Any MMM's regularly pay for Probiotics?

[wealthviahealth]

Health/ wellness is one of my greatest passions and one of my primary areas of study but unlike many others with these interests; I spend very little
on anything supplement related.  Opting instead for whole food high quality nutrition.

I am well aware of the benefits of having healthy gut function but have never really gotten into supplementing with probiotics.  ( the pills not foods)
This is mainly do to the price and that I believe the results may be hard to quantify.

Any MMM's out there regularly buy probiotic supplements  and if so, has it been worth the money?

[greenfish]

I pay for probiotic supplements on top of eating probiotic foods like homemade yogurt, and I think it is absolutely worth the $30 for a 3 month supply at Sam's.

If you think your current gut function may be unhealthy, probiotics are certainly worth a try. Different bacterial strains can have different effects, so it can take some experimenting to see what works for you. I don't do well with align or the cheap acidophilus only supplements you can get in the vitamin aisle but have noticeably fewer digestive issues taking the phillips blend and eating yogurt daily.

However, I only started taking probiotics because it was recommended by my gastroenterologist to help with "tummy troubles" I started having after a course of antibiotics and a colonoscopy (the joys of having IBD) and I would not recommend someone without any digestive issues to start taking probiotics. If you have a healthy gut microbiome already, taking probiotics isn't going to improve anything.

[Future Lazy]

DH and I have both taken probiotic pills before.

In DH's case, he had a stomach/intestine parasite and was taking it in conjunction with olive leaf, where the probiotic he was taking was to help knock back the negative bugs that were being killed and flushed away by the olive leaf supplement. After the parasite was gone, there was no benefit to keep taking the probiotic that we noticed. In DH's case, it was prescribed to him by our kinesiologist and nutritionist, and wasn't a grocery store level supplement.

In my case, I tried taking it as a weight loss supplement when I was also dieting and working out, based on a study I had read showing that women on a restricted sugar diet lost a bit more weight when also taking a probiotic at the same time. I personally didn't really notice any difference after 4-6 weeks, or any boost in my weight loss after I started taking it. Since it was about $20 a bottle for the brand I could find with that number of cultures, I stopped buying it. Find an article about that here, with a link through to the study:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/02/05/271153568/ladies-good-bacteria-in-yogurt-may-be-good-for-waistlines-too


After doing more research about it, I found that the majority of the freeze dried bugs in probiotic pills don't survive your gut for more than 1-2 days, and don't do much in between when you consume them, and when they die of a hostile environment... Which is why you have to continue taking the supplement. They never 'set up camp'. It takes a high end probiotic (20 billion 'live' probiotic cultures) to ensure you're getting a solid dose of live buggies, and even then, they aren't guaranteed to be alive upon purchase. :) Read the bottle on that one.

I've found that it's a better strategy to try to keep up on my fiber intake, so everything runs smoothly (haha), and to otherwise make sure my diet is balanced. Taking iodine has often helped when indigestion rears it's ugly head.

If you want to learn a bit more about how your internal microbiome works, and how to truly effect it, try reading Missing Microbes. Although the narrative is about antibiotics, it helped me establish a good understanding of how the human ecosystem is established and how to keep it functional.
http://www.amazon.com/Missing-Microbes-Overuse-Antibiotics-Fueling/dp/0805098100

Of course, if you're having a specific problem, talk to your doctor. They should be able to help you figure out if probiotics will help solve it.

Hope this helps!

[epipenguin]

I've taken them on occasion, and they do seem to have an effect for me.

But I'd rather eat Kimchi or drink Kombucha tea, to be honest.

[NeuroPlastic]

For probiotics, we rely on yogurt, pickles, sauerkraut, kefir, and sometimes kombucha and water-kefir.  All are "wild", except for the commercial culture I use for the yogurt (ABY-2C from Dairy Connection).  We also drink raw milk daily.

This all seems to work much better than the retail probiotics we were using before.

[Spondulix]

Like KaylaEM said, I've also read that probiotics in pill form can't survive very long (even in the pill). Kombucha and other fermented foods are incredibly easy and cheap to make.

I tend to come at this from the same approach as Michael Pollan: if it's a food or ingredient your grandparents wouldn't recognize, don't eat it. Pills are the new craze (fish oil, probiotics) but do we know exactly how they are made? What else is being added or removed? How many centuries have people survived just fine by eating the real thing?

[ketchup]

I don't take probiotic pills, but I do eat probiotic-rich food like kimchi, kombucha (occasionally), and kefir.  I make them at home and they're cheap and easy once you get the hang of it.  My sister got me a fermentation book for Christmas with a bunch of recipes that I'm now reminded I need to dig out...

[sunshine]

Kefir is awesome and super easy and inexpensive to ferment at home. All you need is kefir grains and milk.