Nina unboxes a uBiome microbiome testing kit sent by her sister Alexandra, who works there. The kit analyzes bacteria across your body by collecting samples from your gut, skin, mouth, nose, or genitals. Nina walks through registering online, swabbing a stool sample, shaking it to break open cells, and mailing it back.
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So I feel like we should do it right.
You should do it right.
Gotta work on that. Okay, cut that part at the end. Hello everyone, welcome to a weekend edition video. This is Nina.
Thanks, I think they all know that.
So I've got an exciting package. My sister Alexandra works at a company in California called uBiome, and what they do is they They measure and track information about you. There's this kit that you have to give them a sample, and then they send you a whole bunch of information about yourself. So I'm going to learn about myself and see what they have to say. So she made a quick video to explain it in much more scientific words than I just used, so we're going to watch it and then we're going to open up the package.
Hi! Hi, Evan's followers! I'm Alexandra, I'm Evan's sister. I work at uBiome, which is a microbiome testing company. So we make these kits, and we just sent one to Evan. And what he's gonna do is open up the kit and go to the bathroom, wipe and test, take a little Q-tip and then wipe his toilet paper to get a poo sample. And then we're gonna put it in— he's gonna put it in a little tube, shake it up, send it back to us, and we're gonna look at all the different kinds of bacteria that are in Evan's poop. And then I guess we'll let you know what we find.
Oh my gosh.
So yeah, he's gonna do this experiment and we're gonna see how it goes. Have fun!
You're gonna do that? I need to poo. I don't have to poo right now. Okay, let's open this. Hello and congratulations! Thank you so much for joining the uBiome. So as I'm looking at this, I see options here: nose, skin, genitals, mouth, and gut. I think I'm doing gut. So this is to send it back. The address is on here. That's cool. That's good. This is my spare tube. Use to replace a tube if you make a mistake or to submit an additional sample. Oh, these are the swabs. This is what I use to swab the poo off. Oh cool, look at that. It's like this liquid stuff in there. It says "gut." And there's this liquid inside. Well, it also says to follow instructions. Register your kit. At uBiome.com. I feel like I know what I should do. Like I'm supposed to go to the bathroom, swab with this, take a piece, put it in here, and then mail it in here. And I'm not usually one to follow instructions, like 1, 2, 3. I'm not usually good at that, but it's for my sister, so I feel like we should do it right.
You should do it right.
Okay, let's get the laptop.
How to sample your skin microbiome. Before you get started, create an account and activate your kit at register.ubiome.com using the kit ID on the box. If you have long hair, put it in a ponytail or pin it back away from your ears. Clean off a countertop in your bathroom or somewhere with a mirror.
That was amazing!
Place the sample collection vial in the holder. Open the sample collection vial and place the lid top-down on the sample kit where it won't get dirty. Open the sterile swab wetting water vial. Don't use regular water. Open the swab by twisting the top of the packaging tube. Dip the swab into the sterile swab wetting water. Grab either the left or right ear just above the earlobe and pull it away from the side of your head. It helps to use the hand opposite the ear. For example, left hand pulls right ear. With your other hand, swab the skin where your earlobe connects to your neck behind your ear 50 times. Be sure to fill out the online sample questionnaire to tell us how you collected your sample. Stick the swab into the sample collection vial. Stir vigorously, but don't splash, for 1 minute. Make sure the top of the sample collection vial is tightly sealed. Vigorously shake the sealed vial for 1 minute. This process helps break open the cells and extract the DNA. Place the tightly closed vial in the inner return envelope. When you've collected all of your samples, seal the inner return envelope Place it in the bubble mailer envelope and ship it back to you by mail.
What I learned from that video is I need to go to the bathroom counter and swoosh all of Lena's stuff off the top.
I don't have a lot of stuff. It is mostly your stuff. Hahaha.
Okay.
So—
Do you know how to do it now?
Yeah, but now I've got to poop. I did it! So I'm shaking it. I gotta shake it for a minute. I was successful in my quest.
Did you wash your hands?
I didn't wash my hands.
Oh, okay.
I should wash my hands. I was so focused on this and not contaminating. Okay, so I'm gonna shake this, then wash my hands, and send this off to California and see what kind of results I get. So thanks for the kit, Alexandra. For those of you watching, if you want to get your own test done, you can check out uBiome.com. I'll pop a link on the video and in the description below. And when I get my results, we'll report back and see what we've learned about myself.
