VSL#3 hope?

I would be interested to know as well. I am still flaring and am seriously considering VSL#3.

Hey all,
I pop in every now and again and noticed your post, so I thought I'd reply to give you some hope. My daughter suffered an acute attack of UC that resulted in a colectomy within 4 months of diagnosis. I wish someone had given me advice about probiotics when she was initially diagnosed because I believe it would have helped. All along, several of the doctors we consulted with said that it was "alternative medicine" and gave us no guidelines to follow so we were hesitant about how much to give etc. That said, once she had her colon removed, her surgeon prescribed VSL #3 on a daily basis to keep her intestinal flora balanced. She has since received a prescription for VSL #3 DS (double strength), takes it three times a week, and our insurance pays for it so it's worth looking into for yourselves. She's celebrating her 2 year anniversary of having "no colon and still rollin'" and doing just great digestively and we attribute that to the probiotics! It may take some adjustment for your bodies; she did notice some abdominal discomfort and an increase in gas at first, so start with 1/2 and work up to the full packet. It thickens the stool and decreases the number of trips to the bathroom, with the goal of course being remission so hang in there and give the good bacteria time to set up in your gut. You could always check in at jpouch.org and ask those there about feedback as well...many take it with great success...hope this helps!

One good review, one negative - the reaction Jinglebell describes is like what I had starting Culturelle, but it got better with patience over a week or so.

I have found that off the shelf multi-strain probiotics worked well for me but I ordered VSL#3 anyway to try it.

VSL#3 says that there are no side effects but I think that there is one. You will have lots of gas and it will smell just horrible.

But just because it goes like that shouldnt mean that you have to give up. The same thing happened with my off the shelf probiotic until my colon flora 'rebalanced'. So you can expect some hardcore gas and a few weird things for a few weeks.

Also nobody ever goes into details about the strains. I think VSL#3 can help because it has a lot of the bacterial strains shown to help reduce flares.

So, for me probiotics were a godsend.

i took vsl#3 and i feel that my symptoms got worse also. i stopped and gave it to my mom.

I believe VSL#3 is intended to maintain remission, not put one into it. I could be wrong about that though. Most probiotics are used as a supplement to our regular/additional meds, but if you are able to get into remission and maintain it using only a probiotic, more power to you! That saves on the wear and tear that we put our body through trying to find the right drug cocktail that will work for us, until it stops working for us, of course.

I started taking VSL#3 while in the midst of my first flare, and after the initial flora balancing act, it has helped me immensely. I take the capsules, and at first, I tried a low dose, only 1 cap 2x day. That wasn't enough, so I went up to 2 caps 2x day. As I started weening off prednisone, I moved on up to 2 caps 3x day, which made the pred withdrawal more tolerable. I'm now down to 2.5mg pred, and only 2 caps 2x day of VSL#3.

I highly recommend trying VSL#3. The worst that'll happen is that it doesn't do anything for you, and you are out a few bucks. To me, the bad thing about VSL#3 is the price, but I get it fairly cheap (compared to buying from a local store) going through their website. If the price is still prohibitive, then try some of other pro-bs that contain a good variety of bacteria/yeasts, along with a large quantity of those strains...in other words, the more the merrier, IMO.

Different things work for different people, IBD can be very individualistic all around, with symptoms and what works for some doesn't work for all, but that hardly means we are not all dealing with the same condition, it's the nature of the beast...that's why there are some mild IBDers to moderate to severe, same as some people flare frequently while others only occassionally, with IBD there is no rhyme or reason.

:)

Mitzo, if it were me, I'd try maybe 1/2 a packet/day for about a week and see how things go and then use a full packet/day.

:)

Comedydork -

VSL#3 DS is the prescription strength version of the OTC probiotic. Since VSL#3 is one of the only pro-bs that have clinical studies to back up their claims, the DS version is covered by insurance at times. The DS does mean double strength. I can't tell you anything else about it because my insurance doesn't cover it and I can't find any info on the web.

The long term idea is that you dont have to keep taking large doses forever but actually get enough colony forming cells so that they sustain themselves.
Then, only take a maintenance dose.

But there are lots of things that could prevent establishment of good bacteria - including diet and medications such as anti-biotics.

Ooops, I see that VSL-3 does now offer a third option - a capsule that contains neither the maltose nor the corn starch.  A few fillers, like microcystaline cellulouse etc, but it doesn't look like anything I don;t get from some vitamins I take; so I am going to try the capsules and see how they go.  Certainly, VSL-3 is one of the more potent probiotics out there from what I can see, so I will try it out and compare it to my others (Primal Defense, Customprobiotics, ProBio Gold, Reuteri Pearls, Pure Encapsulations S. Boulardi, Culturelle, etc.)  Plus, if this stuff can be ordered via an Rx for insurance coverege, all the better.

I have now taken VSL#3 for two days, a packet each time. So far no reaction at all, good or bad. It seems to be making me feel full or cut my appetite a bit, but no bigtime gas as others have reported, no extra bloating, no increase or decrease in D. I guess I will keep going and see if a week or two brings change. Or increase the amount I take... I wonder if my total lack of reaction is a bad sign, or if it needs 3-4 days to get started, as was the case with Culturelle at first. Wit hCulturelle, no reaction, then a big explosion of discomfort which subsided in a week.