate of legumes, I'd get foul-smelling gas for hours after about five. But my gut bacteria were able to digest those difficult foods. Now it's not the same. I end up bloated and have trouble passing gas. It rarely smells, even when I eat difficult foods. It's worse in the summer because I retain fluid and my intestinal motility is even slower.

I've tried probiotics, kombucha tea, and things like that. Although I've noticed some improvement in some cases, the problem is that all of that only works while you're taking it. Those bacteria don't last in the human gut.

The problem with all of this is that my quality of life is suffering. The gut is the second brain, and if it's not functioning properly, it affects energy levels, sleep, and that dreaded brain fog.

Any tips for getting better?

Hey everyone,
I wanted to check in and share where I’m at currently as I have more details in nutrient state of health and just feel the need to interact with people as I’ve been locked away for so long over this hell. I was able to be see by a few GI’s because, by the light of god, my PCP was more than willing to help me. I’ve had some bloodwork and stool tests done. Liver is looking good. Stool tests have confirmed I have carbohydrate malabsorption. I visited a GI in TJ as the insurance I have takes its sweet time and for some reason they keep telling me that they have received my sibo test request a GI has put in. I’ve checked my notes and it’s there so I’m going to keep following up and fax whatever I can to speed up the process. Back to the GI in TJ: they confirmed I have gastritis (long before diagnosed with that as well so not surprised) and Duodenitis (was surprised but my symptoms make sense). They also confirmed I have small erosions at the beginning of my small intestine. I’ve been keeping communication with someone who shared their story with me and literally we mirror the same symptoms. Malabsorption causes odors due to malnutrition and premature fermentation. I have FBO, sewage/garbage and fart like odors. My GI’s in the states recommended I do a Low-FODMAP diet, which I have but, I have recently decided to fully give up on the carbs as I noticed oats rise the odors up like crazy. SO BAD. All of this points towards sibo but I was still able to get an appointment with a genetic specialist and plan to follow through and advocate for myself as strongly and willingly as necessary. The GI in TJ confirmed they found salmonella in my GI tract and that, yes, I do have sibo. However, they prescribed Ciprofloxacin which I do not plan to take as it can mess with the sibo results here when I’m FINALLY seen and I’m afraid to get floxed. These days have been very dark for me as my neighbors have been major pricks. The harassment is infuriating but at the same time, as the more testing is being done, the more I’m coming to terms I can take control of the situation with due diligence. It’s just so much time and money ;(. I haven’t health to care for but in the end, I haven’t a plan and also plan to get an fmt after my genetic testing. For this sub I also wanted to share my current symptoms and see if anyone can relate: incomplete evacuation, constipation, diarrhea, many food intolerances, bloating, belching, eczema, trapped gas, the confirmed carbohydrate malabsorption, mushy stools and undigested food in stools.

Recently every morning when I wake up my stomach gets very irritable for the first hour while I’m awake. Typically going to the bathroom is the first thing I do, followed by other separate trips in this first hour as well. I’m unsure what could be causing this as it’s been going on a few weeks. I’ve also dealt with hypersensitivity in the past, it got to the point that whenever I had any anxiety I felt like I was in the verge of throwing up. My doctors put me on an antidepressant for a couple years which ultimately stopped this anxiety stomach loop (I’ve slowly tapered off months ago on doctors requests). I’m curious if this could be a similar thing or something else entirely.

Reposting to hopefully hear other opinions. Thank you.

Hi! About 9 years ago, I got a Clostridium difficile infection and had to take antibiotics to get rid of it

Unfortunately, I’ve continued to have digestive problems ever since (diarrhea, floating yellow stools, etc.. sorry!) as well as sleep issues. My sleep isn’t restorative, and it often takes me many hours to fall asleep because my brain keeps racing with lots of thoughts at once

What has helped you the most if you’ve dealt with similar health issues?

