Protocol Week - Up to 35% Off · Ends in 10d 12h

Biome Tests

Microbiome & Gut Health Test

Excellent   Star Star Star Star Star  
Rated 4.9 out of 5 (410 Reviews)

The Stride Optimal Biome Test analyses your gut microbiome in depth, measuring the balance and diversity of key bacteria involved in digestion, immunity, metabolism and gut-brain signalling, including species such as Akkermansia, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. It reveals how your gut is functioning right now, ideal if you’re dealing with bloating, digestive issues, low energy, poor immunity or unexplained symptoms.

Using a simple at-home stool sample, this test delivers personalised gut health insights you can act on immediately. Many people choose to retest through a subscription to see how dietary and lifestyle changes are working over time, while upgrading to StrideOne brings gut results together with DNA and blood markers for a more complete view of your health.

What's included :

  • Comprehensive report covering microbiome diversity, bacterial balance, digestive efficiency, and neurotransmitter pathways
  • Personalised, science-backed recommendations to optimise your gut health
  • Samples analysed using cutting-edge shotgun sequencing

Save 30%

Optimal Biome (Subscription)

Get tested every 6 months and save. The smart way to track your health over time. Pause or cancel anytime.

€459 €321

Optimal Biome (One Off)

Get a detailed breakdown of 300+ gut bacteria and understand how they’re influencing your digestion, immunity, energy, skin, mood, and more.

€459

Order today, shipping next day.

Apple Pay Google Pay Shop Pay Klarna PayPal Mastercard AMEX Visa

Fast UK delivery

Secure, private platform

30-day money-back guarantee

Key benefits

Decode your gut

Get a detailed breakdown of 300+ gut bacteria and understand how they’re influencing your digestion, immunity, energy, skin, mood, and more.

See what’s out of balance

Learn whether your gut is in optimal shape — including your SCFA score, microbial diversity, gut-brain markers, and signs of inflammation or dysbiosis.

Connect the dots

Understand how your gut affects your sleep, stress resilience, and even mental wellbeing — with insights into serotonin, dopamine and GABA production.

Improve and retest

Receive tailored recommendations to improve your microbiome and gut health — and retest to see what’s working over time.

How It Works

How microbiome testing works

In just 3 easy steps, unlock insights into millions of your microbial neighbours!

Collect your sample

Step 1

Collect your sample

Your Optimal Biome kit contains everything you need to collect your sample, with step-by-step guidance along the way!

Return to our lab

Step 2

Return to our lab

Once received at our specialist lab, we analyse your microbial species as well as their diversity and richness to assess your gut health.

Receive results

Step 3

Receive results

Your user-friendly report will be ready within 25 business days. Learn more about your results with an expert consultation.

Gut Microbiome Health

The Optimal Biome Gut Microbiome Health Report gives you a comprehensive overview of your gut environment — from your overall gut health score to the balance, diversity, richness, and health index of your bacterial populations.

By assessing over 60 key bacterial species, we reveal how your good and bad bacteria are interacting, how evenly distributed they are, and whether your microbiome has the resilience and strength needed to support long-term health.

Armed with this insight, you’ll receive targeted actions to support microbial balance, enhance resilience, and help keep your gut functioning at its best.

Gut-Brain Axis

The gut and brain are in constant communication — and your microbiome plays a pivotal role in that connection. The Optimal Biome Gut-Brain Axis Report measures microbial activity linked to serotonin, GABA and dopamine, helping you understand how your gut might be influencing your mood, focus, and emotional resilience.

We also assess short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production, essential for managing inflammation and maintaining gut-brain signalling. These insights provide the missing piece to help improve mood, mental clarity, and gut comfort.

Metabolism

Your microbiome can directly influence weight, energy extraction from food, and even how your body stores fat. The Optimal Biome Metabolism Report analyses the abundance of bacteria associated with metabolic health and calculates a personalised Metabolic Health Score.

