Our Product Tested Viome Review

Viome is a pioneering health company offering gut health tests to help people figure out what foods and supplements are best for their health. They use a simple at-home test kit that looks at your gut health through blood and stool samples. The test uses advanced technology to give personalized advice on diet and supplements, aiming to improve things like energy levels and immune health.

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The process is straightforward: order online, take the test at home, and get results and advice through an app in about two weeks. This approach is unique because it focuses on RNA (what's happening in your body right now) instead of DNA (your genetic history). Viome's tests are done in a high-spec lab, ensuring accuracy. Screening takes a little longer than some rival tests, but the level of information is more detailed, which is to be expected with a high-end product like this.

Review Highlights

About The Brand

Viome is an innovative gut microbiome testing company, their aim is to deliver personalized wellness support by uncovering risk factors that stem from your diet and nutrition.

They say you are what you eat and that's the stance that Viome has taken with their range of at-home tests and supplement support programs. They’re a microbiome testing company, which means they test the microbiology associated with your diet and your gut. 

Their Gut Intelligence Tests test the functionality of your microbiome health (the body’s living microbes), biological ageing (how you’re ageing internally) cell function, your immune health, energy levels, and stress signals. 

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Your blood and stool are screened with more than 20 scoring factors considered in the analysis of your gut microbiome health. RNA sequencing is performed from your blood, to understand how your lifestyle is impacting other areas in your body, which is in turn profiled against an extensive database of existing samples for genetic benchmarking, using AI to discover risk factors in your gene type and identify what foods and supplements are ideal for you, your cellular health and the gut microbiome. 

Your test results identify risk factors in your general health and well-being associated with your diet. Results give you actionable nutritional advice on what you should eat and how your body is processing the things already in your diet. They also offer a treatment program that contains precise dosages of supplements, prebiotics and probiotics based on your results.

Check out these Viome Testimonials

The platform

Viome is a specialist company with a very niche science underpinning their two only at-home tests. Their website acts more like a brochure, but its still where you access the tests or enroll in their test and supplements plan. From the site, you choose the test you want to buy and add to cart like any normal online shopping experience. Alternatively, select subscribe and go through a subscription process for their test and supplement plans.

What tests

Viome are a gut microbiome testing company, they offer a simple but comprehensive gut health testing service through RNA sequencing technology

Value

Viome are transparent with their prices, they’re all present and clear on their website. It's clear that you can buy the test kits independently or as part of a plan and you're not being auto-enrolled into a subscription without clear signposting.

Their most comprehensive test is currently $199 for a single onetime purchase or $199 per month for a plan that includes all your recommended supplements and two kits over a 12-month commitment. Viome suggests buying these supplements from “off-the-shelf” brands individually could cost over $400 per month.

Test kits

The test kits themselves are very simple considering the science appears and sounds very complex – You don’t need to worry about that. You collect a small blood sample with a finger prick device that you use to pinprick your finger and extract a small drop of blood, along with a typical stool collection device that you’d use for any other stool related lab testing from a clinic or your physician. Samples are sent back to the Viome labs and they begin the process of analyzing your body's microbiome – the living organisms that help keep your body functions operational.

Other info

Along with health insights associated with your microbiome you’re also given a personalized list of optimum foods for your type, these include suggested superfoods, foods to avoid, foods to minimize and information on why they recommend these foods (or don't) along with nutrient recommendations to support the key areas of your health.

Service Quality

Chronic disease for many comes from a history of poor lifestyle choices and a bad diet. It's a huge burden on the various healthcare systems around the world and is why Viome was founded with a simple mission to help people live a healthy, disease-free life. For what seems like a small offering of only two tests, they’re quite a big company backed by scientists and specialists in data and diagnostics.

Buying a test

Viome only has two tests, a health and gut intelligence test and a simpler gut intelligence test. You either buy these one time products as stand-alone products like a shopping cart buy now or you can buy them as part of a subscription plan that includes a national support service based on the outputs of your tests.

