Rootine Intro | Backed by Science | Transparency in Research | Your Rootine Journey | Lifestyle Quiz | DNA Testing | Blood Vitamin Test | Pros and Cons
The health and wellness industry certainly doesn’t suffer from a lack of supplements. One quick stroll down a grocery store supplement aisle and you’ll see what we mean.
Many supplement companies promise everything but the world when they make their sales pitch to consumers. But, this appeal’s often done with a very wide net.
It’s true that all human beings need certain essential nutrients to survive, so promoting more bioavailable forms of vitamins isn’t a stretch for the imagination. Even still, the market often lacks a personal touch.
Rootine is looking to change things. This direct-to-customer (D2C) company takes multinutrients to the next level — to our unique level, actually. Using factors like DNA and blood testing, Rootine seeks to offer customers like us micronutrient formulas that fit them.
Their theory’s simple: Our body is unique, so our nutrition should be, too.
They say that their personalized approach to micronutrient formulas is data-driven and backed by science. That’s what made them stand out to us among other D2C vitamin companies.
But, claims are easy to make and innovations are easy to fake. How does Rootine really stack up? Did these DNA-based vitamins actually help?
Stick around for an honest review as we uncover answers to these burning questions.
A Closer Look at Rootine
Rootline’s personalized approach to multivitamins have certainly garnered them a lot of praise. They’ve been featured in top-name publishers like Forbes, Men’s Journal, and Business Insider.
Their customized approach to micronutrients makes them unique within the supplement industry. Founded in 2018 by Dr. Daniel Wallerstrofer, who holds a PhD in biotechnology, and Rachel Sanders, a Harvard MBA grad, Rootine is certainly not lacking brain power.
Their unique approach uses detailed biological data from their customers to create custom vitamin regimens to fit their unique genetic makeups. Many competitor brands claim their vitamins are customizable too, but most of them rely on online quizzes alone to collect customer data.
Rootine takes this a step further by offering DNA tests, blood tests, and lifestyle data to better personalize their products. It’s like getting lab work before you go vitamin shopping. But, the neat thing is, we were able to do all of this from home.
Rooted in Research, Backed by Science
Rootine states that they’re built on 10+ years of nutrigenetic science. Their approach combines personalized data to create nutrient profiles for their customers.
- DNA: Nutrigenetics science explains how gene variations affect how our bodies respond to nutrients, e.g. how they are absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted. Rootine DNA testing analyzed over 50 of these variations to help build our unique nutrient profile.
- Blood: Our blood nutrient levels can provide helpful clues when creating nutrient profiles. It provided a personalized standard for dosage — e.g. which nutrients need to be increased or decreased. Precision nutrition is the goal.
- Lifestyle Factors: Rootine also used a 19-question analysis quiz to help create a baseline for each nutrient value. Collected information includes age, weight, gender, dietary preferences, and more. For example, a vegetarian or vegan diet may mean a higher amount of B12 vitamin to overcome potential B12 deficiencies.
Transparency in Research
One of Rootine’s biggest pros has to be their transparency in research. They aren’t shy about sharing their data — the same can’t be said by many of their competitors. All the genetic variants they test for are research-based and backed by scientific and clinical findings.
They even provided a research library for us because we were curious to learn more about their unique approach.
Starting Your Rootine Journey
Since Rootine offers personalized vitamins that are fully customized to fit everyone’s unique profile, there was a bit of upfront work we had to do before starting our journey.
Rootine’s approach followed a two-step process that was actually very simple to do.
This vitamin pairing process made our formula as optimal as possible. However, there’s also a third step they offered to make our nutrient profile even better.
Let’s take a look at all three steps.
Step 1: Take the Lifestyle Quiz
The first step in creating our own unique vitamin formula was establishing a nutrient baseline. This meant we had to take Rootine’s Lifestyle Quiz. The quiz is free to take, confidential, and only took a few minutes to complete. Let’s look at a few of the questions we were asked:
Do you follow any specific diet?
Our options were vegan, veggie, paleo, and omnivore diets. Dietary preferences can affect how the body absorbs certain nutrients. There are two dietary lifestyles that these options lacked: ketogenic diets and carnivore diets. These diets are high protein and high fat with little to no carbohydrates. We’re not keto or carnivores, but they do exist.
Can we ask which sex you were born with?
This allowed sex-specific (male or female) adjustments to be made to our nutrient profiles.
How would you rate your daily stress level?
The answers ranged from low, moderate, high, and extreme. Stress has an effect on certain hormones within the body, some of which interact with nutrients.
They also asked for our height and weight to give us a calculation of our Body Mass Index (BMI), which is used as a standard measurement of health.
Quiz Results
Once we completed the questionnaire, our results were emailed to us. At the end of the process, a Rootline dashboard was created for us where we could view our results.
Our initial report gave us a sampling of personalized nutrients based on our questionnaire. This included recommended nutrients, each with specific dosage recommendations and detailed explanations.
The following nutrient profiles were given:
- Vitamins: B2, B6, B9 (Folate), B12, D3, C, E
- Minerals: Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc, Manganese, Copper, Iron, Selenium
- Specialty: Phytosterols, Alpha Lipoic Acid, MSM, CoQ10, Omega 3 fatty acids
Cost
A monthly prescription costs $69.00 — billed as three installments. They required a three-month commitment. This 90-day supply is not an accident, either — per Rootine, it generally takes 90 days for changes to occur. The nice thing is, every time we added new data to the dashboard, Rootine reformulated our vitamin profile to better support our journey.
Re-orders also came in a 90-day supply, billed in three installments. They offered free shipping and we could cancel or pause our subscription by reaching out to them directly.