We also track important ratios like Bacteroidota:Bacillota, Proteobacteria levels, and microbiome diversity — all key to understanding your weight gain risk and energy metabolism. Your report includes tailored advice to support healthy metabolic function through diet and lifestyle.

Digestive Health

Digestive symptoms like bloating, IBS, and food sensitivities often start in the microbiome. The Optimal Biome Digestive Health Report evaluates bacteria linked to digestion, nutrient absorption, and gut lining integrity to produce your Digestive Health Score.

We look at markers of “leaky gut” risk, bacterial diversity, and the abundance of SCFA-producing microbes. This gives you a clear picture of how well your gut is functioning and what steps to take to improve digestion, reduce inflammation, and support better nutrient absorption.

Stride Expertise

Navigating your gut health results can be difficult, that’s why we’ve made our Optimal Biome reports as easy to use as possible, with a focus on the steps you can take to make improvements.

However, sometimes it’s nice to have an extra helping hand! Our Stride experts are available to talk you through everything, adding valuable context as well as addressing any specific concerns you may have. A 30 minute one-to-one consultation is included as part of your Optimal Biome report.

Included with this test

Your results become a ranked plan — not a PDF you'll never open.

Stride Protocols reads your results and lifestyle, connects the findings that relate, and turns them into specific actions ordered by what matters most for your goal. Every line traces back to the exact finding behind it.

Generated free with every Stride test
AI Protocol Your protocol
0%Optimised
GoalGeneral health & longevity
Change
Connected findings
Your methylation, vitamin D need and gut diversity results are linked. Stride has combined them into a single ranked plan.
DNA Blood Microbiome Lifestyle
1
Take methylated B vitamins to support your methylation cycles
DNA · Methylation
2
Add vitamin D3 with K2 to optimise your levels
Blood · 25-OH Vit DDNA · Raised need
3
Increase fibre diversity toward 30 plants a week
Microbiome · Diversity
+3 more actions & a daily practice in your full protocol
Full protocol
Illustrative example. AI-generated lifestyle guidance, not medical advice.
Ranked by impactPrioritised by what your results show matters most for your goal.
Fully traceableEach action links back to the exact finding behind it.
Yours to use, or notFollow it fully, pick a few actions, or keep it for reference. Optional.

Join our community of biotrackers taking control of their health

Real reviews from Stride users.

Explore our other products

StrideDNA

Health Tests

DNA Testing

Optimal DNA & Methylation

Learn how DNA shapes your internal biology to find optimal health across methylation, nutrition, fitness, skin, sleep & stress.

Learn More about Optimal DNA & Methylation
StrideBloods

Health Tests

Advanced Blood Biomarkers

Optimal Bloods

Comprehensive analysis of 70+ biomarkers for heart, hormonal, nutrients, and longevity insights. Professional, at-home blood draw.

Learn More about Optimal Bloods
StrideDaily

Supplements

Subscribe & Save

GS-01

Daily synbiotic support blend with 12 billion live bacteria & prebiotic fibre to support your gut microbiome.

Learn More about GS-01

For the curious.

What is Stride Optimal Biome?

Optimal Biome is an at-home gut microbiome test kit for UK customers (currently unavailable outside the UK), designed to map and analyse the thousands of microbial species living in your digestive system. With detailed analysis of your gut bacteria, diversity, gut-brain axis markers and metabolic health, it gives you insights into how your microbiome may be influencing digestion, immunity, mood, energy and overall wellness.

¿Qué es Stride Optimal Biome?

Optimal Biome es un kit de análisis del microbioma intestinal para hacer en casa, dirigido a clientes del Reino Unido (actualmente no disponible fuera del Reino Unido), diseñado para mapear y analizar las miles de especies microbianas que viven en tu sistema digestivo. Con un análisis detallado de tus bacterias intestinales, la diversidad, los marcadores del eje intestino-cerebro y la salud metabólica, te ofrece información sobre cómo tu microbioma puede estar influyendo en la digestión, la inmunidad, el estado de ánimo, la energía y el bienestar general.

¿Qué marcadores mide Optimal Biome?

