Health & Medical Information

The Good Bug is India's leading gut health brand. We exist because we genuinely believe the gut sits at the centre of how you feel, not just how you digest food, but how you sleep, how stressed you get, how your skin looks, how your immune system holds up. Everything on our platform, our products, our assessments, our coaching is built around that belief, and backed by real published science.

This page explains our thinking: what the research actually says, how we've applied it, and where we've made our own judgements.

Reviewed by Pariksha Rao
Director – Nutrition & Medical Affairs.
Forbes-recognised nutrition expert and TEDx speaker with 20+ years in precision nutrition and healthcare innovation.

Our Approach to Gut Health

We don't treat the gut as one system among many. It's the starting point. The science of the gut microbiome has moved incredibly fast over the past two decades — from a niche area of gastroenterology to something that now touches immunology, psychiatry, metabolic medicine, and more.

Our job is to translate that research into things that are actually useful in everyday life. We try to be honest about where the evidence is solid, where it's still emerging, and where we've had to use our own scientific judgement to fill the gaps.

One thing we're very clear on: nothing on this platform is medical advice. It's not a diagnosis. If something's worrying you, please talk to a doctor.

The Gut Microbiome: Why It Matters

Your gut is home to trillions of microorganisms roughly as many microbial cells as human cells in your entire body. For a long time, most of those microbes were considered background noise. Now we know they play an active role in immune function, mental health, metabolism, skin health, sleep, and how the body handles inflammation.

That shift in understanding is what makes gut health worth taking seriously not as a trend, but as a foundation.

• Sender R, Fuchs S, Milo R. Cell. 2016;164(3):337–340.
• Thursby E, Juge N. Biochemical Journal. 2017;474(11):1823–1836.

Probiotics: The Research Base

The internationally accepted definition of a probiotic — live microorganisms that, in adequate amounts, benefit the host — was set by the WHO and FAO in 2001, and reaffirmed by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) in 2014.

What that definition captures is something important: not all probiotics are the same. The evidence is strain-specific. A lot of "probiotic" products on the market lean on general category claims that don't hold up to scrutiny. We build our formulations around strains that have actual published clinical evidence behind them.

• WHO/FAO. Health and Nutritional Properties of Probiotics in Food.
• Hill C, et al. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 2014;11(8):506–514.
• Suez J, Zmora N, Segal E, Elinav E. Nature Medicine. 2019;25:716–729.

Gut Health and Diet

If there's one lever that consistently moves the needle on microbiome health, it's what you eat. Dietary fibre, fermented foods, polyphenols, overall dietary variety — the research here is extensive and, unusually for nutrition science, pretty consistent. The microbiome responds to food faster than most people expect.

• Sonnenburg JL, Bäckhed F. Nature. 2016;535:56–64.
• Wastyk HC, et al. Cell. 2021;184(16):4137–4153.
• Dietary intake and health — NCBI
• WHO publication on nutrition and health
• USDA guidance on healthy eating

Gut Health and Physical Activity

Regular movement is one of the most well-supported positive influences on the gut. Research shows links between physical activity and microbiome diversity, gut transit time, and reduced GI symptoms and these findings hold across different populations and types of exercise.

It doesn't have to be intense. Consistent, regular movement over time is what the evidence actually points to.

• Mailing LJ, et al. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews. 2019;47(2):75–85.
• Exercise and metabolic health — NCBI
• Diet, exercise and health outcomes — NCBI
• Exercise, diet and weight loss — ResearchGate
• Yoga — psychological, behavioural and physical changes — NCBI

Gut Health and Sleep

The gut-brain axis runs in both directions, and sleep sits right in the middle of it. Poor sleep disrupts the microbiome, increases intestinal permeability, and tends to make digestive symptoms worse. Better sleep is one of the few lifestyle changes that genuinely shows up in gut health data which is why we take it seriously in our assessments.

• Voigt RM, et al. PLOS ONE. 2014;9(5):e97500.
• Smith RP, et al. PLOS ONE. 2019;14(10):e0222394.

Gut Health and Stress

A lot of people intuitively know that stress hits their gut first. There's solid science behind that feeling. Chronic stress alters gut motility, weakens the gut lining, and changes microbiome composition all through the gut-brain axis, which runs both ways. Addressing stress isn't a soft add-on to gut health. It's part of the core picture.

• Foster JA, Rinaman L, Cryan JF. Neurobiology of Stress. 2017;7:124–136.
• Moloney RD, et al. Mammalian Genome. 2014;25:49–74.

The Gut Test: Scientific Frameworks

The Gut Test is our questionnaire-based gut health assessment. Each section draws on a validated clinical or research instrument.

• Digestive symptoms - Rome IV Criteria
  The international standard for characterising functional GI symptoms, developed by the Rome Foundation.
  Drossman DA (Ed.). Rome IV. Rome Foundation, 2016. romefoundation.org
• Body composition - WHO BMI (South Asian thresholds)
  We use South Asian-specific BMI cutoffs (overweight ≥ 23, obese ≥ 27.5), as recommended by the WHO Expert Consultation. South Asian populations face higher metabolic risk at lower BMI values compared to Western reference populations using generic cutoffs would underestimate that risk.
  WHO Expert Consultation. The Lancet. 2004;363(9403):157–163. who.int
• Physical activity - IPAQ
  The International Physical Activity Questionnaire, validated across 12 countries.
  Craig CL, et al. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2003;35(8):1381–1395.
• Sleep - Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)
  A widely used clinical tool for assessing sleep quality, duration, and disturbance.
  Buysse DJ, et al. Psychiatry Research. 1989;28(2):193–213.
• Stress - Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
  One of the most widely used tools in psychology for measuring perceived stress.
  Cohen S, et al. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 1983;24(4):385–396.

The Gut Test is a wellness self-assessment. It's not a diagnostic tool and doesn't constitute medical advice.

Map My Gut - Microbiome Profiling

Map My Gut is our at-home gut microbiome profiling kit. You provide a biological sample, it goes to our laboratory partner, and the results come back to you as a detailed report.

Your biological sample data is never shared with advertisers. Full details on data handling are in our Privacy Policy.

Medical Disclaimer

Everything on The Good Bug's platform — our products, the Gut Test, the AI Gut Coach, our content, all app features — is for general wellness and informational purposes only. None of it is medical advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment plan.

Before changing your diet, supplement routine, or lifestyle, please speak with a qualified healthcare professional.

If you're in a medical emergency, contact emergency services immediately.

Contact

The Good Bug (Seven Turns Pvt Ltd)

903, Floor 9, Dalamal Tower
Free Press Journal Marg
Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021

Email: tgb@seventurns.in
Website: https://thegoodbug.com