@gdndiva Hey. I have RA, so I do understand stiff and painful joints. First, I will say check into curcumin, and Boswellia combined with black sesame seed oil for quick pain relief or curcumin and Boswellia combined with DLPA and natto-kinase taking daily for chronic pain problems (muscle, arthritic joints, headache, backache, etc.). These helps so much with joint and muscle pain!!! These combinations have been shown to be as effective or even more effective than NSAIDs or Acetaminophen in clinical studies (CuraMed is what I have been found to be helpful for myself). Many swear by MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) as well for joint pain, circulation and joint stiffness. Re: gut health and testing. Yes, gut issues can be treated and gut health can be obtained. There are lots of gut microbiome tests available through online or your own functional/naturopathic docs. There are many health food stores which offer free lectures and help with finding out more about testing and how to heal your gut. My local store in Florida offers tons of opportunities to sign up for an appointment with a naturopathic specialists who actually come to the store and provide these types of testing and others as well. Using a good health food store which offers these types of free lectures and information is a good place to start asking questions as it can be quite expensive being treated under the care of a integrative/naturopathic/functional medicine physician directly. I was under the care for about 2 years, and while I learned a great deal and was beneficial, it was not without a price. I have spent numerous dozens and dozens of hours studying natural medicine/remedies myself, and I highly recommend that you educate yourself as well. It will help with your bs radar when someone is pushing a product without identifying its impact on the whole body...or when they don't know enough about how the product or therapy works and exactly what it does for the body or the potential side effects. So, to answer your questions: a gut microbiome test would identify what issues you have with your gut health. Then you can treat accordingly. Some treatments are for healing, and some are for sustaining good gut microbiome health. Make sense? I hope this helps. Again, I am not a physician just a person with many diagnoses and attempting to get healthier and have less symptoms. 🙂