El análisis Optimal Biome abarca una amplia gama de marcadores del microbioma y de la salud intestinal, entre ellos:

  • Diversidad y riqueza microbiana: cuántas especies diferentes hay y cómo de equilibrado está tu ecosistema intestinal.
  • Abundancia relativa de los principales géneros y especies bacterianas: (p. ej., proporciones Bacteroidota / Bacillota, abundancia de Proteobacteria) Pueden influir en la digestión, el metabolismo y el peso.
  • Producción de ácidos grasos de cadena corta (AGCC) y marcadores del eje intestino-cerebro: las bacterias intestinales pueden influir en la producción de serotonina, GABA y dopamina, así como en la resiliencia mental.
  • Indicadores de salud digestiva: grupos bacterianos relacionados con la absorción de nutrientes, la integridad de la mucosa intestinal, las sensibilidades alimentarias, la inflamación y la disbiosis.
  • Asociaciones con la salud metabólica: firmas microbianas relacionadas con la extracción de energía, el almacenamiento de grasa, la regulación del peso y la puntuación metabólica.

What markers does Optimal Biome measure?

The Optimal Biome test covers a wide range of microbiome and gut health markers including:

  • Microbial diversity & richness: how many different species and how well-balanced your gut ecosystem is.
  • Relative abundance of key bacterial genera and species: (e.g., Bacteroidota / Bacillota ratios, Proteobacteria abundance) These can influence digestion, metabolism and weight.
  • Short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production & gut-brain axis markers: gut bacteria can impact serotonin, GABA, dopamine production and mental resilience.
  • Digestive health indicators: bacterial groups linked to nutrient absorption, gut-lining integrity, food sensitivities, inflammation and dysbiosis.
  • Metabolic health associations: microbial signatures connected with energy extraction, fat storage, weight regulation and metabolic score.

Do I need to visit a clinic or hospital for this test?

No, the Optimal Biome kit is fully at-home. You will receive your test kit by Royal Mail 24hr Tracked. Then, you simply collect a small stool sample using the kit, which comes with clear instructions. You then send it back to our UK-based accredited lab via the provided tracked post mailing bag. Once the sample is received, comprehensive analysis begins and your report is delivered online.

¿Necesito acudir a una clínica u hospital para hacerme este análisis?

No, el kit Optimal Biome se realiza por completo en casa. Recibirás tu kit de análisis por Royal Mail 24hr Tracked. Después, solo tienes que recoger una pequeña muestra de heces con el kit, que incluye instrucciones claras. A continuación, la envías de vuelta a un laboratorio acreditado del Reino Unido con el que trabajamos mediante la bolsa de envío con seguimiento que se proporciona. Una vez recibida la muestra, comienza un análisis exhaustivo y tu informe se entrega en línea.

¿Cuándo recibiré mis resultados?

En el caso de Optimal Biome, una vez que tu muestra llega al laboratorio, los resultados suelen estar listos en un plazo de 20 a 25 días hábiles. Recibirás una notificación por correo electrónico y podrás consultar tu informe interactivo completo en tu portal de usuario.

When will I receive my results?

For Optimal Biome, once your sample arrives at the lab, results are typically ready within 20 to 25 business days. You’ll receive an email notification and can view your full interactive report in your user portal.

Can I book a consultation to help interpret my results?

Yes, each Optimal Biome test includes a 30-minute one-to-one expert consultation included in the package. Our in-house specialists guide you through your results, explain what the different markers mean, and help you build an actionable plan for improvement.

¿Puedo reservar una consulta que me ayude a interpretar mis resultados?

Sí, cada análisis Optimal Biome incluye una consulta individual de 30 minutos con un experto incluida en el paquete. Nuestros especialistas internos te guían a través de tus resultados, te explican qué significan los distintos marcadores y te ayudan a elaborar un plan de mejora práctico.

¿Con qué frecuencia debería repetir el análisis de mi microbioma?

