Our digestive tract is home to billions of bacteria. We are not talking here about germs harmful and enemies. In this case, it is rather friendly bacteria that want us well. They constitute what is called the intestinal microbiota. Without them, we could not live, digest, assimilate nutrients or even synthesize the vitamins whose effects are so beneficial to us.
Over the course of scientific research, we have discovered that this microbiota in question plays an essential role on several levels: the regulation of our weight or the functioning of our immune system, for example. All the conclusions converge towards the same scientific reality: the microbiota is a pillar of our health.
So much so that many companies on the Internet, or city laboratories, now offer tests to analyze its composition. For this, the patient can order a collection kit. He then returns a sample of his stool for examinations which will analyze the composition of his intestinal flora. Sometimes dietary advice is also promised based on the results. However, this approach has a cost, and not the least. It is necessary to count between 150 and 300 euros. “This is explained in particular by the equipment necessary for high-throughput sequencing and by the bioinformatics analysis necessary to make a result interpretable. But given the growing interest in this theme, more and more laboratories are offering this kind of ‘analyzes and logically prices should go down’, says Dr. Julien Scanzi, hepato-gastroenterologist.
But the price is not the only reservation about these tests. In 2020, the French National Society of Gastro-Enterology (SNFGE) published a press release in which it affirmed that “the tests based on the analysis of the intestinal microbiota and currently proposed have not no clinical interest for the doctor or his patient, and that they can in no way help to make a diagnosis or to guide the therapeutic choices”. That has the merit of being clear. Another problem is that of the independence of the laboratories. Sometimes, the supplements which are recommended to you after analyzes are sold by the company which carried out the test and which provides you with the recommendations: you will understand that this can raise certain questions as to the relevance of the latter…”, points out Dr. Scanzi.
So should we forget them? If today, these techniques are under fire from critics, it will probably not be the same tomorrow. “In the coming years, research will have made it possible to detect within the microbiota the presence of predictive markers of certain diseases or of response to certain treatments, in which case these analyzes can be used for preventive purposes or in order to personalize the management of certain diseases. In the same way as a genetic analysis (analysis of our human DNA) makes it possible to detect predispositions to develop serious diseases and therefore to adapt the screening”, adds the specialist. So be patient. Unless you are curious and have the means, it is better to postpone this kind of analysis until later.
Thanks to doctor Julien Scanzi author of Incredible microbiotapublished by Leduc.
