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A big, successful trial of probiotics

theatlantic.com

31–40 of 70 posts

Re: A big, successful trial of probiotics

#31
Interesting. I was skeptical of probiotics but the evidence seems to be suggesting otherwise.

This kind of builds on meta-analyses showing that probiotic use cuts rates of antibiotic-associated C. difficile infection.

Young children have very unstable microflora systems, so the results make sense from that perspective also.

Re: A big, successful trial of probiotics

#32
post #29

My issue isn't on the faith in probiotics side...the problem is which ones do I buy. It's near impossible to know you're getting the good stuff so to speak.

It really depends on what you need. I would be careful around soil based species, and avoid D-lactic acid producers (which eliminates a whole lot of probiotics), but apart from that you can just get what you need. E.g. if you have a problem with histamine intolerance you could go for strains that eat/reduce histamine. If you want better mood, you could try L Plantarum 299v or Bifidobacterium Longum or L casei shirota.

Re: A big, successful trial of probiotics

#33
post #9

All the products containing Lactobacillus plantarum may see a boost in sales.

This strain is in milk kefir, no? Easy to cultivate at home. See also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38800977 Water kefir is also available :)

Depends on your kefir. Kefirs are unpredictable and they CAN go bad. Just be careful with that stuff, or even let a lab analyze yours if you can. Drinking up to 50 billion organisms (in one glass) every day has the potential to shift your microbiome for the better, or the worse.

Re: A big, successful trial of probiotics

#34
post #26

I find the word probiotic to be inherently problematic. It includes any and all microorganisms that have a single positive health benefit, whether or not they're detrimental in other regards. That if a bacteria were to penerate gut epithelium (very bad), it would still be a probiotic if it reduced constupation. Even if the research supporting the health benefits of a supplemental bacteria is sound, a single study alw…

[deleted]

Re: A big, successful trial of probiotics

#35
post #32
post #29

My issue isn't on the faith in probiotics side...the problem is which ones do I buy. It's near impossible to know you're getting the good stuff so to speak.

It really depends on what you need. I would be careful around soil based species, and avoid D-lactic acid producers (which eliminates a whole lot of probiotics), but apart from that you can just get what you need. E.g. if you have a problem with histamine intolerance you could go for strains that eat/reduce histamine. If you want better mood, you could try L Plantarum 299v or Bifidobacterium Longum or L casei shirota…

If you want to lose weight, Christensenella minuta is worth examining. The research[1,2] is preliminary, and I wouldn't trust any commercial preparations without validation, but it is compelling.

1. http://www.ctl.cornell.edu/events/celebration15/posters/Wate...

2. http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674(14)01241-0

Re: A big, successful trial of probiotics

#37
They initially planned to include 8000 babies, but stopped early. With only a week of treatment they already found a significant decrease in sepsis rates. They stopped because they thought it'd be highly unethical to deprive the other babies of a life-saving treatment. This is a heartwarming example of when humanity and science conflict, but I'm glad humanity won

Re: A big, successful trial of probiotics

#39
post #28

If you want to try L. Plantarum yourself, get the strain 299v if you can. There's one by Jarrow (not affiliated, just made good experiences with it). AFAIK, most other strains of L. Plantarum produce D-lactic acid, while 299v produces L-lactic acid (I've even seen a paper where they used 299v to treat acidosis). D-lactic acid can be hard to metabolize and can lead to acidosis. Probiotics-induced acidosis is a thing -…

Just did a quick online search, and it seems that D-lactic acid might be responsible for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome too. This is something I'm going to read up more in the next few days.

Are there any good resources on this?

Re: A big, successful trial of probiotics

#40
post #36

I've been using General Biotics 115-strain pre- and probiotic product called Equilibrium [1]. You can find more info in the Science section [2]. [1]: https://www.generalbiotics.com/orders/new/ [2]: https://www.generalbiotics.com/science/

But 115-strain is not the strain mentioned in this study, isn't it? So your point of bringing up this product is??!! I meant, isn't one major point of this study is "not all probiotics are the same and finally someone found one is actually very helpful to new born babies"?
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