If you've tried probiotics, what was your experience regarding availability, cost and effectiveness?

I had chronic diarrhea about two years ago and the doctor recommended that as a possible remedy. Did nothing. I got them from Costco (doctor’s recommendation since the ones at Costco have some extra stuff in them) and so I returned them to Costco. I probably took them for a month before stopping.

Yogurt doesn’t have near enough active bacteria to cure anything in my opinion and one of my doctors says as much. I do believe probiotics help when taking antibiotics to prevent overgrowth of bad bacterias.

What I think is they are good for keeping the balance, but when things are in very bad balance, or there is a bacteria that is pathogenic in your digestive tract, probiotics aren’t likely to correct the problem. If there is bad bacteria causing you illness, you need antibiotics if it doesn’t self correct.

My SIL takes them regularly and swears by them. She wasn’t having any serious troubles before she started taking them though. My guess is the probiotics help in many ways, including the digestion and synthesis of essential nutrients.

I take them, they are not cheap but they are 100% effective for me. Cured my IBS. You have to correct your diet in conjunction with taking them to see dramatic benefits. The cheap ones are worthless. You must take ones that are refrigerated properly and have a large enough concentration of several strains. It will not kill the bad bugs but it will increase the good bugs to the point where you feel much better.

I’ve never taken pill form of probiotics. I have eaten activia on a regular basis though, and did notice some extra percolation happening.

Someone correct me, but I believe yogurt only has various strains of Lactobacillus, which means that only helps process milk sugars. So the effectiveness might depend on how much dairy is in your diet.

One thing I do know that turns my gut into ticking time bomb is sour beers. Lots of different active bacteria in those styles, enough to process many different sugar molecules.

I was thinking about taking the Activa Challenge, but I’m really bad about routine (2 a day) and keeping track of receipts and such.

I tried probiotics when they were new for IBS, and like @jca, I didn’t see results. At the time, the regime for IBS was so draconian that I never really gave it 100%. All I was allowed to eat was unseasoned vegetables cooked to mush. Yum.

Where do you get the refrigerated, @ARE_you_kidding_me?

I think you’re right about regular yogurt, @Silence04, but Activa has the probiotics added. What are sour beers?

I only used them when a course of antibiotics killed all my intestinal flora and fauna (horrible experience: total cramps after eating). They worked very well for repopulating my digestive tract.

I am a total aberrance in this way but probiotics make me worse. Doctor suggested I try the powerful probiotic VSL#3 and within days my gut was completely ruined and stayed that way for several months.

In fact I take antibiotics in order to stay regular.

I’m the outlier in the data set you’re looking for, though.

I have IBS. I take these probiotics when I need to take antibiotics, and they help a lot. The rest of the time I just drink raw milk, which has been really, really good for my baseline gut health.

You can find the refrigerated stuff at many health food stores. Look at the enteric coating vs. non-enteric coating debate before you choose which product to go with – not sure where I land on that one myself, so I have no advice, but it’s good to be aware of your options. It sure will be nice when the medical industry settles down and really looks at the microbiome so we can get some hard answers on stuff like that, and on which organisms actually do the various things we want them to do.

Good info, @wildpotato. Thanks.

@ibstubro most reputable health food stores. Around here the best deal on the ones I take are at Publix.

Thanks, @ARE_you_kidding_me. I guess Publix hasn’t made it to IL/Mo, but I’ll check around.

I have IBS and possibly many food sensitivities. I take refrigerated pills that are dairy, soy and gluten free. I take two pills 1–2 times a day. They help very much.

I have also made many dietary changes.

I tried the IBS regime of about 12 years ago, @Cupcake, and at the time the cure was worse than my disease. As a vegetarian they thought I should subsist on overcooked (to mush) vegetables for, like a month, then introduce additional foods at the rate of about one a week. “Food” being one item, as in, ‘mozzarella cheese’. If all went well, you might work up to a peanut butter sandwich in a month or so.
Not feasible for me.

