Check out this answer from Consensus:
The research indicates that take-home microbiome kits have the potential to predict disease by analyzing the composition of the microbiome. These kits can identify microbial shifts associated with various diseases, making them promising tools for non-invasive and rapid diagnostics. However, further exploration and validation are needed to fully realize their diagnostic capabilities.
The potential of microbiome analysis to predict disease has garnered significant interest in recent years. Research has explored various aspects of the human microbiome, including its composition and its relationship with different diseases. Here, we synthesize findings from multiple studies to address whether take-home microbiome kits can effectively predict disease.
Key Insights
- Microbiome Composition and Disease Correlation:
- Studies have shown that dysbiosis in the gastrointestinal microbiome is linked to diseases such as Crohn’s disease, C. difficile infection, ulcerative colitis, diabetes, and cancer. This correlation suggests that analyzing microbiome compositions could be useful for developing diagnostic tools1.
- The oral microbiome has been associated with a range of oral and systemic diseases, including caries, periodontal diseases, oral cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, and inflammatory bowel syndrome. This indicates that the oral cavity could be a valuable site for disease diagnosis2.
- Diagnostic Potential of Microbiome Analysis:
- Automated high-throughput microbiome kits have been developed to efficiently process fecal samples and generate metagenomic data. These kits have shown promise in identifying shifts in bacterial communities in response to dietary changes and probiotic intake, which could serve as diagnostic biomarkers for certain diseases1.
- Unique microbial signatures have been identified in tissue and blood samples from cancer patients, which can discriminate between healthy individuals and those with various types of cancer. This suggests that microbiome-based diagnostics could be a viable approach for cancer detection3.
- Non-Invasive and Rapid Testing:
- The oral microbiome’s accessibility and the non-invasive nature of sample collection make it an ideal candidate for rapid point-of-care tests. Early life salivary diagnostic tools could potentially predict and prevent future diseases by analyzing the oral microbiome2.
Can take-home microbiome kits really predict disease?
Kate Secombe has answered Unlikely
An expert from University of Adelaide in Microbiome, Cancer
Take-home microbiome kits can be interesting, to get an overall snapshot of the types of bacteria that live in your gut, and how that may differ from others in the population. However, we currently don’t have enough information about how your gut microbiome may specifically relate to disease, and whether it can predict occurrence of certain diseases, and therefore it is unlikely that a take-home kit will be able to do this.
As the gut microbiome can differ so much between different people, we do not understand if certain species of bacteria make developing a certain disease more likely, or whether it is more important what products are produced by the microbiome. How this relates to disease could differ depending on your age, diet, where you live or many other factors. Some diseases may not even have a microbial role at all! There is still so much to learn about our microbiome that I think accurate prediction of disease will be a long way off.
Can take-home microbiome kits really predict disease?
Bella Van Sebille has answered Unlikely
An expert from University of South Australia in Oncology
Not yet. While there is mounting evidence that the microbiome influences diseases, there isn’t currently enough evidence to show HOW this occurs, or what microbial profiles are associated with different pathologies. There is much promise in this area, but it’s still in its infancy. More research in the area is urgently required.
Can take-home microbiome kits really predict disease?
Matt Koci has answered Unlikely
An expert from North Carolina State University in Virology, Immunology, Microbiome, Agricultural Biotechnology
Maybe some day, but we’re a long ways off from that. For now these kits are like home genetics tests like 23 and Me, but years behind. The home genetics kits are are still largely more entertainment than really informing health decisions, but as more people contribute and fill out their surveys they are hoping to find predictive power. The home microbiome testing companies are hoping for the same thing. The idea is if they get enough people’s poo, with enough additional health data from, one day they’ll know what to do with that information. The issue is so many factors affect what they might find in your poo from month to month, day to day, even between breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is so much more noise in one person’s microbiome sample on one random day, so much more than is in the relatively stable human genome that it is going to take a lot longer for these kits to catch up to just what 23 and Me is today.
And for what it’s worth, while I’m skeptical of these kits, I was curious and several months ago was going to give one a try just to see what kind of data they gave out, but before doing so I contacted several colleagues who also work in this area and asked if anyone knew anything about any of the companies. Most weren’t even aware these companies existed and none knew anything about them. They all told me to let them know how it worked if I went through with it, but they wouldn’t spend their money on it. While I still might one day just to see, I decided to donate to a foodbank instead.
Can take-home microbiome kits really predict disease?
Hannah Wardill has answered Unlikely
An expert from University of Adelaide in Gastroenterology, Microbiome
These tests a well designed marketing ploy leveraging on peoples’ interest in the microbiome and gut health. Whilst these tests will certainly tell you about the types of bacteria that inhabit your gut, they are not able to diagnose disease. They may be able to give you some insight into the types of diseases with which certainly microbial compositions are linked or associated, but based on current evidence, there are no universally accepted microbial “biomarkers” for diseases linked with the microbiome. What people can realistically expect to learn from these new commercial tests is more along the lines of a snapshot of how a person’s microbiome compares to others, and the presence of specific gut infections.
For a more detailed discussion of this topic, please visit: https://www.pooisnottaboo.com/single-post/2018/07/18/In-home-microbiome-tests-wont-say-shit-about-your-gut-health