You get two tests in the subscription plan over the course of 12 months, so to get full use of the program it would suggest that you have to commit to at least 1 year.

Shipping

Shipping was pretty fast and tests arrived within the 3-5 business days. The box came in a discreet package with no branding or no indication of what was inside. The test came with a prepaid return box, fully addressed back to their labs.

Taking the test

The test is easy to take and is pretty simple if you’re familiar with taking samples yourself for at-home testing purposes. The kits are fairly standard across the board so there are no surprises in the kit itself. As expected the equipment was well packaged and instructions were easy to follow. 

Blood collection can be a little daunting at first, the finger prick device is a small needle that stabs your finger via a surprise clicking mechanism that is supposed to take away the need for you actually puncturing the finger yourself. It's a very slight and sharp stab that's more of a surprise than painful, but it's still designed to draw blood can be unnerving for some. The stool sample collection was a far simple process.

Results

Results take a little longer than some standard blood screening tests like hormone or infection panels. You can expect your results in the app within 2 weeks along with supplement and nutrition recommendations. RNA sequencing is still relatively new and apparently took years to process before modern advancements. So while this may appear to be quite a slow turnaround, we’re informed that this is light years ahead of where it used to be.

Test Accuracy

Labs

Viome use mRNA sequencing technology, they suggest they have the most advanced tools to study the gut microbiome, oral microbiome, blood transcriptome and broader human microbe interactions throughout the body. Microbiome analysis is performed in a US laboratory that is certified to meet CLIA standards. A CLIA certified lab must meet specific quality standards and that ensures the accuracy and reliability of these tests.

Tests

The tests sequence your RNA, not your DNA, DNA is more about your genetic history where RNA is like a live report of what's going on with your body right now – including your microbiome (the live microbes that make you function). Your blood test carries over 20 factors that are measured to help identify the types of issues you could be facing because of your diet nutritional wellness.

The company

According to their website, Viome is the only direct-to-consumer company that analyzes mRNA, to get a full understanding of what is going on in your body (NOT your DNA). They’re more than a standard nutrition company, Viome are targeting the prevention and cure of chronic disease by digitizing and decoding each individual’s biology starting with your gut microbiome.

People

A world class team of founders, scientists, translational scientists, nutritionists, researchers, doctors, and advisors focused on a single mission: help people live a healthy, disease-free life

Viome

The leadership team alone at Viome highlights the appetite and ambition for success with this enterprise. The company is backed by leading scientists and specialists in this field. Despite having a small inventory of products, it's clear that they’re on a very clear mission to improve our wellness by fully understanding what we consume as living beings and how that affects our bodies. It's such a simple concept, but the science behind this product is clearly different from other at-home tests and offers a very new perspective on our diet and nutritional wellness.

How To Buy

Where to buy

To start your journey with Viome you have two options with two tests. You either buy a single test on its own from their online shop, take the test and get your one-time results report. Or enroll in a test and supplement plan, where you’re expected to register and commit to a long-term subscription. You’re not expected at any point to commit indefinitely, you can leave at any time. But you lose out on some of the benefits if you leave the subscription early – a 12month program is Viome’s optimum term.

Product categories

Viome only offers two tests and their core area of expertise is centered on the theme of Gut Intelligence which is commonly known as microbiome testing.

Products

Viome’s two products are very different according to what you get back in your results. The Gut Intelligence test offers a report on just your gut microbiome health, whereas the upgraded Health & Gut Intelligence tests provide insight on an extra 5 other wellness factors including your stress response, immune system health and a biological age report.

The process

1. Buy a test through the Viome online shop
2. The kits are posted to you discreetly with free shipping
3. Take your test at home and send it back to the lab in the prepaid packaging
4. Receive your results online/app in 2-3 weeks
5. Receive foods and supplement recommendations in-app

Price range

Viome a refreshingly transparent with their costs and all their prices including payment plans are available on their website. The single kits are cost around $200 which is about the same price as a monthly subscription which includes the supplement plan. If you buy the kits on their own, you have to buy the supplements separately either through Viome or through an independent retailer.

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