“When you have a disease like this, everyone says they have the cure — your mom clips something out of Reader’s Digest to send to you,” he said. Still, when his physician, Dr. Qingping Yao at Stony Brook University, asked if he wanted to join the beta trial of an intriguing new probiotic pill, he figured it couldn’t hurt. “‘Everything is worth a try,'” he added, of his thought process at the time.

Within weeks of starting it, he said he could increase the time he spent working out by 10%. Now, a year into his regimen, Gallagher’s workouts are 40% longer and significantly more intense. He is also down 7 pounds, even though his weight has rarely fluctuated in the past. “I’m a believer,” he said.

What he’s come to believe in, specifically, isn’t just any old gut health vitamin. Gallagher was part of a trial for a pill, which is being marketed under the name Nella, that contains bacteria harvested from the poop of high-performing athletes. //

Over the last decade or so, it’s become increasingly accepted that the microbiome — the bacteria in your gut — directly impacts our overall health, both mental and physical. Per the American Psychological Association, 95% of the body’s serotonin is produced by gut bacteria, and 70% of our immune system is found in the intestines, too. The idea behind Fitbiomics is to hijack an average Joe’s GI system and bio-hack it with bacteria until it resembles that of a pro-athlete. //

In the meantime, Gallagher and others are enjoying results they attribute to Nella. Nick Vendikos, a 52-year-old fundraiser from Brooklyn, had long struggled with chronic pain as the result of an accident, along with IBS and difficulty maintaining an ideal weight.

He decided to try Nella and has been surprised by how much better he feels.

“I’m a skeptic, but my stomach started feeling better. All my issues have gone away, and I lost about 20 pounds,” he said. “I don’t know if it is or it isn’t Nella, but something’s working.”