Does anyone have trouble tolerating probiotics?

Good morning, everyone!  I know they say probiotics are good for us, but I seem to have trouble tolerating them.  They make me very bloated and gassy.  Maybe you have to take it for a long time for those symptoms to go away.  Maybe I just need to give it a chance.  Are they really that important?  I am currently taking a probiotic called NOW, with L. Acidophilus and B. Fidum.  Maybe it's just the Crohn's causing gas and bloating, and I'm blaming the probiotic.  It also seems to give me indigestion.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Maybe it's all in my head, lol!  Thanks!  Julie

Hi, have you red Elaine Gottschalls sites about her SCD diet and her suggestions about what kind of probitics Crohnies should avoid and what to use? If not, here it is: Avoid any probiotics containing the name Bifidobacterium bifidus, either of them. Those just mentioned makes the intestines worse, they make an overgrowth of bacterias. (makes u worse with diarrhea and bloating) she says. Use instead probiotics like these: Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus Thermophilus, Lactobacillus Acidophilus. There are also other combinations that are fine.
Here are Elains diet: www.scdiet.com

Some also use a yeast called: Saccaromyces Boulardii. Thise one may break down bacteria like clostridium difficile.

Anyway, if u buy probiotics, avoid also the boxes that have mixed FOS within. You may find out more by reading about the diet.
To learn more about probiotics, read:
http://www.phototour.minneapolis.mn.us/candida/summary.html

Good luck,
from Ingrid

Post Edited (Skjura) : 9/25/2007 6:38:34 AM (GMT-6)

Watch some of the ingredients in the probiotics. I was so sick from VSL#3 the unflavored packets. One of the ingredients is corn starch which I can't tolerate at all hence the gas, bloating and loud growling noises. VSL#3 also makes capsules that do not have other added things in them that I can stomach.

Along the line of what Ingrid said, I have read a quote by Elaine Gottschall, author of "Breaking The Vicious Cycle", stating that the use of probiotics can actually do harm unless you are simultaneously starving the bad gut flora through diet. I have no link to the quote and no link to anything showing this scientifically, but thought I'd pass along the gist of what I heard.

I was taking probiotics before starting the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and I, too, felt horribly bloated and backed-up in an odd way (not constipated, just that things weren't moving along. Maybe small bowel related?) Anyway, I started the SCD and its home made yogurt which is loaded with probiotics, and lo and behold, no problems at all. As you see in my signature, I also take S. Boulardii and digestive enzymes, all of which I believe help. But I started those weeks after the diet, so I know the diet in itself did most of the work.