Map My Gut

PREDICT is the most ambitious nutrition study of its kind ever conducted to understand our individual responses to foods.

A comprehensive gut microbiome analysis and interpretation for clinicians and their patients

Who is Map My Gut?

Map My Gut (MMG) is a unique service proposed by microbiome specialists directly to clinicians and nutritionists. MMG provides a personalized analysis and interpretation of patient’s gut bacteria (microbiome) using the latest sequencing technology.


Microbiome and health

The human gut harbors a vast amount of microbes, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Each person hosts 10 times as many microbial cells and 100 times as many microbial genes as human cells. Together they can weigh up to 2 kg.

Research has shown that the microbial community in the human gut is comprised of several thousand species and strains. They are vital for digestion, vitamin production and regulation of our immune system. The gut microbiota is often described as an “organ” that provides key physiological functions.

The composition and species diversity of human gut microbe populations is strongly correlated with a wide range of conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), allergies, diabetes, obesity, colitis and autoimmune diseases among many others. This community is highly responsive to diet and lifestyle changes and can be affected by and determine how individuals respond to medications.

Current dietary guidelines fail to consider the health and diversity of people’s microbial community. Improving diet and gut health, however, is now a popular lifestyle goal and research has shown that specific foods such as vegetables, fibre, probiotics and polyphenols are crucial for the development of gut microbes and overall health.

Map My Gut gives health professionals a tool to assess the level of diversity of their patient’s microbiome community, and ascertain the more prevalent microbes that associate with disease and other lifestyle factors, and how they relate to normal healthy controls. This tool can be used as an educational tool to help people to take control of their health.



Why microbiome analysis
• Often we can tell more about a person from their stool than their DNA
• While we share 99. 9% of our DNA with others, we only ever have about 10 to 20% of our gut bacteria in common
• We can alter your gut bacteria for better or worse in a matter of days through lifestyle choices and diet
• Lifestyle factors such as diet, amount and variety of fibre ingested, exercise and sleep boost the variety and number of “good” bacteria'; while junk food, chemicals, preservatives and antibiotics kill them off, allowing “bad” bacteria to flourish
• Establishing a baseline before starting treatment will help to assess effectiveness


MMG service

We have access to a unique database of microbiome, health and diet data from several thousand research subjects. Aided by the latest gene sequencing technology, MMG will enable health professionals to advice their patients on how to alter their diets and lifestyles to improve their gut microbiome health.

Sample collection
The patient will be asked by the clinician to provide a stool sample using a simple-to-follow instruction pack provided by MMG.

On receipt of the sample, MMG will provide a personalised analysis report and interpretation of the patients’ gut microbiome profile that will include the following:

Analysis
• Visual representation of the main types of microbes living in the patient’s gut
• Prevalence of the different types of bacteria in the patient’s gut
• Level of microbial diversity
• Comparison of the patient’s gut microbiome profile with sections of the population with similar diets or lifestyles
• Levels of microbes associated with disease
• Information on progress over time to assess treatment