4 ms·

Out of curiosity, which ones do you take? I've been taking them for a few years now and have had similar results as you, although it took a while to find a comb

Out of curiosity, which ones do you take? I've been taking them for a few years now and have had similar results as you, although it took a while to find a combination that worked for me personally.

mariodiana 11y ago
Out of curiosity, which ones have you taken?
- sbierwagen 11y ago
  Out of curiosity, mariodiana, do you take probiotics? If so, which ones?
  - mariodiana 11y ago
    Ha! No, I don't.
- epimetheus 11y ago
  Not GP, but these have worked for me: L. reuteri ATCC PTA 6475[0] L. reuteri DSM 17938[0] Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis[1] [0]- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AH3RT9Y http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AH3RT9Y [1]- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001XUQNN4 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001XUQNN4 I was taking others too, as well as some prebiotics but I stopped for awhile and been taking these two again for about a week and already feel much better - at least as good as before when I was taking more.
tosseraccount 11y ago
The various Ultimate Flora brands are excellent. They are expensive and you can get them at whole foods. The trick is to get multi-strain LIVE species. Refrigeration seems to help. Many probiotics are labeled as "active". I think this means they are dead but the remaining proteins are "active". They'll only last as long as proteins are available. The industry really needs to clarify this stuff. Independent evaluators need to check out their claims. Live strains will reproduce. There are many tricks to get them to survive the stomach acids: imbed them in gelatin or psyllium. Another trick is to prefeed them in airtight, dark bottle so they're growing before you eat them. Just put it in your pocket for a couple of hours. Clinical trials need to be done to firmly establish efficacy; but I've given this concoction to several people and they were very happy with the results. More research needs to be done on which species of fungi, bacteria , and arachea give good results. The gut microbiome is an interdependent environment. Restoring the balance occasionally may benefit lots of folks.
- sbierwagen 11y ago
  Many probiotics are labeled as "active". I think this means they are dead but the remaining proteins are "active". They'll only last as long as proteins are available. Incorrect. Probiotics are supposed to contain live, active bacteria: the large "CFU" number on the front stands for "colony forming unit": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony-forming_unit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony-forming_unit Labdoor (which is advertising-supported) tests probiotics based on how accurate their CFU numbers are: https://labdoor.com/rankings/probiotics https://labdoor.com/rankings/probiotics (These tests, of course, don't say if the probiotic in question is actually good for you or not.) I've taken both General Biotics Equilibrium and (115 strains, 1 billion CFUs, shipped unrefrigerated) and Renew Life Ultimate Flora Extra Care. (10 strains, 50 billion CFUs, refrigerated) If either of them had any effect at all, I didn't notice it.
  - tosseraccount 11y ago
    Thanks for the clarification and the link. Not surprising to see Ultimate Flora at the top. I'd bet that a lot of these species die on the shelf. The industry might still benefit from consistently labeling as "live" on the bottle if the probiotics are live. I suspect that not everyone has an imbalance that would benefit the user. A good strategy might be to try various species until something works. An over the counter "23 and me" for gut species genomes assays might help; but that's a few years away.
    - sbierwagen 11y ago
      An over the counter "23 and me" for gut species genomes assays might help; but that's a few years away. Nope, here today. http://ubiome.com/ http://ubiome.com/ Costs $89.
      - tosseraccount 11y ago
        Again. Thanks. Anybody tried this?
sunsu 11y ago
General Biotics: http://www.generalbiotics.com/ http://www.generalbiotics.com/ Real science behind the strains they choose and I've never seen a probiotic with more of them (115 different bacteria).
- exhilaration 11y ago
  Their CEO posted some HN comments in the past: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8600201 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8600201 I'm waiting for them to post the results of their study.
- graeme 11y ago
  I've had those. I think they improved my digestion. I have had IBS-like symptoms for years. For a while it was diarrhea. Then it switched to constipation. I could go to the washroom only with coffee. Starting taking these, suddenly was able to use the washroom normally. No coffee needed, finally quit that. No diarrhea. It's been about three weeks. So I doubt it's a coincidence. In a span of that length I would have had multiple problems in the past. Only alternate cause I can think of is that I was reducing coffee before I took them, but still drinking decaf. However, digestion had been entirely the same during this reduction process. And I was on the pills + coffee for about 10 days, with improved digestion, so I suspect the pills.
- agbujsaoy 11y ago
  For me (Colitis), they made me worse. I had tried many brands, then settled on GB for like 3 months, I kept records, they made it worse. Within two weeks of stopping my symptoms improved.
  - redtuesday 11y ago
    It sounds a little bit disgusting, but have you heard of fecal transplants? I've read that this can help people with clostridium difficle infections if antibiotics don't help (which is kind of 'funny', because patients seem to get clostridum infections after antibiotics therapy...) and research is going on if this can also be used for treatment of colitis and morbus crohn (but I don't know more than that, maybe you can find already published study results about that).

