Episode 90 - Inside My Gut Health Journey: What Microbiome Testing Revealed About My Body
Episode 90 Show Notes
In today’s episode, I’m walking you through my gut microbiome test results—and let me tell you, the findings were eye-opening. While my overall gut health score was solid, my bacterial balance and diversity had some major gaps that explained so much about the symptoms and struggles I've been facing.
I’ll share how past stress, pregnancy, and gut-clearing protocols affected my microbiome, why I’m missing critical gut bugs that influence blood sugar, metabolism, and even sleep—and how my current fitness and nutrition habits are perfectly setting the stage for healing.
If you've ever wondered why you're struggling with stubborn weight, blood sugar issues, gut discomfort, poor sleep, or just feeling "off"—this is the episode you have to hear. Plus, I’ll share how personalized probiotics, resistant starches, and a few simple shifts are part of my plan to rebuild a healthier, more resilient gut.
Testing—not guessing—has changed the game for me. I hope it inspires you too!
Tune in to hear my full story, the gut bugs I'm missing (and why they matter), and how this ties back to what we do inside Faster Way coaching!
Thank you for supporting my small business. Here are some brands I trust and use myself with a discount for you:
Equip Protein - 15% off with code WICKES
Masa Chips - 20% off code STRONG $50 or more
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Welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to analyze my biome effects results. That is the result of my gut microbiome. All right, your gut microbiome is dominated by four major phyla. So there's bacteriodetes, firmicutes, proteobacteria, and actinobacteria. So you got to evaluate the distribution and spread of these bacterial phyla that give you a sense of which one is taking up most of the real estate in your gut. So it's ideal to have a microbiome that's comprised of about 64 % of the bacteriodetes, 38%. Firmicutes, 4 % actinobacteria and 3 % of the proteobacteria. My samples, my ratios are all off. My bacteriodetes were 17.4%, should be 64%.
My firmicutes was at 77%, should be at 38%. The actinobacteria was at 0.59%, and that should be about 4%. And then the proteobacteria was not super off. That was at 2.31%, and that should be about 3%. So there is some work to do.
My gut microbiome index, like on a scale up to 40, it should be at least 30 to be considered healthy. Mine was 35.8, okay, out of 40. I don't know about you, but that's pretty much an A on any test in any school. So I'm gonna give myself a huge pat on the back for that. okay, when I did gut testing years ago, and I mean, there was so, oh geez.
That would be its whole podcast episode to talk about what was going on in my life at the time. But in general, there was a lot of stress the last time I had this done. had lost a baby, a very little baby in my belly. I had recently become pregnant with another baby, which is now Helen. There was a lot of stress with my extended family and my marriage. And it was just, it was a lot. So with that being said, my gut was absolutely destroyed. And because of that, I had an overgrowth of, geez, I'm not gonna remember the name of it now. If I remember, it'll come to me, I'll tell you. But there was an overgrowth of the bacteria that leads to higher incidences or at least any incidence of colon cancer. So it was like, all right, we need to kill that guy and get him out because that's not okay. And in that process, we likely killed out a lot of the other native flora that was good. I mean, it's a lot like, taking an antibiotic, all right? And these were all natural herbal supplements, but nonetheless, they did kill off a lot of the diversity that I had in my gut that I wasn't really aware of that had been killed off until we just did this next round of testing. But here's what I will say. With the lack of diversity that was found in my gut, the bacteria, the good bugs that are in there are doing a fantastic job at what they need to be doing, which has given me such a great score on my microbiome test. So there you go. If you're going to have a decrease in a certain population of gut bug, then the gut bugs that are there, they better be doing their damn job. Like if you got time to lean, you got time to clean, let's go. You got to do some stuff. So with that.
So the alpha diversity is the total number of species that are found in a person's gut microbiome. A healthy gut microbiome contains at least 200 different species. So total species found in mine was 173. And there were quite a few that was just completely missing, which is not awesome. we are now, I have a very targeted, and this is another question I get asked a lot, is what probiotics should I take?
It's almost impossible to say that there are full spectrum probiotics you can take. Seed is a brand that makes a pretty decent full spectrum probiotic. And some of them just make probiotic. People are typically defunct in this and they're probably using my data to put out cell information to make new probiotics. But if you know exactly which ones you don't have, it's easier to just get those supplemented so you don't start creating an overabundance of other gut bugs. And listen, I'm just gonna put this out there. First thing is when you get that tested and you find out exactly what gut bugs you have to have in there, you have to feed them or they die, right? Like any other species, you have to feed them. So my beta diversity, so let's keep going on. I talked about alpha biodiversity.
So beta diversity you'd want a score. So the range goes up to 10 for that marker. Higher beta diversity is better, preferably at least an eight. Mine was an 8.57. So I was at the low end, but I did make it in the bracket. The resistome is the sum of antimicrobial resistance genes that are in my gut. So it's a measure of the richness and stability within your gut microbiome.