Have you heard of the low-FODMAP diet? I haven’t tried it… but it’s on my radar.

Nutritional/food recommendations from physicians are bullshit. They should just come right out and say, “I have no freaking idea. Try an insanely restrictive diet and stick with it as long as you can. Then everything will make you sick and you’ll still have no idea.”

Lol. I agree totally with the “I have no freaking idea” opinion, @Cupcake. Insanely restrictive diet = built in eventual failure IMO.

I just went my own course and at the present time I probably have the most routine digestion of my life. Nothing really seems to disagree with me food wise (I even at ate a green salad with unpeeled tomatoes last night!) and I’m…er.. well, ‘regular’. lol

Did you have as much trouble before the baby?

Lifelong, but it’s been pretty bad for ~6 years.

My digestion while pregnant was great, though.

Your first baby?

Third. Digestion during all pregnancies went well.

I stick to the low-FODMAP diet and have found it effective.

Damn, Too bad it didn’t change your metabolism for good, @Cupcake.

I think I could live with that diet, @wildpotato, but it does @Cupcake no good.

I bought some probiotic. Pearls, I think. They were 30 day supply for $2 at Goodwill.

All yogurt has cultures, doesn’t it? Stoneyfield was talking about the benefits of the various probiotics decades ago. I still prefer them because they’re organic and have no artificial colors or any added sweeteners like most yogurts do. I have probiotics from MegaFood which is my preferred supplement because they source their ingredients from real food, rather than synthetically produce it in a lab, and they are GMO-free and most of their products are also organic, soy-free and gluten-free, and they also offer vegan options.

I do not have specific digestive issues, but my rheumatoid arthritis may be caused or exacerbated by ‘leaky gut’ so I try to eat a yogurt daily and on the days I don’t, I take the probiotics. Just to keep the system nourished. One day I may be disciplined enough to do a full anti-inflammatory protocol diet, but for now I am just trying to make modifications to my intake that I can live with.

Some yogurts don’t have live cultures from what I understand.

Then they wouldn’t be yogurt, @JLeslie – do you have any examples?

From Wikipedia: Yogurt, yoghurt, or yoghourt (/ˈjoʊɡərt/ or /ˈjɒɡət/; from Turkish: yoğurt) is a food produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yogurt are known as “yogurt cultures”.

It’s made with live cultures, but I think there is a question to the quantities still alive at the time of purchase and if they are sufficient to cause any real effect in the gastro-intestinal flora. I hate yogurt, so I never buy it, nor do I read the labels. If the label says so many billions of bacteria in one serving I don’t doubt it is more or less accurate. If the yogurt doesn’t have any numbers on the label I think there is the possibility it is quite low. It varies by brand. That’s what I read a while back anyway. I can look for an article later or tomorrow. I’m just logging off now.

I think the point is don’t assume the yogurt you buy is beneficial. Plus, yogurts vary in which bacterias they use in addition to the ones required to call it yogurt.

Yogurt: Dead or Alive?
Weil, now we know!

(Rest assured that the fermentation of both beer and sauerkraut has been arrested, as well.)

^^ Thanks! I also remembered overnight that some yogurts are pasteurized and that process kills the bacteria.

Thanks for bringing it up!
I always wondered why the yogurt in the grocery made no gas, but never remembered to look it up. I would think that ‘live active cultures’ would surely have a shorter shelf life than pasteurized, @JLeslie.

It’s not about shelf life. Pasteurization kills the bacteria. That’s the point of pasteurization, to kill bacteria. The cultures are killed off before the product even ships from the manufacturer to the store.

Then, there are also products that aren’t pasteurized, but still might fall below the 1 billion mark for a variety of reasons.

Prolonging the quality of the product [shelf life] was the reason for the discovery of Pasteurization.

I know. I think we miscommunicated.

Yeah. Sometimes you can be damned hard to agree with! lol