EDMONTON — A ɫ research team is in clinical trials to validate a tool they’ve developed with University of Ottawa to test the microbiome in your gut and provide a precision diet to restore it to health.
The tool is aimed at people living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) but is also proving helpful to those with other inflammatory illnesses, and even people with normal digestion.
Trial participants provide gut microbiome samples, which are analyzed by culturing the microbes with different types of carbohydrates. An AI algorithm then creates a nutrient profile with recommendations on which foods to cut out and which to add for the greatest personal health benefit.
“It’s quite incredible from an IBD point of view,” says principal investigator , associate professor of gastroenterology and adjunct in both pediatrics at U of A and internal medicine at the University of Manitoba. “We’ve actually seen increased rates of remission just by introducing these subtle changes in diet.”
It can take as little as a few weeks to rewire the microbiome, she says.
Armstrong’s testing and precision diet regimen are undergoing clinical trials at seven sites across Canada, thanks to a $10-million grant from the .
More information is available here.
To arrange an interview with Heather Armstrong, please contact:
Riley Tjosvold | ɫ communications coordinator | riley.tjosvold@ualberta.ca