And it's also a measure of overall resistance or resilience and strength of my microbiome. So within that, bacteria can produce a natural antimicrobial and chemicals that compete with one another. So my resistant, resistome occurrence index was a 9.49, which is great.
So the pathogen control index, so low levels of pathogens are a good thing and characteristics of a very healthy gut microbiome, whereas high levels are not normal and generally can indicate a correlation between symptomology within a pathogenic presence. So the pathogen control index is a relational comparison between you and your microbiome's pathogen presence and that of a gut that's considered healthy. So the range marker for that is zero to 10. And my sample, the control index was 8.83 and my sample in abundance was 0.995, right? So that shows I did not have a very high pathogenic feature within my gut, which is awesome, because you don't want that. All right.
It went through and talked about a lot of different individual gut bugs, but there were key ones that were not detected at all that needed to be there. So bifidobacterium longum, one of those, it's an essential GABA producer that helps influence your stress response and modulates your neural activity. So it's a neurotransmitter that helps you shut off your brain at the end of the day so you can sleep.
It's also been known to assist with constipation, food digestion, so modulates your immune system and protects against infections and inflammation that will also help improve your sleep quality. You guys, I have none of that in my gut, none of it. And that explains a whole hell of a lot for me because my husband's, Adam's like, why can't you just chill sometimes? Like, can you just chill?
I'm like, actually, no, I really can't just chill. And I don't know why. I just thought, well, maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm ADHD. And here's what I thought too is, my gosh, what if moms tested their kids that had ADHD and what if Bifidobacterium wasn't there? Then maybe we wouldn't be putting kids on drugs. We would give them the correct probiotic that would create GABA so they could chill. So it could regulate their nervous system improve their sleep and help them chill out a little bit more. So to keep that particular gut bug happy and at healthy levels, like you want to eat a lot of resistant starches and those carbs like three to four times a week, which is so easy for me to do. Hot tea is great. Green tea helps promote that individual species. And I pretty much drink that every single day for anti-cancer benefits. So lifestyle recommendations, moderate exercise.
Science has shown that that helps modulate these colony levels, which is amazing, right? So if you were to supplement, you could have green tea extracts or fructo oligosaccharides from like green kiwi fruit. That increases the abundance of the B. longum individual bug I was talking about, which is awesome because these are things that I eat normally every single week, no matter what.
Our meal plan with the faster way is so fantastic that when I was going through all of these individual gut bugs that are required in your gut that I am absent of, so besides putting them back in because they're not there, like you can't grow them if they're not there. So with this very targeted probiotic, you know, regimen that I'm on for the next six months is going to put them all there. But you guys, I already have the nutrition in place to help feed them and help them grow.
Amazing. I cannot say enough great things about this program. And this is just another one of them. So another keystone species was the bifidobacterium adalentis, and that has multiple metabolic functions. So anti-inflammatory and it suppresses the inflammatory cytokines. So it helps with your gut barrier function, maintains the integrity of your intestinal barrier. I don't have any of that in my gut either.
That's not good. And it contributes to the production of essential B vitamins. Okay. Did you recall the last episode where I talked about my genetic test that showed I have a decreased amount of B vitamins? Boom. Here you are. I am missing that gut bug that helps produce these essential B vitamins. So you guys, these tests that I've done that I'm telling you about, they all work together.
The third one I don't have yet, and that was my vaginal microbiome. So we'll get to that on another episode, but I don't have the results of that yet. All right. Because that one is missing, that has a key role in your metabolic health. All right. And it may help manage blood sugar, which as I've talked about multiple times that my body is struggling with right now. Well, I would imagine that perhaps this might get under control when this gut bug gets put back into my gut. And look, you guys, this takes time. This is not an overnight fix. I'm gonna be on this particular targeted regimen for at least six months. And then we will retest and see what my volumes are doing. The next keystone specie that was undetected in my gut was bividobacterium pseudocantilatum. Studies have indicated that one also plays a role in managing blood sugar. You guys, have insulin resistance. I have blood sugar problems and I'm missing these key bacterias. Test, don't guess. Test, don't guess. It contributes to weight management, all of your metabolic processes, your immune system, which always starts in the gut despite what some people believe.
It's not about standing next to somebody who's coughing and like, great. Now I'm getting sick. I mean, it has everything to do with what your gut microbiome is, how well it's functioning or how dysfunctioned it is. So it also, you know, helps again improve the gut barrier function and promotes a balanced microbiome, you know, by being a modulator between all the different bugs that are in there. So nutrition, grains, fruits, vegetables. Did you listen to the last episode where I talked about my genetic test where it says, is what you're most genetically predisposed to? I think pretty much everybody, pretty much, mean, with the exception of very targeted nutrition protocols for specific inflammatory diseases, which I also think could start in the gut, but nonetheless.
