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Comment by rajup | Hacker News Reader

How does one know one has a healthy gut? Is it possible to have the wrong gut micro biome but not have any gastrointestinal symptoms?

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You have regular bowel movements, nicely formed stool, don't have any bloating/burping/gas, don't feel sluggish after you eat, and you have enough energy and feel healthy

There are companies who will sequence your gut microbiome and give you actionable insights - full disclosure I work for one https://joinzoe.com/

How valid are the actionable insights? Is there one set ideal each person should match, or is it individualistic?

Dr. Sara Gottfried talks about a slate of tests in her recent podcast episode with Andrew Huberman: https://hubermanlab.com/dr-sara-gottfried-how-to-optimize-fe...

While the podcast is focused on female health, the advice applies to men as well.

Yeah there isn’t randomized controlled trials or systematic review on any of this stuff so your company is glorified snake oil and you really should be ashamed. Get the evidence first before trying to take people’s money (AND data!).

What? Zoe is co-founded by Tim Spector, who is very well respected epidemiologist, Zoe did a lot of work in the UK on Covid tracking and Tim was awarded an OBE for his work, are you aware of that or just painting it with the same brush as all these snake oil startups?

Legit question: What does that have to do with anything?

More specifically: Why does being an epidemiologist qualify you to have an opinion on gut microbiomes?

Even more specifically: DO you have randomized, controlled trials to point to? Otherwise, this is just an argument from authority, and one who's experience is not clear is relevant.

I understand, but what I am saying that he is a respected scientist and is doing a lot of work in this area and is using Zoe to further this work, it might be a bit experimental at this point but it’s certainly not ‘snake oil’.

Tim’s papers can be found here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=FIK--DEAAAAJ

What does Covid tracking have to epidemiology have to do with the gut biome?

> Created by the world's top scientists

Would inspire more confidence without hyperbolic claims. Or the auto-playing videos.

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