I was told by my nutritional therapist that one billion is what I get from my yoghurt, that is a maintenance dose. Twenty or better still thirty billion is therapeutic. That is what I have recently gone onto, in pill form, and I would say it has improved things for me. That is Udo's Super 8, but I am in the UK, I don't know if you can get it where you are. I would expect so.
Probiotics aren't a cure by any means, but they provide very good symptomatic relief if you are lucky. Some varieties may even make you worse, it is literally a case of trial and error.
I find that any time I go without my yoghurt the diarrhoea comes back with attendant problems; the probiotics damp down the inflammation like turning down a stove ring under a boiling pot. Something is still simmering away, but there is a bit more leeway for relaxation !
If MAP is the cause of Crohn's - I personally am convinced it is - the bad news there is that some of the standard treatments like azathioprine may cause it to become more aggressive in its effects. Given the boom and bust success of the current treatments, I think this would explain a lot about
the cyclical nature of flares as experienced by many here.
I would be inclined to say that current standard drug treatments at best can be an adjunct to probiotics !
And the moral of this conundrum is, every Crohnie is different, and the disease can behave in very different ways according to each individual's nature.