There are several places where I could post this but since this thread is where I posted the first analysis, I decided to follow-up here.
I've received a new gut microbiome analysis from uBiome. The first was done BEFORE I made mainly dietary changes plus added small amounts of concentrated prebiotics, as discussed in this thread. The second was done just over 4 months later with changes as listed in the attached table. Since I have decided to keep doing these analyses at regular intervals, I have listed various other things in the table which I thought it would be useful to track along with the microbiota changes.
The major change I made was including resistant starch (mainly RS3, some RS1 from legumes) with each meal. Essentially I went from a VLC paleo diet to the PHD. So far I have only looked at the big picture at the phylum level. Working through all the genera detail will take longer.
Changes in diet CAN make huge differences to the microbiome (though I think you have to keep up the dietary changes to maintain the differences in the gut - it will quickly revert to the established pattern).
Results show :-
a significant reduction in the problematic Proteobacteria (0.63 X previous) and now just slightly higher than uBiome average,
significant increase in beneficial Actinobacteria (1.53 X previous) though still massively depleted (10.0 X),
massive increase in Cyanobacteria (13.4 X), still a little lower than but much closer to average,
massive changes to Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes (more on that later)
minor phyla still virtually non-existent though one, Lentisphaerae is now registering as a real value (0.01%) rather than <0.01% as used previously, or now 0.0% - in other words detected but only just. This seems to be reflected in a member known to be important for maintaining the integrity of the gut epithelium, viz Akkermansia, now appearing on the list of genera detected in me (only just, but better than not at all previously). Acidobacteria and Spirochaetes have declined from just detectable to not at all, but at these low levels it probably doesn't mean much.
the increase in Firmicutes (1.5 X previous) and decrease in Bacteroidetes (0.43 X) could be interpreted differently depending on what is taken as average. According to uBiome, Firmicutes is now elevated (1.3 X) and Bacteroidetes is depleted (1.92 X). However the average values, which one presumes largely represent a North American population, are very different from much of the literature, not just for hunter gatherer populations but also Europeans.
The changes seen in my gut - Firmicutes 51.5 to 77.5 % and Bacteroidetes 27 to 11.7 % - are similar to those seen by Jeff Leach (in reverse)
http://humanfoodproject.com/going-f...cquire-healthiest-gut-microbiome-world-heard/
who like me didn't change protein and fat but went from high vegetable/fibre to very low vegetable/fibre (not that I was ever very low vegetable, more low resistant starch) .
A study of the French and Dutch found Firmicutes 79.4% and Bacteroidetes 16.9%. The famous Hadza study compared with an Italian population and found Hadza Firmicutes 72%, Italians a bit higher (couldn't find an exact figure in my quick trawl of the paper just because of the way things were reported), Hazda Bacteroidetes 17.1%, Italian 10.1%.
In other words I don't think my results now are abnormal, but rather reflect a relatively high fibre diet.
I've had a quick look for changes to particular genera. Still no detection of Oxalobacter or Bifidobacterium though the closely related Collinsella is just registering, Lactobacillus and Akkermansia are just registering, Faecalibacterium has gone from 0.001% to 0.01% (still terrible since the average is 9.47%).
Better news is that butyrate producing Roseburia has gone from 0.271% to 3.93%, a little above average.
I'll do more closer study and try to come up with a strategy more targeted to the continued deficiencies. Still I am very pleased to have the analysis and to know that real microbiome change is associated with dietary change.
With best wishes
Alice