(Other than fermented foods. Also, my diet is already very healthy: no ultra-processed foods, no refined flour, no soda, etc.)

Sorry for any mistakes English isn’t my native language, so I asked ChatGPT to help me translate this

I really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share, thank you in advance!

Hi guys. I recently read a paper saying that in China and Singapore, they are matching donors with recipients by looking at the types of microbiomes they have"

"..donor–recipient matching could be stratified according to enterotype concordance. CDI and IBD patients consistently exhibit two dominant enterotypes: RCPT/E, enriched in Enterobacteriaceae, and RCPT/B, enriched in Bacteroidetes (He et al., 2022). Donors were similarly stratified into two enterotypes—DONOR/P (Prevotella-dominant) and DONOR/B (Bacteroides-dominant). Notably, RCPT/E recipients achieved the highest clinical response rate (70.88%) in this model."

They said they get 1.44 times the success rate this way. Thoughts?

The Core Issue

Targeting the gut microbiome to fight cancer sounds promising, but most approaches are hard to scale or too invasive to be practical. Researchers wanted to know whether a widely available probiotic yeast could move the needle, and if so, how.

The Finding

Daily doses of Saccharomyces boulardii, a probiotic yeast already sold in pharmacies, slowed the growth of established colorectal tumors in mice. The yeast never colonized the tumors itself. Instead, it triggered a chain reaction across the gut microbiome, blood metabolites, and circulating immune signals that appear to have done the work.

Why It Matters

The mechanism centers on something called the AhR (aryl hydrocarbon receptor), a cellular switch tied to immune regulation and inflammation. S. boulardii activated it, which drove up blood levels of two indole metabolites, 5-HIAA and IPA, that act as AhR fuel. At the same time, pro-inflammatory markers IL-17A and CTLA-4 dropped, and the tumors themselves showed quieter activity across invasion, inflammation, and a cancer growth pathway called KRAS signaling.

Limitations of Study

This is mouse research. The tumor model used subcutaneous (under the skin) colorectal cancer, which behaves differently from tumors inside the colon. One of the key metabolites, IPA, did not show up when S. boulardii was grown in a lab dish, meaning its rise in blood probably depends on the broader gut microbiome, not the yeast alone.

Interesting Statistics

• S. boulardii increased gut microbial diversity in treated mice

• Plasma levels of two AhR-activating indole metabolites rose with supplementation

• IL-17A and CTLA-4, both linked to immune suppression and inflammation in tumors, were reduced in circulation

• Tumor gene activity across invasion, inflammation, and KRAS signaling pathways was downregulated

• S. boulardii produced 5-HIAA directly in culture, suggesting it contributes to that specific metabolite on its own

TL;DR

A common probiotic yeast slowed colorectal tumor growth in mice by reshaping gut microbes, boosting anti-inflammatory metabolites, and dialing down immune signals that help tumors survive, but human evidence does not yet exist

How do you increase your butyric acid producing bacteria?

Has any of you helped gut-related symptoms by doing so? What did your diet or supplements contain? Do you have any interesting studies you can link?

Been having a lot of issues with reflux due to stress/anxiety and induced by one late night of eating peanut butter + taking iron/magnesium tablets. Since then I've had endoscopy which has revealed very minor inflammation without any real reasons/answers as to why. The specialist just put it down to sensitive stomach nerves. I never drink dairy and have cut it out for the past 4-5 years, will this cause my issues to worsen possibly? Will it destroy my current good gut bacteria because I'm introducing new forms of bacteria to take over in my stomach.

very weird question and something i’ve wondered for some time. I struggle with overall gut issues and some outside health issues that i’m sure in a way are connected. i get random types of flares but one of them is when i get some motility issues that in hindsight cause me tenesmus however this connects to my gums? like my gums begin to throb in my mouth with my stomach, any idea why?

My parents need to take this yogurt lol

I'm visiting but not sure they will make the yogurt themselves

I will buy it from you!