Natalya Functional Health

If you’d like to better understand your gut health, without committing to a monthly programme, this service offers advanced stool testing alongside a one-off consultation and personalised plan to help you feel confident knowing where to start.

We’ll go through your results together, explore how they may relate to your symptoms and discuss practical ways to support your gut through nutrition and targeted supplements where relevant.

The aim is to give you a clearer picture of what may be happening in your gut, identify any significant imbalances and help you move forward with personalised recommendations.

Why Choosing the Right Stool Test Matters

Not all stool tests provide the same level of detail or clinical insights.

I’ve chosen Microba for its metagenomic sequencing. In simple terms, it can accurately identify up to 28,000 species, instead of the usual ~40, allowing us to see how the microbiome is functioning as a whole, rather than a few limited species.

Most stool tests only check for 1 species of Methanobacter, associated with constipation, bloating and gas. Whereas metagenomics can test for over 30, capturing strains that would be missed by other tests.

It’s a similar picture for many other microbes. Truly understanding which strains are present and how they might be impacting your health, allows us to put together a targeted plan.

The test also includes intestinal health markers, which can provide clues of leaky gut, barrier integrity, hidden inflammation, non-visible bleeding, motility patterns, enzyme deficiency, immune function, as well as species commonly found in the mouth.

Challenging the Current View of Gut Dysbiosis

Metagenomics sheds a whole new light on the way we evaluate gut dysbiosis, as the amount of space taken up by a bacteria matters much more than just its presence. We can finally see how our bacteria are distributed, which metabolites they produce and how this impacts our health. This really matters if we have an undesirable species taking up more than 10% of the microbiome!

It’s about viewing the microbes in the context of the full ecosystem – something that is missed by tests that only show pathogens and commensals.

It turns out that it’s perfectly possible to have a healthy gut, without some of these ‘commensal’ species being present, especially when we have good levels of microbial diversity, since other bacteria can carry out the functions of those better-known species. 

Instead of reaching for the probiotics, we can accurately measure microbial diversity, richness and exact species count, whilst looking at what those microbes are doing, to understand how to intervene.

The Importance of Microbial Metabolites

One of the most exciting parts of the report is the metabolites produced by the microbes and their impact on systemic health. Some of these can have a major impact on energy levels, detoxification, hormones, brain fog, inflammation, autoimmunity, heart health, skin conditions and so much more, and now we can identify which species are producing them.

These metabolites include Ammonia, Lactate, GABA, Histamine, HEXA-LPS, Trimethylamine, Branch Chain Amino Acids, Beta-glucaronidase, Methane, Hydrogen Sulphide, IPA and individual Short Chain Fatty Acids (Butyrate, Propionate and Acetate).

The foods that we eat and how well they are absorbed, directly impact which species flourish and whether their metabolites support our health or contribute to symptoms. Seeing the impact of our microbes, allows us to make targeted changes through nutrition, supplements or lifestyle.