Jona Health Review: Microbiome Decoder for Health Conditions
Look, there’s nothing like starting your day by pooping on a little paper hammock attached to your toilet seat, then poking it a few times with a cotton swab. This was more of a mental hurdle than a practical one, as collection and disposal (just throw the hammock away when you’re done) was pretty easy. You then swirl the stick in a solution, cap it, and send it out. Twenty days later I received an email with my results.
On the website, your results are divided into a few sections: Summary (with tabs for brain health, gastrointestinal health, metabolic health, skin health, and physical performance), Action Plan (with tabs for Highest Impact, Diet, Lifestyle, and Probiotics), and the Organisms page, which shows you each organism found in your sample and their relative abundance. Mine held a few surprises.
On the plus side, my microbiome diversity came in at 4.19, which is above average (the normal range is 2.80 to 3.99, as measured by the Shannon Index), which he says is a sign of a healthy microbiome, and he found no pathogens or parasites. He says I digest lactose well (thank goodness). It found no associations for things like depression, celiac disease, IBS, ulcerative colitis, leaky gut, hypertension, eczema, or a bunch of other things that I’m grateful I don’t have. Some of it was actually a little confusing, frankly, because I’ve struggled with insomnia most of my life, but it found no association with either fatigue, and I’m definitely a tired human.
As for the associations found, some were things I suspected, while others were complete surprises. Under Brain Health, I had a moderate association for stress and a weak association for ADHD, neither of which shocked me. Under Metabolic Health, there was a “very weak” association for prediabetes, which I actually thought was higher, unfortunately. I had a moderate association with osteoarthritis, which made sense given my family history.
