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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 a

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?
    - derekja 11y ago
      yup, not a bad report. I've used American Gut as well, a project from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Concordance between the two results was decent. I'm not sure I got a lot of actionable information from either, though. Certainly not as much of detailed interest as from the 23andme data.

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?
  - derekja 11y ago
    yup, not a bad report. I've used American Gut as well, a project from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Concordance between the two results was decent. I'm not sure I got a lot of actionable information from either, though. Certainly not as much of detailed interest as from the 23andme data.