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Probiotics

My doctor is recommending that I take probiotics for Crohn's. I'm sure my 63-year-old gut could use a little friendly bacteria, but the specific brands he has suggested are fairly pricey. When I was first diagnosed, I started looking online to see if probiotics are recommended for Crohn's. I didn't find any reputable source that recommended them. Anyone have an experience with this?
 
All doctors are different but my doctor gets free samples of vsl 3 from the manufacturer and gives some to me. I have also bought some less expensive from the drug store.
 

cmack

Moderator
Staff member
I would recommend VSL#3, it really works and you get thirty sachets or something for 95 bucks or so. You can space it out to every other day after the first solid week or so. From there a couple times a week is enough maintenance for me, as long as I'm not taking antibiotics. My doctor said it's the best one, I believe him. It made a big difference for me.
 
I was wondering the same thing myself about taking probiotics for Crohn's Disease. I had been taking one a day for several years and honestly never noticed much difference with it. I was just about to try looking into other brands and I did some research first. What I found were several research articles that found that probiotics were not helpful for people with Crohn's, and that in fact there was one study where taking daily probiotics caused an increase in negative symptoms.

They said that since this is an autoimmune issue that the body sees any bacteria, good or bad, as a threat and will tend to over-react in fighting it off. However, if you eat foods that have probiotics, or if you consume prebiotics which just feed the already occuring good bacteria in your gut, then you are more likely to see positive results.

I recently purchased some chicory root tea, a prebiotic, and I'm going to see how this goes for me.

Of course, with all of this stuff, everyone is different so it's worth a try to see how it goes for you. Some people may see a benefit, I personally did not.

Good luck!
 
http://www.usprobioticguide.com/ free online guide to clinically studied probiotic strains and the results with certain conditions. Maybe you'll find a strain you can purchase less expensively. Probiotics and prebiotic foods ARE good if you can tolerate. If you find you get worse when eating high fiber foods you may have SIBO. Check out www.siboinfo.com. Treating mine made me able to eat many foods I had not eaten in years.
 

Lynda Lynda

Member
I took probiotics for a while and then I quit taking them because I heard bad things about them. I just started taking them again and my Gastroenterologist recommends taking them. They are expensive, but you do not need to buy the name brand. We have a warehouse store here named Costco and recently my sister took me there and the probiotics are way cheaper there than at the drugstore.
 
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