From babies with mysterious gastrointestinal issues to adults with unexplained chronic pain, an increasing number of people are turning to unregulated home health tests for answers they're not getting from doctors. The Washington Post delves into the phenomenon with the story of Annika Sharma, who, at 6 months old, responded to such seemingly innocuous foods as bananas and sweet potatoes with uncontrollable vomiting so severe that she was once hospitalized with dehydration. Her family spent a year and a half seeing doctors who essentially dismissed their concerns before finding Tiny Health, a Silicon Valley start-up that simply required them to swab some stool from the toddler's diaper and send it in for testing. That testing determined the child's gut had too much of a common bacteria.
After starting a regimen of probiotics, sauerkraut, and petting zoo visits to expose Annika to animal microbes, her gut healed and her food reactions ceased. Others share similar stories, but some doctors who spoke to the Post remain unconvinced. One endocrinologist says she puts "zero stock" in results patients bring her from at-home tests because she can't confirm those tests are accurate. They largely fall into what the newspaper calls a "regulatory gap," because the FDA does regulate most medical test—but it does not regulate "wellness tests" marketed to consumers directly. See the full story, which includes more on why so many people are turning to such tests regardless of the cautions, at the Post. (More Longform stories.)
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