Welcome to Viome's Monthly Deep Dive!
Every month, we dive deep into the questions and curiosities of our community, where people like you seek to understand the profound connections between your body, your nutrition, your microbiome, your health, and ultimately – your happiness.
Our mission at Viome is to empower each individual with knowledge, creating a world where illness is optional. In this spirit, we've selected four pressing questions from our members this month, answering them with detailed insights backed by the latest research.
For those of you keen on learning more, we've also added a 'Deeper Dive' section at the end of each answer, directing you to further resources and studies to quench your thirst for knowledge.
This Month's Featured Member Questions:
Q:
How much of a difference does it make taking the personalized pre/probiotics (while of course paying attention to food choices) vs not taking them (and focusing on maximizing good food choices)? If taking, how long should you take them for, I’m assuming its not needed forever? Also, will it be harder to be regular and healthy once we stop taking the pre/probiotics?
A:
All great questions. The amount of time it takes to see the changes you expect or get to your ideal "healthy" will be very individual, depending on your starting point and other factors impacting your health. A healthy diet should always be the foundation.
There's likely no amount of supplements that can compensate for a poor diet. However, the wonderful thing about supplements like Viome's pre+probiotics is that they are designed to provide you that additional, targeted support that can be challenging to get through diet alone. Our preliminary internal data shows that those who follow diet+supplements have greater improvements than those who follow diet alone. But those who follow diet alone still see improvements.
I see supplements as a consistent part of my personal health routine. As my body ages and I'm exposed to different environments or have different stressors in my life, my supplements will change to support that stage. With probiotics in particular, they are mostly transient and provide a benefit as they pass through the gut. So continuing to take them ensures you receive those benefits. That is my perspective on it. But I'd suggest giving your supplements at least 6 months to begin to feel a difference.
DEEPER DIVE:
Supplements–or vitamins, as they were first termed–were discovered around 1913, and made widely available and advertised in 1950. “Don’t forget your vitamins” was the first message put out there to promote various vitamins on the market.
Vitamin A, or “fat-soluble factor A,” was the first nutrient found by examining butter and egg yolk at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Agriculture. This discovery started a path to locating various nutrients in foods that humans needed to stay healthy.1
Cut to today. While many of us still take vitamins every day, “supplements” is a term that was coined simply because it seemed that we needed to supplement our diet with nutrients that we were missing or not getting enough of.
As we have farmed the soil in the United States for over 200 years, much of the nutrients that once existed within the soil we grew our food in is in much smaller quantities, depleted from large commercial farming practices.
Read more about our “big soil problem” and why eating just whole foods may not give us enough nutrition.
Q:
How long should you not eat foods on your Minimize list? Forever? It was very eye opening to me. I’m a vegetarian and almost all the things I eat were on this list.
A:
Minimize foods aren't exactly bad for you, but they're not superstars like Superfoods either. They're kinda in the middle. Minimize foods are there to help diversify your gut microbiome. You're encouraged to keep them in check and have just one or two from each category per day, or one Minimize per meal. Think of it like this: when you look at your plate, aim to keep Minimize foods to around 20% or less of your meal.
DEEPER DIVE:
Why are Minimize foods Minimize and not Avoid? You can check out more on that here.
There’s no need to be fearful of Minimize foods. If you have a large amount of Avoid foods that you normally eat in your diet, your Minimize foods may be useful to you to add more nutritional diversity to your diet. Eat them because you can and you should. Just less than your usual amounts.
Q:
Hey! Would love to know…. My Doc has me taking 5,000iu of D3 and 100mcg of K2 (both combined into one pill a day). My Viome supplements have both already in the formula, but not in that high of a dose. How should I approach this? I want to get rid of as many of the individual pill supplements I take currently, I’m just not sure how to go about scenarios like the above mentioned. Any help is appreciated!
A:
Viome recommendations should not replace your medical advice. If your doctor recommends a certain dosage, please continue to follow that recommendation. Because Viome is a wellness product, we do not dose as high as your doctor may recommend because higher dosages require medical monitoring, especially with Vitamin D. In this case we would recommend taking the remainder of the doctor recommended dosage in addition to your Viome supplements. Keep in touch with your doctor as well.
DEEPER DIVE:
Vitamin D supports good bone health, and vitamin K helps support blood health and clotting. But why are D3 and K2 sometimes taken together?
It seems that vitamins D3 and K, when combined together, have a unique collaborative effect on bone health and helping building bone. Your doctor may recommend that you take both together if you are under care for any bone or cardiovascular health concerns.2
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Viome is built on a premise of biochemical individuality–meaning your biology and biochemistry is uniquely your own!
We measure over 10 million data points from expressed genes per sample from microbial (oral and gut) and human cells, allowing us to quantify, influence, and monitor your cellular and microbial pathways. This lets us know the nutrients or ingredients you need in order to stimulate or suppress certain functions and bring you back into balance.
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References:
1 Wendt, D. (2012, June 7). “Vitamins Come to Dinner.” Distillation Magazine, Scient History Institute, Museum and Library. Online at sciencehistory.org.
2 van Ballegooijen AJ, Pilz S, Tomaschitz A, Grübler MR, Verheyen N. (2017). Int J Endocrinol. 2017;2017:7454376. doi: 10.1155/2017/7454376. Epub 2017 Sep 12. PMID: 29138634; PMCID: PMC5613455.
