Hi,
My son received his results from the BGP yesterday, and we’re confused about what to do. His results show that he has little diversity, huge quantities of Fermicutes, greatly reduced Bacteroidetes, reduced Proteobacteria and very little else. We suspect that his microbiome has been affected by a certain acne medication. He suffers from depression and we are desperate to get him well, is there anyone that can point us in the right direction? Thanks in advance.

Sorry I am not much help to answer your question, but I would like to follow this thread as I have been on acne medication for about 10 years without realising it was actually antibiotics ( silly me I know..) Do you mind me asking what mediciation they had him on?
Also where did you get this kind of test, is it at the Drs or a kit you send off and pay for. Thanks

It was Roaccutane, he was only on it for 6 months, as he developed severe depression (which he’d never had before). He sent a sample to The British Gut Project (£75), but they don’t provide any medical or dietary advice. I believe there are commercial companies who do offer advice after testing, perhaps someone on here can advise? We have started using kefir, have a google, I bought a book called The Kefir Solution – Natural Healing for IBS, Depression and Anxiety. Kefir treatment is also good for the skin.
He is starting to feel a bit better, his IBS (which we didn’t realise he also suffers from), has definitely improved and his depression also seems to be slightly better, although it’s very early days.
Best wishes.

Thanks for the reply. I just googled the company, it’s the crowdfunded one right? I have not read this yet but I found a page about it on these forums so maybe they mention what to do to follow up? – https://cleverguts.com/forums/topic/british-gut-project/
Are the results pretty clear to read? I was chatting with someone on the forums this morning who mentioned a company called Atlast and it’s almost double the price, I am wondering if, in terms of gut bacteria numbers and information like that, this one is the same for a cheaper price…

on a seperate note can I ask if roaccutane cleared his skin even after coming off it? the doctors want me to try it you see. I don’t really want to mess my insides up anymore without knowing the current damage. However after 10 years using various things such as lymocyclin and a few others I have learnt that mine probably are not going to go on their own as soon as I come off the medications like I now have ( although I am trying to take Probiotics for a while and I already eat incredibly healthy so I will see how that goes first )

Funny you should mention the Kefir as my grains arrived today for me to start making it. I am also using probiotic yoghurt and have also made some Sauerkraut!

Please keep me updated on your sons situation if possible 🙂

Hi,
I would be VERY careful of taking Roaccutane, we feel that it has completely ruined his life! He never had any health issues before it, but had to be taken off it because he was severely depressed (bordering on suicidal), he’s not been the same person since. One day we were chatting about his mental health and we both agreed that he’d not been the same since taking the Roaccutane, and I said ‘I wonder if it’s connected?’. I then came across 3 fascinating programmes on the microbiome on Radio 4 called The Second Genome. Listening to them was a light bulb moment.
Please research thoroughly, I regret not researching more myself before he took it, and we wish he’d never taken it. His skin was actually better when he came off it than when he was on it.
Good luck with the kefir, we’re hoping that it might help. I’ll keep you posted x