uBiome results

[mermaid]

Thank you for that list then. I tried to buy the raw potato starch in our local health shop but they didn't have it. I do sometimes have cold cooked potatoes though which are also good I understand. I will try to see what I can buy online now...

Good to know that the leeks are helping even though cooked!

 

[jepps]

I sympathise with what you say about having problems with prebiotic rich foods. Way, way back I had that problem too. It took quite a few years of digestive enzymes, bile salts and things like glutamine before I could slowly expand my diet and eventually get to the point where I can eat most things.

The same for me. Four years ago I could only tolerate bone broth, meat, fish and a few vegetables. I started 2014 with the several prebiotic supplements, RS and probiotics. Today I am able to tolerate almost everything. I take high dosages of these supplements, and hold on.

Bifidobacteria and akkermansia were zero at the first Ubiometests. After one year akkermansia, and after 2 years bifidos were detectable, and improved from test to test.

Kefiran improved the diversity about 20 %: 70 species instead 35-40, 16 classes instead of 12-13, 32 families instead of 24-26, 8 phylums instead of 6-7.

 

[adreno]

Finally received my uBiome results. Doesn't look too bad (I think). Diversity is at 95th percentile, which is good. I have considered doing a fecal transplant, but perhaps this won't be helpful when diversity is already high? Or could it affect ratios in a positive way?

Most rare bacteria are these:

Pelistega genus 0.2%
Cruoricaptor genus 0.2%
Alcaligenaceae family 1.1%
Mycobacteriaceae family 2.6%
Pseudoclavibacter genus 4.5%
Brevibacterium genus 5.0%
Brevibacteriaceae family 5.0%

Anyone have something similar?

 

[Thinktank]

What a sorry excuse of a company ubiome has become. Their customer service is either unreponsive or responds 10 days late at best.
My sample has been processing for 3 months so i requested my money back because they are clearly not able to provide me the service that i paid for. The results from the stool sample from 3 months ago are now completely useless.
So far i have still not received a response on my request to cancel my purchase.

 

[Abha]

Thank you for that list then. I tried to buy the raw potato starch in our local health shop but they didn't have it.


Hi Mermaid,
Re buying potato starch if you have any Indian/Pakistani/W.Indian stores locally you may be able to buy it there.There is a brand called Farina that large Asian stores sometimes stock.In the past I managed to get it online from Holland

 

[mermaid]

Hi @Abha unfortunately we do not have much of an ethnic mix where I live down the far west of Cornwall so no shops of that kind here.

However, I think I have now found it online quite easily via Amazon and also Holland and Barrett seem to sell it! I did not realise that potato starch is in fact the same as potato starch flour. There is an organic one available too via Healthy Supplies.

 

[alicec]

I did not realise that potato starch is in fact the same as potato starch flour.

What a confusing name to use, though it sounds like it is probably the right thing.

Potato flour, which is made from whole potatoes, often cooked, is not what you want. It is creamy yellow and smells strongly of potatoes.

Potato starch is what you want. It is made from the unmodified (ie uncooked) starch from the potato. It is pure white and fine, much like cornflour.

iherb is another possible source and for many other prebiotics.

 

[mermaid]

Oh dear that is confusing, as while trying to get my head round this, I read an article online that claimed that potato flour and potato starch flour were the same thing but now I see that was wrong! I guess if it has starch in the name then it probably is that rather than the flour.

I have heard that it's expensive for import duties buying from iherb as it's in the US and I am in the UK. Not sure if that's true. Anyway, it looks as if Holland and Barret do have the starch quite cheaply and we have a branch locally.

Thank you for your help!

 

[dannybex]

What a sorry excuse of a company ubiome has become. Their customer service is either unreponsive or responds 10 days late at best.
My sample has been processing for 3 months so i requested my money back because they are clearly not able to provide me the service that i paid for. The results from the stool sample from 3 months ago are now completely useless.
So far i have still not received a response on my request to cancel my purchase.

Don't hold your breath @Thinktank. I was offered a free kit to sample gut, skin, nose, etc., and sent that back in November 2016, but made a mistake with the nasal sample, so they sent out a new kit. (I was interested in this because I've had sinus problems for 20 years.)

I sent that back in early December, didn't get the results until March. But only the results for the gut test. Then about a month or so later I got results back from the FIRST kit I sent in! Six months later and I still haven't gotten any of the other results.

