Best probiotics & supplement suggestions

Hi everyone I’m six weeks into my antibiotic treatment plan, things are going decent but money is starting to be a huge issue. I’ve already spent about $3500 on my LLMD, blood tests, antibiotics, supplements and supports. I’m looking to try to find my supplements at lower prices then what my LLMD offers. Are there any websites that offer supplements at lower costs? Right now one of my biggest experiences are the probiotics she has me on. I’m currently taking Ther-Biotic Conplete Power 100 Billion CFzu Multispeces which is $95 for a very small bottle which only lasts me about three weeks. She has has me on Saccharyces Boulardi and ProtoDppholus Women 20 Billion. Are these top of the line probiotics worth the price or can I get away with something cheaper? Any addition advice on where I might be able to get my supplements a bit cheaper would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Glad to hear you're doing decent. If insured, you could try submitting your blood test receipts to insurance for reimbursement. Medicaid unexpectedly reimbursed me for Igenex testing on two different occasions.

I've been pleased with MegaSporebiotic. It's spore based and claims to recondition the gut. I never experienced die-off with a probiotic prior to this one. It's $55 per bottle I believe.

Post Edited (SoMuchFun) : 11/20/2018 6:14:56 PM (GMT-7)

I buy most of mine online from Amazon.

Here are some brands that were recommended by LL Drs I have been to:

- Jarrow
- Allergy Research Group
- Researched Nutritionals
- Thorne
- Genestra

HeartsinPain said...
Hi everyone I’m six weeks into my antibiotic treatment plan, things are going decent but money is starting to be a huge issue. I’ve already spent about $3500 on my LLMD, blood tests, antibiotics, supplements and supports. I’m looking to try to find my supplements at lower prices then what my LLMD offers. Are there any websites that offer supplements at lower costs? Right now one of my biggest experiences are the probiotics she has me on. I’m currently taking Ther-Biotic Conplete Power 100 Billion CFzu Multispeces which is $95 for a very small bottle which only lasts me about three weeks. She has has me on Saccharyces Boulardi and ProtoDppholus Women 20 Billion. Are these top of the line probiotics worth the price or can I get away with something cheaper? Any addition advice on where I might be able to get my supplements a bit cheaper would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I get my probiotics at walmart for $10 or so accuflora 😹. This was the only one ever that doesn't give me the runs but they changed the formula now and I think it may be giving me runs. It is hard to tell because I have ibs and I have just been on zithromax and 2 pills of doxy. I am feeling alot better now after stopping doxy. That was horrific. I’m still dizzy from my sinus and ear infections and a bit weak from everything.

I have bought probiotics for my cats at amazon such as sacchoromyces boulardii and others. The one with only one ingredient is ok for me too- lactobacillus.

I have read that most probiotics except veterinary brands contain very little if any probiotics so you are better off eating fermented foods and yogurt if you can. I just found a great coconut yogurt called CO YO which is delicious, but it is high in fat & low carb. High fat can give me runs too since I dont digest fat well.

I was also using probiflora leading up to my type1diagnosis, for terrible yeast infections and other awful symptoms. It did help a-lot and no runs. I ordered it from a pharmacy in south africa. It was very expensive though.

Post Edited (meowee) : 11/20/2018 11:18:15 PM (GMT-7)

I use a consumerlab subscription to evaluate which brands have the lowest cost per active ingredient. They cover many supplements well. They test for amount of actual ingredient, contamination, etc. But they do not test every brand in existence, so sometimes there are better supplements that just haven't been tested yet.

meowee said...
I just signed up for labdoor, it is free.

https://labdoor.com/


My current probiotic pill, Accuflora, ranks 76/100. Not bad.

Thanks for sharing labdoor. It looks like a similar concept to consumerlab except their profit model is affiliate links as opposed to consumerlab who's profit model is consumer subscription. I like the idea of consumer subscription better as there is no incentive that I can think of them to not be honest. Affiliate models can often cause websites to want to rank items that are more profitable higher, and sometimes big brands can threaten to pull their affiliate links if they don't follow the brands guidance, and there can be sometimes better products that have no affiliate program that could get left out. But there are honest affiliate websites too who don't do that, and fight to be independent. Also labdoor gives an overall % grade based on a combination of factors they test for, but don't seem to show the actual test results, just a % score. And they do not show cost effectiveness in an easy to see way. Consumerlab shows you specificity what failed, and the cost per unit of active ingredient.