Recomendamos repetir el análisis de tu microbioma cada 3 meses (o antes) si haces cambios significativos en tu estilo de vida o tu alimentación, tomas antibióticos o quieres seguir tu progreso en la optimización de la salud intestinal. Como el microbioma es dinámico y cambiante, realizar análisis periódicos te permite identificar qué está funcionando y qué no. (Stride)

Palabras clave: repetir análisis de microbioma Reino Unido, repetir análisis intestinal Reino Unido, seguimiento del progreso del microbioma Reino Unido

How often should I retest my microbiome?

We recommend retesting your microbiome every 3 months (or sooner) if you make significant lifestyle or dietary changes, take antibiotics, or want to track progress in gut-health optimisation. Because the microbiome is dynamic and responsive, regular testing gives you the chance to identify what’s working and what isn’t. (Stride)

Keywords: retest microbiome UK, repeat gut test UK, microbiome progress monitoring UK

How should I prepare for my sample collection?

To ensure the most accurate results:

  • Use the kit as per instructions and avoid contaminating the sample.
  • Avoid heavy antibiotics or probiotics for at least a week prior (unless advised otherwise).
  • Do not change your diet radically just before sampling; we want a “normal state” snapshot.
  • Post the sample as soon as possible in the prepaid return envelope provided.

Note: You’ll receive a full preparation guide with your kit.

¿Cómo debo prepararme para la recogida de la muestra?

Para garantizar los resultados más precisos:

  • Usa el kit siguiendo las instrucciones y evita contaminar la muestra.
  • Evita los antibióticos fuertes o los probióticos durante al menos una semana antes (salvo que te indiquen lo contrario).
  • No cambies tu dieta de forma radical justo antes de tomar la muestra; queremos una instantánea de tu “estado normal”.
  • Envía la muestra lo antes posible en el sobre de devolución prepagado que se proporciona.

Nota: Recibirás una guía de preparación completa con tu kit.

¿Qué pasa si no estoy seguro de cómo interpretar mis resultados?

¡No hay problema! La consulta incluida te ayudará a orientarte y nuestro equipo de soporte siempre está disponible si quieres más aclaraciones. Te ofrecemos tu informe de salud intestinal en un lenguaje claro y sencillo, te explicamos cualquier marcador señalado y te recomendamos los siguientes pasos, desde la dieta y el estilo de vida hasta suplementos específicos. Ten en cuenta que este análisis no es diagnóstico y no debe sustituir el consejo médico. Para cualquier problema de salud grave, consulta a tu médico de cabecera.

What happens if I’m unsure how to interpret my results?

No problem! Your included consultation will help guide you, and our support team is always available if you want further clarification. We provide your gut-health report in plain English, explain any flagged markers, and recommend next steps — from diet and lifestyle to targeted supplements. Keep in mind: this test is not diagnostic and should not replace medical advice. For any serious health conditions please consult your GP.

Is my data secure and private?

Yes — your results and personal data are protected under strict confidentiality and data-security protocols. Only you and authorised experts can access your user portal. We never share your data without your explicit consent.

¿Están seguros y protegidos mis datos?

Sí: tus resultados y datos personales están protegidos mediante estrictos protocolos de confidencialidad y seguridad de datos. Solo tú y los expertos autorizados podéis acceder a tu portal de usuario. Nunca compartimos tus datos sin tu consentimiento explícito.

¿Se puede combinar Optimal Biome con otros análisis?

Por supuesto. Para obtener una imagen más completa de tu biología interna, Optimal Biome puede combinarse con otros análisis, como nuestro análisis de biomarcadores en sangre (Optimal Bloods) o los servicios de análisis de ADN. Juntos, ofrecen información valiosa sobre cómo interactúa tu intestino con tu metabolismo, tu genética y tu trayectoria de salud general.

Can Optimal Biome be combined with other tests?

Absolutely. For a fuller picture of your internal biology, Optimal Biome can be paired with other tests such as our blood biomarker test (Optimal Bloods) or DNA testing services. Together, these provide rich insight into how your gut interacts with your metabolism, genetics and overall health trajectory.