I blame the head of the company for gross mismanagement. They waste time writing articles about the microbiome of the blue-throated tadpole, instead of hiring more customer service reps. I swear there's only one rep...at least for the five-six months I corresponded with the company. It's not her fault her bosses are...well, stupid.

 

[undiagnosed]

I got a free kit a few months ago and just got the results. The raw fastq download isn't working though so I'm waiting to hear back on that before I can do more in-depth analysis. Anyways I was using their web interface to look a bit. Two bacteria families stuck out on graphs when comparing against the uBiome selected group (healthy) as well as all others. The graph is shown below:

​

The families are Ruminococcaceae and Prevotellaceae which are lower in my sample. Also, here are my unique bacteria:

Propioniferax Genus 0.1%
Cruoricaptor Genus 0.1%
Brachybacterium Genus 1.0%
Anaerovorax Genus 1.2%
Leifsonia Genus 1.2%
Cryobacterium Genus 1.8%
Romboutsia Genus 1.8%
Tessaracoccus Genus 2.0%
Eremococcus Genus 2.6%
Arcanobacterium Genus 2.8%

Just wondering if anyone has seen anything similar?

 

[Thinktank]

Don't hold your breath @Thinktank. I was offered a free kit to sample gut, skin, nose, etc., and sent that back in November 2016, but made a mistake with the nasal sample, so they sent out a new kit. (I was interested in this because I've had sinus problems for 20 years.)

I sent that back in early December, didn't get the results until March. But only the results for the gut test. Then about a month or so later I got results back from the FIRST kit I sent in! Six months later and I still haven't gotten any of the other results.

I blame the head of the company for gross mismanagement. They waste time writing articles about the microbiome of the blue-throated tadpole, instead of hiring more customer service reps. I swear there's only one rep...at least for the five-six months I corresponded with the company. It's not her fault her bosses are...well, stupid.

Wow, yeah 6 months later and still no result is pretty bad! But at least it was a free kit.

I actually paid for the 5-site kit.... it's now 2 weeks later since my last email to ubiome and i still do not have my results and no response. I'm going to do a chargeback on the creditcard payment. Enough is enough.

Indeed, if they would just invest their energy and time in customer service instead of stupid articles nobody cares about.... such incompetent management!

What's the best place to leave a negative review about ubiome? BBB?

 

[dannybex]

You could post your story in a comment on their blog?

http://www.ubiomeblog.com/

 

[alicec]

I've just received results from my most recent sample. Processing time was about 6 weeks. At their best processing time has been 2-3 weeks, but sometimes a bit longer.

So yes a bit slower but not inordinately so.

 

[dannybex]

That is weird. Any reason given for this?

In the uBiome community, the average for the phylum Bacteroidetes is about 36 and for the genus Bacteroides, it is about 22%.

This study suggests that Bacteroides is associated with a higher rate of type 1 diabetes. At least I think that's what they're saying. Also...

"The outer membranes of both types of bacteria contain large molecules called lipopolysaccharides, or LPS, but, whereas E. coli LPS activates a potent response from the human immune system, Bacteroides LPS actually inhibits the immune system. So, compared with that of Russian infants, the gut immune system in Finnish and Estonian infants is silent, potentially making these children prone to strong, unregulated immune reactions and disorders like T1D, the authors suggest."

???

 

[jepps]

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[Ravn]

A new Ubiome test "Explorer Plus - Ubiome"

More comprehensive access to your entire microbiome, including viruses and fungi

Anyone know what sort of viruses and fungi are included?

 

[jepps]

Anyone know what sort of viruses and fungi are included?

No, but I ordered the test, and I could post the result.

Best regards, jepps

 

[alicec]

Anyone know what sort of viruses and fungi are included?

They try to sequence everything that is there.

Here are studies of the human intestinal virome, the range of eukaryotes and one looking at the interaction of archael, fungal and bacterial populations in the gut, to give you an idea of what you might expect the test to find.

 

[Ravn]

No, but I ordered the test, and I could post the result.

That would be great, thanks.
Though I fear they only put what they found in the report, not what they didn't find (that seems to be what they do with the bacteria, does anyone know for sure?) so you never know what you may be missing, for better or worse.

 

[alicec]

I fear they only put what they found in the report, not what they didn't find

Do any tests tell you what's not there?