Targeted nutritional therapies have a place, okay? But that shouldn't be the first place you go to. You should be going to a diet that is diverse and has fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, animals, some dairy. And the gut microbiome test is showing just how important that level of diversity in your nutritional components makes in growing and proliferating these individual gut bugs that you absolutely need to have to be the most optimal that you can be. right. So lifestyle stuff, always limit the unnecessary use of antibacterials because they're highly susceptible to being wiped out and then focus on whole real foods and increase the microbiome diversity with these quality probiotics.
So there is another one is phylum, I'm sorry, it's para-bacteriocis meridae. I'm probably butchering it, don't come at me. So P meridae, it's a bile acid metabolizer that turns bile acids that are created into the liver into secondary bile acids that play assistant with different aspects of your metabolism. So it also plays a key role in immune and inflammation regulation, just pretty much like they all do, but more specifically regulating the production of metabolites like short chain fatty acids that protect against cardiovascular damage. I do have that guy, but it's in a lower amount. So all the same stuff that you do before, stay away from cigarettes and eat, you know, glue canned foods like leeks, asparagus, onion. I had asparagus with my breakfast this morning. Onions, garlic, chicory root, oats. There goes my microphone again, falling off.
Oats, have multiple days a week. Look, I had a follower mention that to me, like, I heard oats are bad. I don't know who's saying that, and I don't know why they're saying that, unless they're talking about like glyphosate perhaps, because oats are heavily sprayed with glyphosate. I think it's one farmer. I'll have to go look at my bag downstairs, but that one is certified, tested, has no glyphosate on it at all.
I don't know where people are getting this don't eat oatmeal stuff from. artichokes, barley, stuff like that. Again, my genetic tests showed that Mediterranean is my ideal genetic match and everything on these gut bug preference and how they grow is Mediterranean. Beautiful. There's another one that is completely not detected. Again, and this is brilliant for my body. So the golden, Probably not saying that right again. So similar to the myrde before that, that species is also a bile acid metabolizer and it's, know, positively affects cholesterol, H. pylori. That's what it was. Remember I said earlier, if I could remember it, I would tell you it was an overgrowth of H. pylori. And it doesn't show that I have that anymore, but it will actively combat H. pylori, which is a gut infection that I had previously that I don't currently have, but I'm also non-existent of the Goldensteinly, which I definitely need. It improves your visceral fat levels, which is awesome. I don't have a high or almost non-detectable level of visceral fat. I do have subcutaneous fat. Everybody does to a certain degree. However, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, very different. So, and it also increases your mitochondrial and ribosomal cellular activities, which is crucial for energy function. Huge, right?
The nutrition component, avoid a high fat diet. So prioritize your fat intake and then take in more resistant starches. Amazing, right? Because my genetic test already showed that I don't use fat as a fuel source very well. Lifestyle, HIIT training is beneficial for this particular gut bug. What do we do on Mondays and Tuesdays? We HIIT train. You guys like I'm already there.
All I need to do is get these gut bugs back in and my lifestyle and my nutrition, it's already there. It's freaking brilliant. I love it. And I was blown away. was like, holy monkeys. I don't have to do an entire lifestyle and nutrition shift. So when you're listening to this, you're thinking, well, you know, what does this have to do with coaching with the faster way? You guys, it has everything to do with it because we're already doing all the right things for your gut health.
This is so far beyond just, I'm getting skinnier, I'm getting more muscle. You are getting healthier. Not because you're thinner, not because you're more muscle, but yes, also. And it is providing the nutrients your gut requires to be the most optimal and to complete all of the metabolic processes in your body, which includes building muscle and burning fat. But it can't be exclusive to that because you can definitely get skinny in an unhealthy way. Trust and believe.
All right. Another, you know, gut bug that is doing all right in my gut, you know, it's a Mediterranean diet. Again, that's what it talks about. So yeah, I'm a huge fan. There's another Keystone's PC, Brahmi, Ruminococcus Brahmi. I think that's how you say it. Somebody will know and they'll be like, that's not it. So our Brahmi, key role in breaking down resistant starches. that's not detected in my gut.
Could that possibly be part of the reason why I am not having great blood sugar regulation? I think so. Again, resistant starches, that's what you've got to have, lifestyle, I mean no particular actions from that, but walking, de-stressing, always amazing. All right.
There's a few more. I'm not going to go through every single one of them because, you know, my, my guess is that maybe you're not that interested in every single individual species that I am absent of. But if you are, I could sure tell you that. And I do have some that are completely out of range. Like the butyrate is the main energy source for epithelial cells. I, I am like too high on that. So that needs to come down.