I'm signing up and bookmarking this as it's useful for me to have both. Consumerlab doesn't cover every brand and every supplement type (same with labdoor) so having both gives better coverage. And I'm interested to see if they both come to the same conclusion on which supplements are the best. I actually did a quick comparison on vitamin C results and found that Vitafusion power gummies had pretty significant differences between consumerlab and labdoor. Labdoor claims the vitamins contain 74% more vitamin C than what the label states, while consumerlab says it contained the labeled amount of vitamin C. Also labdoor claims there are issues with product purity and ingredient safety while consumerlab tests did not find issues. I don't know who to believe. I just saw there was another vitafusion product on consumer lab that was not approved due to having 155% of the vitamin C it claimed, so maybe they are both right and just tested different batches and there is significant variance in different batches.

I’m not going to pay $69 for someone to tell me if my supplements are ok. There is no way to know for sure which one is more honest, but charging large fees is suspect imo. The best way to get probiotics is through fermented foods for most people. I have a problem with symptoms with all probiotic pills, except for probiflora and accuflora so those are my choices for a pill. They have changed the accuflora formula so I have to see if it is still ok for me. Probiflora is too expensive and no longer available but it did help me quite a bit in the past.

lymelearner said...
I was hesitant to pay for the subscription but honesty with the amount of money spent on supplements, the fact that they provide the lowest cost per active ingredient has easily saved me thousands of dollars.quote=“lymelearner]






that is good it helped you. I was taking many more supplements, it was expensive, but I have cut nearly all of them out now. I only take fish oil and accuflora. I had cut accuflora out too but my reflux was so bad I added it back in to see if it helps and it has so far.

Many of my supplements were not doing anything or werent needed. I feel no difference without them except the ones causing problems. Alot I was taking due to various health issues at the time with no solid reason.

I was worried due to liver damage and other issues people have had. I stopped arnica as well which I used for pain because I’m allergic to it and found it causes terrible gastro problems. I am going to be very cautious about anything I take now because natural or a supplement doesn’t mean it is ok for you or safe. There is no point supplementing things I don’t need, so if my levels aren’t really low I don’t take it.

Post Edited (meowee) : 11/26/2018 2:00:08 AM (GMT-7)

lymelearner said...
I've been tempted to cut out supplements but then I research and I find that many of them help prevent long term deterioration to organs / hormones / adrenals over time and I'm not going to drop any without asking my LLMD and him agreeing that it's not dangerous to remove them from my routine.

I have never read any concrete evidence of supplements preventing anything, but I have heard of too many cases where people had organ damage and other damage from taking high doses of supplements and or multiple supplements combined with rx meds they never needed in the first place. I also would not trust any doctor who isn't cautious about recommendations that require numerous supplements and meds without knowing what the consequences may be in the short or the long run.

Girlie said...

meowee said...

lymelearner said...
I've been tempted to cut out supplements but then I research and I find that many of them help prevent long term deterioration to organs / hormones / adrenals over time and I'm not going to drop any without asking my LLMD and him agreeing that it's not dangerous to remove them from my routine.

I have never read any concrete evidence of supplements preventing anything, but I have heard of too many cases where people had organ damage and other damage from taking high doses of supplements and or multiple supplements combined with rx meds they never needed in the first place. I also would not trust any doctor who isn't cautious about recommendations that require numerous supplements and meds without knowing what the consequences may be in the short or the long run.

Iron supplements treat anemia.

B12 supplements treat low b12

That’s two that I know do work.

I think you've misunderstood what I said, I didn’t say vit or supplements have no benefit such as you mentioned, I said I have never read anything that offered proof of “prevention”of organ damage or of anything etc such as the previous poster mentioned. That said even supplementing something when not really needed can cause a lot of problems. Iron supplements for anemia are hard to do because they cause terrible effects for many people and they are hard to absorb, it can also be dangerous.

I have several that I switch up from day to day.

- Genestre HMF Forte - capsules

- Natural Factors - capsules

- Bio K (little yogurt-like cups)

- Kefir (from grocery store)

I take two types each day.