3 ms·

A bit off topic but what is the HN consensus on probiotics? Any brands you can recommend?

JacobJans 8y ago
Probiotics are generally too much of a "magic bullet" -- if you're serious about changing your microbiome, the most effective way is through dietary changes. What you eat is ultimately the vast majority of what your gut microbes consume; high sugar and high starch foods tend to lead to an unhealthy microbiome. Many people avoid grains for this reason as well. The types of bacteria that thrive in your gut varies depending on what you eat. High fiber is more likely to result in a healthy balance of gut bacteria. However, if you already suffer from a damaged gut, a high fiber diet can be difficult, so be sure to increase fiber slowly, and with awareness of how it affects your body. That being said, if you want probiotics, plain whole milk yogurt is the way to go. (If you can handle dairy.) I avoid the bifido type bacteria; though that is for very specific reasons. Acidopholus, l. casei, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus are all fine, the latter two being the traditional yogurt bacteria.
carbocation 8y ago
They probably don't work. https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(18)31108-5 https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(18)31108-5
- delackner 8y ago
  The key quote here being: "[...] Lactobacillus-secreted soluble factors contributed to [...]compromised gut mucosal recovery, highlighting a need of developing aFMT or personalized probiotic approaches achieving mucosal protection without compromising microbiome recolonization in the antibiotics-perturbed host." They tested only multi-strain probiotics vs "aFMT" (fecal transplant). That is a far cry from saying "probiotics don't work".
  - carbocation 8y ago
    They're leaving the door open to them working if you match the right strain with the right person (this is their area of research, of course they would like it to work). But the study provides no support for that. In contrast, fecal transplants have been shown to be effective for some diseases.
nopesjkdf 8y ago
I tried them when I had IBD years back and they made it worse
belltaco 8y ago
It highly depends on what you're trying to change/treat. I recommending searching pubmed and high quality studies for your condition and the specific strains you need. Some strains can make some conditions worse and not better.
dcx 8y ago
I asked this question to a gastroenterologist recently and he suggested that people should treat them like medical drugs - don't take them at all if you don't have digestive issues, and if you do have issues, take them with medical guidance to help find one that works for you. I have mild IBS and had done some exploration prior to asking this question. In my personal experience, the above is definitely true. The wrong probiotic can worsen symptoms or make you feel sick/feverish. But I eventually found one that works for me, I take it daily and it definitely reduces symptoms and makes my gut feel more solid. (I even have data proving this; I ran two three-month data collection periods to test various interventions, quantified symptoms, ran regressions, etc)
- objektif 8y ago
  My experience so far has been exactly how you describe I feel like I have mild cold when I take it. I have tried three or four brands. Do you mind sharong what you have tried and which one is successful?
  - dcx 8y ago
    I tried 3-4 before finding one that works for me too, but unfortunately I didn't keep track of all of the failures' names. Looking through my rough notes and gmail, I found Now Foods Probiotic-10 and Ethical Nutrients Inner Health Plus. The one that ultimately did the job was California Gold Nutrition's LactoBif, which you can buy on iHerb and has a surprisingly large volume of positive reviews on the site. I started with the 5B CFU and ramped up to the 30B. Hope that it does something for you as well!
rootusrootus 8y ago
On the advice of my gastroenterologist I am taking them now and so far, so good. Only a couple weeks of experience, however, and a sample size of 1. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say you should definitely get a doctor's recommendation before trying them, but I don't think I'd bother if I weren't specifically targeting relief of some kind of symptom. NIH says they only last as long as you take them so you have to keep it up indefinitely. Also, I can't even say mine are actually working for me, because my doctor also told me to start taking soluble fiber; that could be my magic bullet. It's a process, I'm still going to be experimenting depending on how the next few weeks go.

Probiotics are generally too much of a "magic bullet" -- if you're serious about changing your microbiome, the most effective way is through dietary changes. What you eat is ultimately the vast majority of what your gut microbes consume; high sugar and high starch foods tend to lead to an unhealthy microbiome. Many people avoid grains for this reason as well. The types of bacteria that thrive in your gut varies depending on what you eat. High fiber is more likely to result in a healthy balance of gut bacteria. However, if you already suffer from a damaged gut, a high fiber diet can be difficult, so be sure to increase fiber slowly, and with awareness of how it affects your body. That being said, if you want probiotics, plain whole milk yogurt is the way to go. (If you can handle dairy.) I avoid the bifido type bacteria; though that is for very specific reasons. Acidopholus, l. casei, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus are all fine, the latter two being the traditional yogurt bacteria.

carbocation 8y ago

They probably don't work. https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(18)31108-5 https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(18)31108-5

delackner 8y ago
The key quote here being: "[...] Lactobacillus-secreted soluble factors contributed to [...]compromised gut mucosal recovery, highlighting a need of developing aFMT or personalized probiotic approaches achieving mucosal protection without compromising microbiome recolonization in the antibiotics-perturbed host." They tested only multi-strain probiotics vs "aFMT" (fecal transplant). That is a far cry from saying "probiotics don't work".
- carbocation 8y ago
  They're leaving the door open to them working if you match the right strain with the right person (this is their area of research, of course they would like it to work). But the study provides no support for that. In contrast, fecal transplants have been shown to be effective for some diseases.

nopesjkdf 8y ago

I tried them when I had IBD years back and they made it worse

belltaco 8y ago

It highly depends on what you're trying to change/treat. I recommending searching pubmed and high quality studies for your condition and the specific strains you need. Some strains can make some conditions worse and not better.

dcx 8y ago

I asked this question to a gastroenterologist recently and he suggested that people should treat them like medical drugs - don't take them at all if you don't have digestive issues, and if you do have issues, take them with medical guidance to help find one that works for you. I have mild IBS and had done some exploration prior to asking this question. In my personal experience, the above is definitely true. The wrong probiotic can worsen symptoms or make you feel sick/feverish. But I eventually found one that works for me, I take it daily and it definitely reduces symptoms and makes my gut feel more solid. (I even have data proving this; I ran two three-month data collection periods to test various interventions, quantified symptoms, ran regressions, etc)

objektif 8y ago
My experience so far has been exactly how you describe I feel like I have mild cold when I take it. I have tried three or four brands. Do you mind sharong what you have tried and which one is successful?
- dcx 8y ago
  I tried 3-4 before finding one that works for me too, but unfortunately I didn't keep track of all of the failures' names. Looking through my rough notes and gmail, I found Now Foods Probiotic-10 and Ethical Nutrients Inner Health Plus. The one that ultimately did the job was California Gold Nutrition's LactoBif, which you can buy on iHerb and has a surprisingly large volume of positive reviews on the site. I started with the 5B CFU and ramped up to the 30B. Hope that it does something for you as well!

rootusrootus 8y ago

On the advice of my gastroenterologist I am taking them now and so far, so good. Only a couple weeks of experience, however, and a sample size of 1. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say you should definitely get a doctor's recommendation before trying them, but I don't think I'd bother if I weren't specifically targeting relief of some kind of symptom. NIH says they only last as long as you take them so you have to keep it up indefinitely. Also, I can't even say mine are actually working for me, because my doctor also told me to start taking soluble fiber; that could be my magic bullet. It's a process, I'm still going to be experimenting depending on how the next few weeks go.