Probiotics

I think the getting killed in the stomach thing is more hype than reality. If you think about it you have gut microbes by the thousands living in your guts. How do you think they got there? It has been proven that changing eating habits almost immediately changes your gut microbial population. Have you eaten enterically coated foods all of your life? Of course not. While some "probiotics" may be killed in the stomach the majority seem to make in into your colon. God made these things so that they do survive stomach acid. Most probably actually like stomach acid. I also read somewhere that even "dead" probiotics are actually good for your immune system (much of which is located in your gut) because they stimulate it in positive ways, even when they're dead. I think it is more of a sales war gimmick more than anything else, "Buy our probiotics because ours are enteric coated and survive stomach acid", forgetting to tell you that oops, I guess the other company's do to, even though they're not enteric coated. Many doctors often recommend eating yogurt while on antibiotics. Is yogurt enteric coated?

sulphites probably arent good for most UC folks.. esp. artificially added ones.

I take a probiotic that supposedly should do NOTHING for me. it is a powder so the naysayers would lead me to believe it does nothing, but ive tried every probiotic I could get my hands on and it is most effective for me. I resisted trying it for so long because of the logic that it's just getting destroyed in my stomach.

I do not take probiotics with meals and always take with a large glass or so of water. I dont want to trigger any stomach acid production.. if you are burping these up so quick.. are you taking them after or with meals? Try taking your probiotics at night, just before bed.

I take Syntol, 2 pills at a time. It is one of the few things I have taken that I can feel the impact within 30 minutes after taking it. It seems to break the gas up so it comes out of my mouth instead of building up pressure in my bowels.

The Syntol seems to work about 50% of the time and I have to drink a lot of water with it. If the first 2 pills don't do the trick, I take 2 more.

My new doc just put me on VCL#3 in powder form, which I have high hopes for.

Hey Jeanloup!

Please, eventually let us know what you think of the VSL3 !!! I started 22 days ago exactly and I'm starting to see really good results! I'm happy you decided to try it! It's hard to mix a bit right? But the taste isn't too bad.

Thanks!

1) One of the reasons your not supposed to take them if you have blood is because it means you have very active disease, and the probiotics will have a very hard time attaching to and colonizing the colonic walls. Additionally, I assume the open soars make it more likely for the bacteria to make it into your tissue (or even worse, into your blood) which could easily lead to infection. I recently met with a UC specific MD/researcher and he mentioned that he wouldnt recommend FMT for me because of the frequency of my BM and the presence of blood, and he gave the reasons above; Id assume the reasoning is the same for probiotics.

2) As for which probiotics to use, obviously, everyone is different and what works for one person may not work for another. However, a review from this year compared studies evaluating the efficacy of various probiotics and found (through subgroup analysis) that VSL#3 was the only probiotic that had a statistically significant difference relative to control groups. Admittedly, I havent had a chance to read/evaluate the entire article, so I cant comment on its validity, but it does seem ok from first glance. Let me know if you want the PDF : )

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/pubmed/?term=Effect+of+probiotics+on+inducing+remission+and+maintaining+therapy+in+ulcerative+colitis%2C+Crohn%27s+disease%2C+and+pouchitis%3A+meta-analysis+of+randomized+controlled+trials.

That being said, dont be deterred from trying other probiotics, because as I mentioned, they have worked for other people.

I've never actually seen any evidence that it is bad to take probiotics while having blood. In fact, there is much evidence that taking probiotics while flaring is good for you. There have been some who got much worse with a particular probiotic but then found a different one which worked much better. I wonder what it is about the particular strains in VSL which are beneficial to UC'rs? I've never really understood why the VSL company picked these particular strains. about the only variation in VSL compared to several other probiotics is the strain Streptococcus thermophilus. VSL does help me considerably but last year I did the American Gut analysis of my stool and discovered there wasn't any readable levels of any of the two probiotics I take in my system.

I just got my supply of VSL#3 DS and tried it last night. I have been on renew life 80b so the 900b in the VSL is a huge difference. I am hopeful that this will benefit me over time. I will let everyone know how it's working.

@ jeanloup - Thats great to hear! Let us know how things go!

For anyone who has had success with VSL#3, what is the dosage you take? I am in active flare, but with no blood.

I'm taking the regular packet, one per day since 4 days. I take it as soon as I wake up on an empty stomach and wait 15 min before eating a bananas smoothie.

Post Edited (jeanloup) : 5/8/2014 8:32:34 AM (GMT-6)

Chantrelle99 said...

garylouisville said...
I've never actually seen any evidence that it is bad to take probiotics while having blood. In fact, there is much evidence that taking probiotics while flaring is good for you. There have been some who got much worse with a particular probiotic but then found a different one which worked much better. I wonder what it is about the particular strains in VSL which are beneficial to UC'rs? I've never really understood why the VSL company picked these particular strains. about the only variation in VSL compared to several other probiotics is the strain Streptococcus thermophilus. VSL does help me considerably but last year I did the American Gut analysis of my stool and discovered there wasn't any readable levels of any of the two probiotics I take in my system.

Today I found a probiotics that has the Streptococcus thermophilus in it. Gary if I understand you correctly it is this strain that makes VSL stand out from the other probiotics ?

Im certainly no expert when it comes to probiotics, but I think one of the main things that makes VSL#3 so strong is the number of CFU (i.e. the number of bacteria) it contains compared to other probiotics. Though it is possible that the diversity of the strains also plays a role. Just wanted to share my 2 cents : )

I appreciate this post and all of the comments. I'm working on fiber (metamucil) right now, probiotics is next.
Thanks for the input.