Minding Your Microbiome with Every Meal—Guru Banavar—Viome

"In the developed world in the last few decades, there's been a tremendous increase in the number of people who have chronic illness…if you look around you, every other person probably has some kind of chronic illness, whether it's some kind of autoimmune disease, metabolic, neurologic…[or] cancer," says Guru Banavar, Chief Technology Officer at Viome. The point he makes is hard to refute, but is it equally as hard to explain what's contributing to the rise in chronic illness? According to Banavar, chronic illnesses are driven by the gut microbiome, and if for no other reason, that's why we need to take a closer look at it. At Viome, chronic disease prevention is the central focus, and they believe that in order to do this, we first need to understand gene expression, and harness the power of the right kinds of foods and supplements—the kinds that work with and are required by the gut microbiome for the activation of important microbial pathways. The team at Viome is conducting microbiome research using stool samples from about 100,000 current customers and delivering app-based, personalized recommendations for what to eat to mind your microbiome. Tune in to discover:

• How Viome can tell you which types of foods can turn on or off inflammatory pathways in your gut microbiome
• What differs between the microbiomes of people who have a high versus low glycemic index, or normal GI phenotype versus irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• What we might learn from longitudinal studies of the microbiome currently being conducted by the team at Viome