Why VSL3?

UCinMI,

VSL #3 has been especially formulated to help those with UC.

And it also contains 450 billion active cultures, and if you get the prescription VSL#3 DS then it would be 900 billlion active cultures.

Are you on it?

UCinMI,

It's NOT snake oil and is very good. But it's pretty expensive.

But if you have insurance, you may want to get it as a prescription from your doctor  - VSL #3 DS - it might be more cost effective, and since it's double strength will have more impact too.

What do you think?

Hi UCinMI,

I've found VSL to help me a lot. But as with anything, it seems, it might help some of us and not others of us - we all seems to respond differently to meds s well as diet and supplements. So.... I wouldn't consider it snake oil by a long sht and yet it may not help you. We're all different.

I get VSL DS (Double Strength, prescription only) and I am lucky that my insurance covers some of it. For me, 9 boxes of VSL costs the same as 30 Canasa.

I am currently taking 3 VSL DS a day (I'll check my sig...) Each packet of powder is the same as 900 of the OTC "Align" brand probiotic capsules.

Ultimate Flora Critical Care has also helped me.... but not to such a remarkable extent.

Let us know if you try probiotics and if they help you!

UCinMI, I'm not sure of the gas, but with UC our overactive immune systems are attacking the colon, leading the colon to believe that what we are eating are foreign invaders. So it gives food the heave ho, hence diarrhea.

Ulcerative colitis is worse than it sounds. I wish it were just ulcers in the colon, but it's an autoimmune disease too.

VSL 3 emptied my wallet. I flared while on it and it was all the evidence I needed to keep my money. I also flared while on Align.

My signature has my new probiotic. It's still expensive but nothing like Align. I doubt this one will keep me from flaring, but I'm going to take it anyway.

Keep exploring to find what works!

So odd that any insurer would cover VSL#3. It isn't a drug!! It's like them covering protein powder or something natural like blueberries! (which actually do help UC!!). Wish it was covered here in Canada, one of the few things not covered.

Hi, I have been on VSL #3 for about a year, per dr. orders. I just went to europe for 3 weeks and couldn't bring it due to it having to be refrigerated. I am just fine. No changes what so ever. I think I am going to stop taking it due to the expense involved. my insurence won't cover it. I think it is too expensive and I'm not sure it does anything anyways.

 

about the gas issue...I tried the SCD for about 10 days. The one thing it did do for me is eliminate gas. This led me to believe that even though, as journey2health said, food is rushed through the colon, some things must linger undigested and the bacteria in our guts feed on this. The byproduct of this is gas.

I've been using VSL#3DS, but I'm not sure it is helping. It is covered by my insurance, and it doesn't seem to be hurting, so I'm sticking with it for now.

badslinke,

I've been taking one packet of VSL#3DS per day. I still have a little blood and mucous occasionally and am thinking about upping my dose to 2 packets/day. Do you take one packet every 6 hours?

Thanks! I never started using them because VSL#3DS seems to be working...

badslinke said...
A lot of people disregard VSL 3 as ineffective because they don't take it at high enough levels. The clinical trials that proved its efficacy used 3.6 trillion bacteria a day, which is the equivalent of 4 DS packets, or 8 regular packets. Taking VSL at that level would mean a box of DS lasts you 5 days, and a box of the regular lasts you just under 4.

Taking VSL at those levels is the only thing that has consistently helped me, alongside dietary control. I can't recommend it enough, if you can find a way to afford it.

 Thanks for mentioning that badslinke. I have felt that VSL#3 doesn't work for me but I was taking 1 packet of regular VSL#3 a day. There was one point where I was taking 2 packets a day as I was undergoing antibiotic treatment for a C.Diff infection that I tested positive for which turned out to be a false positive. Taking 2 packets a day made me have increased urgency...   

I feel as if I'm the VSL poster child - it works for me. When I started, about 2 years ago, I was flaring, and my bleeding gradually stopped. (I wasn't taking much then, maybe 2 packets of regular VSL a day.) I said to myself, this is ridiculous, this cost....and I stopped.
In 3-4 days I was bleeding again.
I started taking it again, and in 3-4 more days the bleeding stopped.

6 months later, in another flare, I repeated the experiment, and again, when I stopped the VSL, bleeding started up again; when I restarted VSL, bleeding stopped.

I had a mild flare in Spring, read the literature and decided that I'd take 3-4 packets of VSL DS for 12 weeks, as in the clinical trials, before asking to switch meds or possibly go to the 6-MPs. It's worked! I am feeling well, having 1-3 formed stools a day (depending on what I'm eating - and I am able to enjoy the delights of summer this year: salads, even corn...!)

I plan to continue on 2-3 packets of DS a day for now.... and will see my GI in a month or so and strategize.

I am SO lucky that my insurance covers it... as I said somewhere else, 3 months' worth at 2-3 DS packets a day costs the same for me as 30 Canasa or 3 months' worth of Asacol....

As badslinke said, one packet of regular VSL might not help - like taking one Asacol pill a day.

And - as Max and Journey (and others) have said - it doesn't work for everyone - so like anything else, it's trial and error for each of us.

Eph,

I take mine in slippery elm bark powder and water, 2 x per day - usually after lunch and after dinner.