So how good is that VSL#3?

I make yogurt out of VSL#3. It costs me about $90/year +milk that way. Non-prescription VSL#3 is $90 for 30 packets.

I started by eating a good commercial yogurt every day and I think helped me. Not sure VSL#3 yogurt is any better. I stopped yogurt for a few days and definitely started to get loose stools and a little urgency. 24 hours after starting yogurt again, I got better .

I am not at all sure that pro-biotic pills are better than pro-biotic food. Not really interested in spending the money to find out as I am doing ok. I think Costco sells the non-prescription pills for $60. Maybe just try it for a month?

Yes, second on the Costco, just put in an order and it arrives the next day, they give you a refrigerated pack, $60 plus tax, something like that. Didn't find it did much though.

VSL has helped me tremendously. Make absolutely sure the pharmacy has the right VSL version. Every pharmacy I've dealt with has given me that exact response, until I literally had to show them what they were missing. The regular OTC VSL is different from DS, and DS should be covered. I use Kaiser in CA, and they cover it, after I had to teach the Kaiser pharmacy how to find and order the stuff properly. Sad when you have to tell them how to do their job... but not even my GI knew that there was a DS Rx version covered by insurance.

Fight for it, and make sure your script is for the DS version and not the regular. It should be covered.

I've found that not all UCers have an inbalanced gut flora. IF you respond to probiotics, then you probably do. If so, consider a bacteria transplant (fecal ). Not only is is free, but it is by far the most powerful and effective probiotic available. 50% remission/cure rate for UC, I'm guessing that represents who has a gut flora inbalance and who doesn't. For those looking to purchase a commercial probiotic, VSL#3 sounds to be the best and is the only one made for IBD. If your interested in the fecal transplant, do a search on this forum and you will see hundreds of entries discussing the process, protocol, etc.

2 DS per day didn't do anything for me; 4 DS didn't, though 8/day for a week gave me a bit more form to my stool, and when I dropped back down, the form I had went away. So I responded a little bit. Was eating 12-18 ounces VSL yogurt/day the entire time as well.

Next I'm going to try cheese from raw milk, and then may or may not give raw milk a shot and see if anything happens.

We were told by both our GI and surgeon that the medical journals had some really good papers that truly seemed to show that VSL3 was having good results but they both said that in their practices it just did not seem to hold true. They both said that it would do no harm but it was a lot of money if it was not helping.