Pre-, pro-, post-, syn- and cobiotics: sense, nonsense and the key to longevity

Supplements are bulging with "biotics": pre-, pro-, post-, syn- and even cobiotics.
They are presented as the panacea for better gut health and longer life. But what is fact, what is fiction? And more importantly, can they really make a difference in how we age - and how our microbiome ages?

The question: yes or no?

Yes or no: are we aging because our microbiome is deteriorating, or is our microbiome aging because we are aging?
Science says: both. It's a vicious circle of crosstalk: aging cells affect the microbiome, and an impoverished microbiome accelerates aging and inflammation.

Wang et al., Microbial Pathogenesis 2024 and Ulvyana et al., Biosc Med 2025 confirm that specific microbial profiles are associated with sarcopenia, inflammaging and cognitive decline.

Multi-omics insights into biotics and aging

1. Prebiotics
   - Fiber that is nutrition for specific bacteria. Effect depends on your microbiome diversity.
   - Shen et al, Food Sci Nutr 2025: non-starch polysaccharides influence weight and metabolic health via the gut-adipose axis.
2. Probiotics
   - Live administered bacteria. Effect varies by individual.
   - Jurek et al, Nutrients 2024: probiotics modulate neuroimmune pathways in ME/CFS, but effective only in specific subgroups.
3. Postbiotics
   - Directly administered metabolites (e.g., butyrate).
   - Habiballah et al., Front Immunol 2025: postbiotics can restore Treg balance in autoimmune diseases.
4. Synbiotics
   - Combination of pre- and probiotics that reinforce each other.
   - Fermin et al., Cureus 2024: show that synbiotics improve the gut-organ axis in the elderly.
5. Cobiotics
   - New generation of biotics combining multiple substances and acting on crosstalk networks (e.g. gut-brain and gut-muscle simultaneously).

The role in longevity

• An aging microbiome produces fewer SCFAs and more pro-inflammatory metabolites → accelerates aging(Zhou et al., Wiley 2024).
• Multi-omics shows which biotics help balance and differentiate between calendar age and biological age.
• Workers who keep their microbiome young have more energy, less inflammation and better cognitive resilience.

Innovative solutions

1. Biotics Response Index
   - My InnerSelfie predicts which biotics (pre, pro, post, syn, co) are truly effective in an individual.
2. Longevity Scan
   - DNA (e.g. telomere length genes), microbiome profiles and metabolites (SCFAs, indoles) determine the difference between biological and calendar age.
3. Precision biotics strategies
   - No generic probiotics, but personalized support based on your own multi-omics data.

Why My InnerSelfie is unique

• Multi-omics integration: DNA, metabolites and microbiome provide a complete picture of aging and biotic needs.
• Crosstalk focus: making visible how you and your microbiome grow young or old together.
• Preventive precision: not everyone benefits from the same biotics; we measure what works for you.
• Win-win: For people → less uncertainty, no generic advice, but insight into whether a drug really suits them.
• For society/healthcare → fewer unnecessary treatments, fewer side effects, more preventive health. Tomorrow's care: innovative, preventive and always customized. Innovation of today becomes the standard of tomorrow - safe and evidence-based.

Key insights

• Biotics are not panaceas and do not work the same for everyone.
• Multi-omics reveals who benefits from pre-, pro-, post-, syn- or cobiotics.
• The microbiome is a key to longevity and the difference between biological and calendar age.
• My InnerSelfie offers precision rather than one size fits all.

Scientific references

• Jurek JM, Castro-Marrero J. Gut microbiome disturbances & microbial preparations in ME/CFS. Nutrients. 2024.
• Habiballah DN, Li F, Jiang L. Immune metabolic restoration in SLE via microbiota & postbiotics. Front Immunol. 2025.
• Shen Q, Yang Z, Hu C, et al. Non-starch polysaccharides & gut-adipose axis in obesity. Food Sci Nutr. 2025.
• Ulvyana V, Mulyana R, Martini RD. Meta-analysis: gut-muscle axis & sarcopenia. Biosc Med. 2025.
• Wang M, Ren F, Zhou Y, et al. Age-related sarcopenia & altered gut microbiota. Microb Pathog. 2024.

Zhou Y, Xu Z, Zhang H, et al. Microbiome balance & One Health principle. Wiley. 2024.