Out of curiosity, which ones do you take? I've been taking them for a few years now and have had similar results as you, although it took a while to find a combination that worked for me personally.

mariodiana 11y ago

Out of curiosity, which ones have you taken?

sbierwagen 11y ago
Out of curiosity, mariodiana, do you take probiotics? If so, which ones?
- mariodiana 11y ago
  Ha! No, I don't.
epimetheus 11y ago
Not GP, but these have worked for me: L. reuteri ATCC PTA 6475[0] L. reuteri DSM 17938[0] Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis[1] [0]- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AH3RT9Y http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AH3RT9Y [1]- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001XUQNN4 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001XUQNN4 I was taking others too, as well as some prebiotics but I stopped for awhile and been taking these two again for about a week and already feel much better - at least as good as before when I was taking more.

tosseraccount 11y ago

The various Ultimate Flora brands are excellent. They are expensive and you can get them at whole foods. The trick is to get multi-strain LIVE species. Refrigeration seems to help. Many probiotics are labeled as "active". I think this means they are dead but the remaining proteins are "active". They'll only last as long as proteins are available. The industry really needs to clarify this stuff. Independent evaluators need to check out their claims. Live strains will reproduce. There are many tricks to get them to survive the stomach acids: imbed them in gelatin or psyllium. Another trick is to prefeed them in airtight, dark bottle so they're growing before you eat them. Just put it in your pocket for a couple of hours. Clinical trials need to be done to firmly establish efficacy; but I've given this concoction to several people and they were very happy with the results. More research needs to be done on which species of fungi, bacteria , and arachea give good results. The gut microbiome is an interdependent environment. Restoring the balance occasionally may benefit lots of folks.

sbierwagen 11y ago
Many probiotics are labeled as "active". I think this means they are dead but the remaining proteins are "active". They'll only last as long as proteins are available. Incorrect. Probiotics are supposed to contain live, active bacteria: the large "CFU" number on the front stands for "colony forming unit": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony-forming_unit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony-forming_unit Labdoor (which is advertising-supported) tests probiotics based on how accurate their CFU numbers are: https://labdoor.com/rankings/probiotics https://labdoor.com/rankings/probiotics (These tests, of course, don't say if the probiotic in question is actually good for you or not.) I've taken both General Biotics Equilibrium and (115 strains, 1 billion CFUs, shipped unrefrigerated) and Renew Life Ultimate Flora Extra Care. (10 strains, 50 billion CFUs, refrigerated) If either of them had any effect at all, I didn't notice it.
- tosseraccount 11y ago
  Thanks for the clarification and the link. Not surprising to see Ultimate Flora at the top. I'd bet that a lot of these species die on the shelf. The industry might still benefit from consistently labeling as "live" on the bottle if the probiotics are live. I suspect that not everyone has an imbalance that would benefit the user. A good strategy might be to try various species until something works. An over the counter "23 and me" for gut species genomes assays might help; but that's a few years away.
  - sbierwagen 11y ago
    An over the counter "23 and me" for gut species genomes assays might help; but that's a few years away. Nope, here today. http://ubiome.com/ http://ubiome.com/ Costs $89.
    - tosseraccount 11y ago
      Again. Thanks. Anybody tried this?

sunsu 11y ago

General Biotics: http://www.generalbiotics.com/ http://www.generalbiotics.com/ Real science behind the strains they choose and I've never seen a probiotic with more of them (115 different bacteria).

exhilaration 11y ago
Their CEO posted some HN comments in the past: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8600201 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8600201 I'm waiting for them to post the results of their study.
graeme 11y ago
I've had those. I think they improved my digestion. I have had IBS-like symptoms for years. For a while it was diarrhea. Then it switched to constipation. I could go to the washroom only with coffee. Starting taking these, suddenly was able to use the washroom normally. No coffee needed, finally quit that. No diarrhea. It's been about three weeks. So I doubt it's a coincidence. In a span of that length I would have had multiple problems in the past. Only alternate cause I can think of is that I was reducing coffee before I took them, but still drinking decaf. However, digestion had been entirely the same during this reduction process. And I was on the pills + coffee for about 10 days, with improved digestion, so I suspect the pills.
agbujsaoy 11y ago
For me (Colitis), they made me worse. I had tried many brands, then settled on GB for like 3 months, I kept records, they made it worse. Within two weeks of stopping my symptoms improved.
- redtuesday 11y ago
  It sounds a little bit disgusting, but have you heard of fecal transplants? I've read that this can help people with clostridium difficle infections if antibiotics don't help (which is kind of 'funny', because patients seem to get clostridum infections after antibiotics therapy...) and research is going on if this can also be used for treatment of colitis and morbus crohn (but I don't know more than that, maybe you can find already published study results about that).