Step 2: DNA Testing
This next step was completely optional. However, in order to better personalize our nutrient profile, we decided it was definitely a worthy step to take. The DNA Nutrient Test usually costs $125, but it was $99 because we ordered it with the vitamins.
However, if you have Ancestry or 23AndMe genetic data, you can totally skip this step and just put that information into your Rootine dashboard. It just takes 1 or 2 days for the Rootie geneticists to analyze it.
Rootine still recommends using their own DNA Nutrient Test because it analyzes over 50 different genetic variants to provide key insights into your unique nutrient profile, helping pinpoint nutrient dosages. It features a simple at-home cheek swab. This data is completely confidential and we received results in 2 to 4 weeks.
Here’s what one customer said about the optional DNA test:
I took 23andMe and I also took this Rootine test. Both were about $100 but I feel like this test was more useful. Felt less like a guessing game when I was choosing supplements and ultimately used their personalized micronutrient solution.
— Jared, 5/5 stars on reviews.io
Step 3: Blood Vitamin Test
This third and final step was also optional. Again, we decided to try this option because it helps further pinpoint specific indicators in your nutrient profile. The Blood Vitamin Test measured our vitamin D, vitamin B6, B9, and B12 levels. This option was useful because we wanted to take a deep dive into our nutrient health.
Rootine recommends taking the Blood Vitamin Test every three to four months in order to see how effective the dosages are at bringing your vitamins to optimal levels. The test kit costs $125, $99 if ordered with the vitamins, and we did it at home with a simple finger prick.
This customer seems pleased with the results:
I love the idea that these vitamins are tailored to my unique needs. I don’t know of any other company that uses blood and DNA to determine your vitamin ratios- so cool!
— Danielle, 5/5 stars on reviews.io
Daily multivitamins work best when they're 100% custom formulated for your body, based on your unique genetic and biological needs.
The precision-personalized formula includes up to 18 clinically-proven nutrients, in safe and effective doses for your body, accurate to the mcg.
For the most accurate formula, you should include the DNA Nutrient Test, the Blood Vitamin Test, or both. However, you can add these later and we will update your formula.
Starting at $69.00/mo for 3 months
What Makes Rootine Stand Out
So, in a sea of supplement competitors, what makes Rootline stand out? Well, at this point it should be fairly obvious: Their approach to personalized vitamins is unmatched in the industry.
It’s true that there are other vitamin companies out there, like Baze and Persona, but they fall short in some important areas. For one, Baze is nearly $30 more expensive per month than Rootine. Although they also offer the at-home blood test, they lack the personalized nutrient dosages that Rootine provides.
Persona is moderately priced, but their nutrient formula is only based on an online quiz — no DNA test or blood testing is available. They also don’t offer personalized dosing.
Nutrient Delivery
Another difference is Rootine’s nutrient delivery system. Instead of relying on the standard vitamin in capsule form, Rootine uses microbeads for nutrient delivery. Microbeads are plant-based with 100% vegetarian ingredients. Each is made with pure, raw ingredients and coated with sustainably farmed beeswax. No fillers, no artificial ingredients.
Microbeads help with:
- Precision dosing and personalized formulation.
- They provide a slow-release (6+ hours) for optimal nutrient absorption.
- They also allow for clean delivery of all personalized nutrients without interrupting absorption.
We could take them with water (open packet, put half on the tongue, sip water, repeat) or on top of our favorite foods. Our favorites included mixing them into yogurts or blending them in smoothies. But even so, they’re not supposed to be bitten or chewed.
Here’s what one customer had to say about their Rootine experience:
Been very happy with the results I’ve seen from the Rootine program of matched vitamins. My blood work results have improved and I have a better overall feeling of well-being. It’s great having a customized vitamin program that is DNA specific to my individual needs. Highly recommend!
— Keith, 5/5 stars on reviews.io
Rootine Pros and Cons
Pros:
- The only company that tailors a complete, personalized vitamin regimen, using lifestyle data, DNA, and blood vitamin data.
- Nutrient delivery system is best for optimal nutrient absorption with its slow-release microbeads, which are free of fillers and artificial ingredients.
- It offers total convenience, the entire process from start to finish can be done online from the comfort of home.
- The company relies on a scientific and clinically proven, research-based approach to nutrient supplementation.
- All nutrient dosages are personalized to you and you alone, containing all the important vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients.
Cons:
- It can be costly at $69 per month for three months, not including the extra costs for DNA or blood vitamin testing.
- They don’t have a month-to-month option.
- Testing can be a long process, taking 2 to 4 weeks to receive results.
- Microbeads, though better than traditional capsules, can take time to adjust to.
Bottom Line
At the end of the day, there are a few supplement companies that are delivering the same personalized approach as Rootine. Do these DNA-based vitamins help? The short answer is yes.
We are all unique, so it makes sense that our nutrient supplements should be, too. If anything else, the wide net approach used by most nutrient supplement companies falls short of this ideal.
But Rootine isn’t built on the wide net approach; they’re ready to make nutrient profiles for one person at a time.
Sources:
Optimize Your Cellular Nutrition | Rootine
How prevalent is vitamin B(12) deficiency among vegetarians? | NCBI
Based on Science, Built for You | Rootine
Personalized Supplements That Work. We’ll Prove It. | Baze
Persona Nutrition: Personalized Daily Vitamin Packs & Subscriptions | Persona Nutrition
Bridget Reed is a Tampa-based content development manager, writer, and editor at GR0; specializing in content related to varying fields including medicine, health, and small businesses. Bridget went to St. Petersburg College and majored in Management and Organizational Leadership.
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Current Version
2022-11-21
Edited By
2022-09-01
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