lassesen 2:32 am on November 11, 2016  

uBiome Results #2 The Phylum Level

Overview

This is the second of six posts drilling down into uBiome results gracefully shared by my readers. Diagnosis and symptoms vary greatly, but all of them believe they are in the CFS/IBS spectrum. In preparing this series of posts, I was faced with several presentation challenges – brain fogged vs clear head, different education levels, different conditions etc.  My formal training include adult education and medical statistics. My solution is this:

  • Have the raw data available as both a PDF file and an Excel file (so readers may load it into Excel easily) – people can do their own thing
  • Give a simple high level summary of what I have concluded
  • Give a more detail explanation of how I came to my conclusion.

I will try to be conservative in conclusions — wanting to find something can result in selective picking of data.

Example:

  • By uBiome definition of microbiome diversity, these results do not show a lack of diversity (contrary to some studies conclusions),
  • I applied a simple test, what percentage of results fall between the 25%ile and the 75%ile. For controls, you would expect 50%. We had close to 50% of the results in this range, there was no statistical significant shift.

About the Readers Results

Results A

  • ME/CFS for 20 years, 90-100% functional for years 2-8, 60 – 80% functional for years 9-16, 10% – 70% functional for years 16-20 Currently about 50%-60% again. Main symptoms, fatigue, lack of energy, feeling crappy (flu-like), get sick easily and stay sick for months (I have 2 kids 8 – 10 now so they kept bring home infections) no brain fog now, but currently issues with a tired brain, IBS or dysbiosis, Urinary Issues
    • A1 – 9/18/2015
    • A2 3/17/2016

Results B

  • Sure, I got sick with ME after an infection I probably picked up on the airplane back from Asia. Probably lived in mold a few years prior to that that probably took my immune system down too, before the final straw with the infection. Major symptoms: fatigue, unable to do much physically, brainfog, get tired of concentrating too much and being social, my head “shuts down”, joint pain, muscle pain, headaches, swollen lymph nodes, feeling like a flu is coming on very frequently, everything is made worse by too much exertion I do not think I did much probiotics before the sample was done actually…
    • 4/12/2014

Results C:

  • Diagnosis: ME/CFS, POTS, MCAS, IBS-C, mold illness. No probiotics before test. I changed environments and had some health improvement between tests.
    • C1 10/1/2013
    • C2 9/13/2015
    • C3 6/23/2016

Results D:

  • IBS. No CFS
    • D2 1/16/2015
    • D1  3/26/2015

Results E:

  • My symptoms are ibs and exercise intolerance, joint pain, headaches (cfs). I’ve been taking a lot of the “goodbelly” brand of probiotic drinks. And the jarrow brand “ideal bowel support 299v” probiotic pills. These are two brands of the same probiotic. They significantly reduce my ibs symptoms. I came down with ibs 16 years ago, and the cfs started about 5 years after that.
    • 29/04/2016

Results F:

  • Background: 5’7″ 130 lbs, Female 65 yr old, no weight problems, CFS since 1995, omnivore
    • 9/25/2016

Results G:

  • Multi-year flu-like fatigue. Poor sleep onset. Sleep is non-restorative. Near constant brain fog, fatigue, and need for isolation. Proceeded by actual flu (trigger?). Intolerance to exercise despite good athletic conditioning. Unexplained skin rash covering upper arms. Lymph nodes near top of neck swell if antibiotics are discontinued. This is a relapse of episodes that have occurred for ~15 years. A combination of antibiotics and LDN seem to be currently controlling my symptoms. Life is tolerable with the addition of LDN. But I don’t feel like I’m actually healing… more just not getting worse or suffering as much. The antibiotics also cause stomach pain / intestinal upset (which I don’t have otherwise). Fairly normal blood work. No obvious thyroid issues.
    • 10/12/2015

Results H:

  • Spring 2010 began three years pf almost continuous illnesses on top of my flu like feeling.  Endless colds and flu, or at least the body acting like I had these.  9 months the first year, 10 months the 2nd, 10 1/2 the 3rd year.  Beneath these the constant flu like feeling throughout my body. Discomfort from wheat or gluten.
    • 4/16/2014

Results J:

  • This is a relapse of episodes that have occurred for ~15 years.No diagnosis Key symptoms: Severe 24/7 specific point pain in umbilical area Malaise and feeling unwell Some nausea Other key biomarkers Enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes on CT scan Elevated WCC (specifically neutrophils) Very high SIgA levels My own view is a chronic infection – see biomarkers above No probiotics when the change happened
    • J1 9/29/2015
    • J2 10/23/2015
    • J3 12/4/2015

Results K:

  • Lyme diagnosis, chronic fatigue, inability to exercise, and pain. My biggest complaints are neurological. My brain fog is so intense most days
    • K 3/29/2016

Results L:

  • on Canadian consensus criteria

    1) post-exertion fatigue and malaise I meet all criteria (A B and C)
    2) both unrefreshing sleep and a new pattern (trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep and some nights without sleep
    3) yes muscular aches and pains in legs and arms face neck and head, and headaches, forehead back of head and sides + of course the migraine
    4) A, B C (issues with noise and sound, re perhaps also anxiety I find it very hard to watch tv and often have to skip anxiety inducing bits or things that are too emotional.) D if vertigo and tinnitus count (but I had these before and associate them with migraines) . E  lots of brain fog type confusion.
    5)A: 2(POTS) 3 (Vertigo) 5 (IBS the alternate type but mostly D) 6 (palpitations), , 8 respiratory irregularities, I seem to overbreathe a lot and often find I am overinflated.
    B:I think 1 and 5, I have had low auxiliary basal body temperature clustering around 35C; and I do not handle stress at all.
    C:1 2 3 and 4
    6) yes 13 yrs

Results M:

  • I have diagnosis of ME/CFS, MCS and Eosinophilic Esophagitis. Symptoms: OI but not POTS, malabsorption (underweight), total food sensitivity (tube fed via PEG tube), severe brain hyperactivity, sensitive to light and sound, dystonia, persistent coat-hanger pain, persist sinus and mouth burning/pain, paralysed colon, housebound, severe muscle weakness most of the time.

The Phylum Results

The Phylum is a very high level overview with little likely to be revealed.

phylum2

The average for each of the phylums that had results across all reports was effectively 100% except for Actinobacteria at 66%. For the following phylums there were effectively none in any results – which may be good. One is associated with disease, the others have just recently been identified.

“Actinobacteria, are recognized as the producers of many bioactive metabolites that are useful to humans in medicine, such as antibacterials,[7] antifungals,[8] antivirals, antithrombotics,..” Wikipedia. In other words, our police force to keep bad bacteria in control is understaffed at 66%.

A,F,G,H have some synergistetes. Those that gave a summary have digested issues. In particular A had an significant increase between the two uBiome tests.

 

Downloads:

PDF: phylum

Excel: phylum