Experts say a good probiotic should have multiple strains and have at LEAST 10 to 15 billion cfu. Some brands have much more than that, though. One brand that some people here use has 250 billion cfu per capsule! Also, one cup of home made yogurt has 700 billion friendly bacteria in it, and Elaine Gottschall said you could eat up to 3 cups a day! Based on this, it would seem pretty tough to take too much in capsule form!
Definitely follow the pharmacist's advice and start with 1 a day for the first several days, though. Tell your grandson he may initially notice increased gas and/or bloating. This can be normal at first, but if it continues, he may want to experiment with another brand. Health food stores are usually your best source for high quality probiotics.
I don't know if anyone can definitively answer your question about
whether probiotics will help his white blood count. Were you asking if the probiotics could make it worse? If so, then I would think not. Lactobaccilli is recognized as on of the friendly species that inhabit normal, healthy intestines, and has also been proven to help reduce inflammation there. Seems to me that if a person can achieve "normal" in their intestines then their overall health will follow as well. Here's a great link with FAQs about
probiotics:
http://www.usprobiotics.org/basics.asp#human
My mom takes them for her IBS and it completely went away...
She told her family practitioner who said, "Oh yes, I have my parents take them for their general health, too!" (As we age our intestines' natural flora declines, so the thinking is that just about
everyone can benefit from them in one way or another! I've even seen them in dog food now!)
What a sweet Nana you are to look into this for your grandson!
Many people with Crohn's experience positive results from taking probiotics, so you should pat yourself on the back for doing this for him!