So I need to increase the amount of fiber. I need to, let me see. There is another one. yeah. When it talks about like acetate production, acetate is a key short chain fatty acid. So it's produced by multiple species of gut bacteria and it's essential in maintaining your gut health and the epithelial barrier function. Like, you know, when people say leaky gut, like if you don't have enough of this production, that could be why. So this gut microbiome test, like absolutely, you need to get that if you're trying to take a more targeted approach to what your body needs to do to function most optimally. Because guessing, it's not gonna get you there because it really is dynamic. then when it talks, the gut microbiome test talks about vitamin biosynthesis. Like how does my body synthesize in particular vitamins? And not even, we're not even talking about, well, I guess I can talk about that. Like vitamin K2, K2D3 is a common supplement that come together. And by the way, you need magnesium with that. Bio-optimizer, by the way, is my product.
I have a lot of supplements from BiOptimizer. I enjoy that one. I'm not an affiliate for it. I don't make any money from it. I just do. I that one. The rest of the supplements that I have, by the way, those are all coming directly from my nutritionist. So I can't give you a link for those because those are targeted and curated specifically for what I was deficient in. I will put her contact information in the show notes, but I was taking a K2D3 combo supplement. You guys, my gut test.
None detected. Zero K2 detected. Which means either I was not synthesizing it well or the supplement that I was taking was not bioavailable. That's no good because that was, I don't know, how many hundreds of dollars I was peeing out over time. So I am on a new supplement, K2D3, and I take my magnesium when I take those. And we'll see.
Alrighty, so vitamin B9, folate, again, I wasn't showing any folate in my gut. That is not ideal because, and you know, a lot of lifestyle stuff, that is just ensuring plenty of sleep. Like I eat folate-rich foods, but my gut wasn't showing that it had an abundance of that. And that's important for pregnancy, right? Neural tube defects happen when you are folate deficient, which is another reason why it's like, holy monkeys, I better be really particular in not getting pregnant right now because I don't want to have a baby that has a neural tube defect that's going to affect him or her for the rest of its life. So again, another metric that I need to be very aware of, like, okay, I have really got to focus on adequate sleep, stress reducing activities, supplements that contain some whey protein. I actually have a whey protein as well as...
Whey protein as well as a beef isolate. I prefer beef isolate two-way, but this is another one where it's like, hey, it's important to have that in there. I am also drinking a mushroom blend of like coffee. It's a coffee mushroom blend in the afternoon. It's decaffeinated and that helps with maintaining folate levels as well. So there you go. There's a lot more on here but i wont bore you with the details. But I've got very specific dosing protocols and it talks a lot about functional fibers. Maybe I'll do a whole episode on what that is and where they're found and talk a little bit more nerdy in nutrition science. I don't know if that would be helpful for you or not. You should let me know that. can get online, DM me. Whatever, lots of those. So functional mushroom teas, awesome. I do need to get some seaweed kelp because that is awesome for glucagan. So feeding these gut bugs, that's what we're looking at. Ooh, I do need to make the pectin too. Maybe I'll do a reel on that one and show you guys the apple pectin. So you eat that, it's a powerful prebiotic, lots of soluble fiber that's found in the fruit. So the pectin binds substances that are in the intestines and then adds bulk to the stool. So you find them in like citrus peels, which you don't typically eat, apples, pears, pitted fruits, we have tons of like pitted, or I'm sorry, pitted fruits, plums, apricots, peaches, stuff like that, guava and carrots. So I will make, I had forgotten about it until I looked at it, the pectin recipe to be eaten before it's like two tablespoons, two tablespoons of apple packed in every day, add a meal of my choosing and I still haven't made it. I need to go do that now actually, or I will forget. Anyhow, it's a very basic recipe. It's got cinnamon, apples, boil them together. That's basically it. Apples, I'm sorry, raisins and cinnamon. Boil it together, watch for the skin, turn it off. It's kind of like an apple sauce. So anyway, I can talk to...
I can probably put that online for you. Nonetheless, there you go, folks. You've got microbiome testing. Corroborate, corroborate, corroborates the data I got from my DNA testing, which is in the previous episode. So go listen to that. And I will also talk about my vaginal microbiome testing, which will also play a role here, folks, because I had some histology that came back bad multiple times, which was cervical cells showing dysfunction.
After speaking to a friend of mine, is a pelvic floor PT, she talked about women in their midlife typically lacking vaginal estrogen, and that's why their cells are going wonky. Not because they've got cancer, but because they just need a little extra estrogen vaginally. Did you know that? That your vagina needs its own supply of estrogen. The wacky world we live in and female bodies. You guys, you guys. All right.
That's all I have for you today. Thank you for being here. As always, if you have any questions, hit me up on the socials. I am active on both Facebook and Instagram. You can go to my website, submit an email inquiry there. It gets to my inbox. And as always, stay strong, show up. Can't wait to talk to you again. Ciao, guys.