I ordered the test couple of wees ago, as I'm bloating for 15 years, and doctors can't find the reason. It was a nice surprise that I had to log so many details before taking the sample, so that is very positive. I've got a demo about the result report, so I get familiar with it, as it is detailed and complex. But so far, I'm positive. Not sure yet if I will need a session with their dietician. Still waiting for my results, so I will update this review.
I took Unseen Bio’s test to gain insights into my gut microbiome after having had a tough year recovering from Epstein Barr virus, and feeling generally down and fatigued and under the weather. I was struggling with constipation, hormonal acne breakouts, and had difficulties maintaining my weight. I had no diagnosed illness and my bloodwork and thyroid had been declared healthy. I had been following a protein heavy diet, avoiding complex carbs, and doing intermittent fasting to help my body recover. I thought I was living quite healthily compared to many of my peers. The Unseen Bio test results showed I had very reduced diversity in my gut (about 50% the diversity of a healthy European). Somewhat alarmed, I scheduled a follow-up with their nutritionist, Cecilia, who took me through the results and convinced me to focus on adding much more fibre to my diet and to add in fermented foods when possible. Her approach was balanced and professional and assuaged my worry. After having read a couple of books on healing the gut, I started making a lot of changes to my diet and started exercising more. In addition to completely overhauling my diet I started taking probiotics. After a while I started feeling great—more energized, and in a better mood. I was no longer suffering with frequent constipation and noticed that my quality of sleep had improved because I started waking up before my alarm went off. I also started slowly losing weight (5 kg over 5 months). As a bonus, my skin was clearer and I had less PMS, so the lifestyle change had done something good for my hormone balance. Five months later I took the test again. I was expecting a big shift since I had made so many changes and felt great! However, my diversity score had not really changed, but I had 2 new beneficial strains, and one was the most dominant one in the gut. I reached out to Cecilia again to discuss these results as I felt a bit disappointed—I guess I wanted my score to reflect my effort and how great I felt. The conclusion is that I may be an “outlier” whose microbiome actually works best when less diverse. It’s possible that by feeding my microbiome more fibre the bacteria were able to function more optimally and have a better output of metabolites that then has a knock-on effect on how you feel and how your body behaves. I’m so happy I took the tests, and followed Cecilia’s advice. I know I went “all in” on both diet and exercise, which is very difficult for a lot of people to do, but I strongly advice taking the test and scheduling a session with Cecilia so you can learn what your body needs and how you can support it better.
It is a very good service to get an overview of your gut health. I took away one star because even though I logged my diet, due to a technical error it was not logged so the diet recommendation was missing in the final report. I loved the recommendation on what supplements to take depending on what pro/pre biotics you are missing. And also what food encourages or discourages specific microbe growth. Highly informative, but maybe missing a bit on the remedy actions section. This could be due to the fact that my gut looked very healthy though, maybe recommendations are more complex for people who have problems.
Great service. I booked the dietician's follow-up which I thought was very helpful and valuable.
I have been struggeling for as long as i remember with digestion problems and spend so much time and energy on trying differnt solutions. The effects of (very) bad digestion have effected my life negatively on so many levels. For a long time, i thought i had IBS, but clearly, i have a problem with my gut biome. I will now start a new journey with a completely new focus and feel confident that this will make me more healthy. I feel very thankful for the competent and trustful advice i have recieved from the report and my dietitian. Well done establishing this organisation, I am very sure this is the future for health care are you are first movers. Best from Copenhagen, Peter
Very thorough testing of microbiome and the feedback session with their consultant was very friendly! However, I feel they hide a lot under the "this is a new field so we don't really know what xyz bacteria does or is responsible for... but you have a lot of it". You are actually left with more questions than when you started. Usually people like me who are health-conscious and try these things out are already aware of things like "avoid sugars, avoid processed foods, etc" and hope this test will shed new light on my health. This was not the case unfortunately. The recommendations on the feedback session are also extremely generic and 20 minutes is not nearly long enough to get something meaningful out of the conversation. The feedback session is essentially a screen-share of your results and a consultant reading them back to you. The consultant was extremely nice and friendly, but I felt this was a waste since I can already see the results myself a few weeks prior to this meeting. Instead, we could've focused on concrete and specific recommendations for me. Overall, I'm quite disappointed. Yes they do "what it says on the box" but it did not change the way I look at my health in any way.
Based on 6 verified customer reviews, Unseen Bio holds an average rating of 3.0 out of 5 — rated Average on ReviewTerminal.
