What I Learned About My Gut Health from the Gut Health Test
Until I was twenty, I was actually quite underweight. I weighed around 53 kilos at a height of 1.74 metres. Between the ages of twenty and thirty, I weighed around 63 kilos. During that period, I didn't really have many digestive problems.
That changed in 2016. Because of medication, I gained around 20 kilos in a short period. I stopped taking medication in 2020, but those kilos didn't simply disappear again. Because of my burnout and chronic fatigue, I also wasn't able to exercise or move very much.
I'm also going through menopause now. About three years ago, my menstrual cycle became increasingly irregular. For about a year, I never really knew when my next period would come. I haven't had a period for about two years now.
Over the past year or so, I started having more and more digestive problems. If I ate something that didn't agree with me, I could sometimes need to go to the toilet within half an hour. I never really knew beforehand what my body would or wouldn't react to. Bloating, a lot of gas and sometimes quite severe cramps made it pretty unpredictable.
Actually, my digestion has always been a sensitive area for me. When I was a baby, not even a year old, I was already admitted to hospital because of digestive problems. Looking back, the cause turned out to be quite simple: I had been given brown bread too early. At the time, they initially suspected something completely different.
Since then, my digestion has always been a bit of a weak spot. Sometimes I hardly noticed any symptoms at all, and sometimes they were much more noticeable. Especially during stressful periods.
Years of Pushing My Limits
For years, I kept pushing my limits further and further without really realising how far beyond them I was going.
In August 2012, I had to stop working because of burnout. I felt pressure to return to work far too soon and started a gradual return to work. I built up my hours too quickly and by around July 2013, I was working almost full-time again.
But that didn't mean I had recovered. I had to take a day off almost every week just to recharge. After a day at work, my energy was simply gone.
In February 2014, my contract was not renewed. After that, things really went downhill. I became less and less able to do things until eventually I couldn't do anything at all.
During that period, I was also diagnosed with ME/CFS, chronic fatigue.
One of the first people who actually asked me how I was really doing was a doctor who assessed me for the Dutch benefits system. He didn't just ask how things were going at work, but also how I was doing in the evenings and at weekends.
I said that work was actually going quite well. After all, I was working almost full-time again. But when he asked further, I realised just how little energy I had left outside of work.
After those eight hours of work, I could basically only lie on the bed. I had no energy for housework, hobbies, friends or going out. My life consisted of working, eating and sleeping.
And the strange thing was: I thought this was normal. I thought everyone was that exhausted after a day at work.
With Triple B Healing, I'm now very slowly trying to build something of my own again. Taking things step by step, seeing what I can manage and what suits me.
Looking for an Explanation
Over the past year or so, I started having more and more problems with bloating and gas. I also found myself needing to go to the toilet more often after eating something that apparently didn't agree with me.
So in November 2025, I asked my GP's assistant for a blood test to see whether I might not tolerate gluten very well. I didn't speak to the GP myself. In Sweden, it isn't always easy to get an appointment with a GP. There are a lot of patients and not enough doctors. The assistant arranged the blood test after receiving my email.
The result was negative. The assistant had also suggested that I could try leaving out lactose for a while. I did that for about two weeks, but I didn't notice any difference.
So I still didn't really know what was causing it. I just knew that it was there.
We Had Already Tested Before
In September 2023, we both did a Balance Test for the first time. We did another test in April 2024. My result was much better then, and I noticed a difference myself: I had more energy and a clearer head, although my memory was still not optimal and sometimes quite poor.
I've already written more extensively about our previous Balance Tests. For this blog, what matters most is what happened afterwards.
In spring 2024, we stopped taking Balance Oil. Not because we had made a carefully thought-out plan. We were simply incredibly busy with our place in Sweden. Winter was over and the snow had disappeared. There was so much to do and our attention was mainly focused on everything we were building there.
At the time, I also knew much less than I do now. I didn't really know what the products could do for us or how we were supposed to use them. I think I've written about this in previous blogs as well.
For example, I had had sachets of Zinobiotic sitting in the cupboard all that time. We had received them for free with our first order, without me really knowing what they did or how to use them. I never asked either.
So there they were. In the cupboard. Completely unused.
Testing Again
At the end of May 2025, we moved again, this time to our current place. Moving naturally takes a lot of energy, and I noticed that my recovery had come to a standstill or was even getting worse again.
By then, we had also started taking Balance Oil again. On 11 November, we both did another Balance Test. I don't want to go into that in detail in this blog because I've already written about our earlier results and what happened with them in other blogs.
There was also a new Gut Health Test, which looks at your digestion in a different way. I had previously had another type of stool test. That did show something, but I couldn't really do much with the result.
So I was mainly curious to see what this new test would show me.
My result was 42%, which falls into the moderate category. Of course, that wasn't optimal, but honestly, given my lifelong digestive problems, I had expected the result to be much worse.
Two parts of my result particularly caught my attention. The ratio for support of my immune system through the microbiome was in the low category. My IPA level was also on the low side of moderate, at 0.9.
I actually felt quite hopeful about it. It gave me more information about what was going on in my gut and a direction to work with.
From a Pinch to One and a Half Scoops
After the test, we started with a pinch of Zinobiotic. During the first two weeks, I noticed it immediately: a lot of activity in my intestines and a lot of gas. Not particularly pleasant.
After that, I started building up very slowly. Not according to a fixed schedule, but by listening to my body. I would only increase the amount once the symptoms from the previous step had settled again. Sometimes I would even take a little less for a few days if that felt better.
During those months, I really learned to listen to my body better instead of following a schedule set by someone else.
Things were actually going quite well. Until May 2026, when the hospital called about new investigations into Haro's health. The uncertainty caused me to sleep worse, and I noticed it immediately in my digestion.
I've continued taking the same amount of Zinobiotic since then, but I've noticed that during stressful periods I easily don't drink enough. I'm more aware of that now. In order for the fibres to do their job as well as possible, they need enough fluid.
Every now and then I wonder whether I should go back to one scoop instead of one and a half, but for now I've decided to first focus on getting more rest and drinking enough. I want to see what that does before reducing the amount.
So even after eight months, I still haven't reached the full recommended dose. The amount I take depends on how my body responds to it.
Where I Am Now
Around the middle of September, I'll do the Gut Health Test again. By then, I will have been building up for almost nine months.
During the first few months, I didn't feel there was much added value in testing again because I was still fully in the process of building up. Now I expect that I'll need at least another six months, perhaps even longer, to continue building up. That's why I do want to test again in between. I'd like to see whether anything is changing, even though I'm still not at the full dose of two full scoops.
I don't like testing as a standard routine every four months. I'd rather look at where I am at that particular moment and whether a new test will give me information I can actually do something with.
What I especially like about this whole journey is that I'm learning more and more to listen to my body.
I don't want to simply assume that something is good for me because someone tells me it is. I want to understand what is happening, look at what my body is telling me and, where possible, measure what is changing.
I'm still learning. And perhaps that is the most important thing I've learned from this whole journey.