Probiotics, Hows it going?
- Thread starter If*
- Start date
Help Support Crohn's Disease Forum:
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2014
- Messages
- 117
My doctor have me samples of VSL#3. I haven't decided if I'm going to start it or not. Probiotic have never helped me yet, so I don't know if I want to spend over $1 a pill for a stronger probiotic.
According to my doctor it helps more than Floragen. So if you have noticed a difference with other probiotics, I think it might be worth trying. See if you can get some samples. (Not sure where you're from. Maybe it's covered for you.)
According to my doctor it helps more than Floragen. So if you have noticed a difference with other probiotics, I think it might be worth trying. See if you can get some samples. (Not sure where you're from. Maybe it's covered for you.)
Thank you Julia, Saralr for your reply. I had seen that it takes at least a month or more to see any results and best not to miss a day.
Hi Nancye, i am wondering if what you are experiencing (bloated/gassy) could be symptoms of the bad bacteria die off? How long did you run out? I had read that probiotics have to be taken everyday and that missing a day or more can cause the good bacteria to die off again causing a cycle of bad bacteria to flourish. So confusing.
I have been taking a probiotic for over a month now and have noticed less bloating as long as i stay away from breads, sugar, and hard to digest carbs.
Thank you
Hi Nancye, i am wondering if what you are experiencing (bloated/gassy) could be symptoms of the bad bacteria die off? How long did you run out? I had read that probiotics have to be taken everyday and that missing a day or more can cause the good bacteria to die off again causing a cycle of bad bacteria to flourish. So confusing.
I have been taking a probiotic for over a month now and have noticed less bloating as long as i stay away from breads, sugar, and hard to digest carbs.
Thank you
I'm almost sure it was die off @if* I wasn't drinking enough water to flush it out at first. Once I realized that, I started downing the water and even took an Epsom salt bath. Felt much better the next day. So I took a break and was just having kefir with a smoothie in the morning. Will try the capsule again this week. Feeling great after a week of mostly bone broth!
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2013
- Messages
- 193
Thanks Nancye! I couldn't find Epsom Salt at the store yesterday, so I have to try somewhere else. The die off is not getting any easier, and I am throwing up some, which is not a good sign, in my opinion. I am going to lower the amount live cultures and work my way up. It sucks, but I already lost too much weight within the last month, and I can't take any more chances.
I have tried numerous, 20+, kinds in the past 10 years, or so. My personal conclusions, after trying capsules/liquids/homemade cultures/store bought yogurts/kefirs/kombuchas/kimchi/naturally pickled stuff is that the efficacy of probiotics depends on many different factors that you must consider for yourself. A few off the top of my head are as follows:
-The location of proven inflammation
-Whether you are seriously immunocompromised, ie get sick very often and in the middle of multiple surgeries or taking serious immuno suppressive therapies, and bacteremia is possible--a very remote possibility for most Crohn's patients
-The quality and shelf/delivery temperature of the probiotics
-The strain or combination of dominant strains therein, as well as the cfu number (100s of millions-100s of billions)
-Whether they are meant to be taken on empty stomach (most are) or with food
-How often you take them
-Whether you eat real, prebiotic rich foods while avoiding YOUR problem foods, preservatives, and food like ingredients, giving the probios a chance to populate in conjunction with a somewhat anti-inflammatory diet
-Whether you attempt to moderately exercise and modify your lifestyle so as to give your immune system and overall health serious consideration
-Your expectations of particular symptoms affected/ameliorated
Why bother juggling the above variables? Well, in my own personal experience, having like 2/3 of terminal ileum removed and resectioned 10 yrs ago, I am allowed to eat wider range of real foods, even cheating sometimes, and have fully formed stools with less urgency and dramatically less frequent cramping/diarhea episodes. When I stop, run out, of probiotics for a couple days, I immediately have problems tolerating a range of foods and loose stools reappear quickly.
In my opinion, daily probiotic supplementation should be at least given a serious chance by all Crohn's patients--especially those with symptoms stemming from disease from the small intestines, on down. It is my opinion that just constant probiotic supplementation alone, 1-3 times a day, prevents further damage and general health deterioration by a) lowering inflammation by regulating the immune response, b) contributing to mental well being via proven gut-brain connections like the vagus nerve.
I currently take Health Force Nutritionals Friendly Force, which is 25 billion cfus per cap. I generally tend to experience benefit from multi-strain enteric coated capsules when taken on empty stomach (at least hour before meals and 1.5 hrs after meals) which have 4 billion or more cfus per cap, 3 times a day (before bed, upon waking, at least once throughout day, hour after caffeine). I have experienced benefit from Primal Defense Ultra and Jarrow EPS, among others, but this Friendly Force has additional prebiotics and what seems FOR ME a good balanced mix of strains.
Aside from the first 1.5 yrs of diagnosis, which I entertained Pentasa and Imuran, I have been mostly free of conventional pharmaceuticals. I have not had any additional surgery nor any further discernable inflammatory damage. During the last 3 years, or so, I have been taking LDN which I consider another option all Crohn's patients should at least try--no side effects, very low dose, will just block opiates within 3 hours of taking.
Other than that, I constantly evolve my diet and supplements. Avoid processed foods, trans fats, avoid GMOs, exclude sugars (fake and corn syrup especially, but honey, stevia and limited cane sugar okay), limit caffeine, eat lots of good fats, take 3 grams actual omega three enteric coated fish oil daily, take 5000 iu D3 plus K vitamins to prevent arterial problems and promote gut/immune health, limit alcohol, moderate exercise daily, etc..
My main complication which has worsened over the past couple years is axial arthritis of the SI joint. This occurs independently of any digestive symptoms, but is usually spurred on by multiple successive days with less than 7 hours of sleep and forgetting daily D3/K vitamin dose, like clockwork. This became even more aggressive despite watching my sleep/D3, and I have since resorted to a 500mg Black Cumin seed/250mg Curcumin dose daily, in the morning before eating anything. For the past month I have been SI Joint pain-free which I can only attribute to finally finding the Life Extension brand's Black Cumin Seed/Tumeric Extract product. So far so good. Do some research on Black Cumin Seed extracts and you will find interesting results.
Thank you for reading my rambling. For more, search the Success Stories thread for "MY Supps for MY Dis-Ease".
-The location of proven inflammation
-Whether you are seriously immunocompromised, ie get sick very often and in the middle of multiple surgeries or taking serious immuno suppressive therapies, and bacteremia is possible--a very remote possibility for most Crohn's patients
-The quality and shelf/delivery temperature of the probiotics
-The strain or combination of dominant strains therein, as well as the cfu number (100s of millions-100s of billions)
-Whether they are meant to be taken on empty stomach (most are) or with food
-How often you take them
-Whether you eat real, prebiotic rich foods while avoiding YOUR problem foods, preservatives, and food like ingredients, giving the probios a chance to populate in conjunction with a somewhat anti-inflammatory diet
-Whether you attempt to moderately exercise and modify your lifestyle so as to give your immune system and overall health serious consideration
-Your expectations of particular symptoms affected/ameliorated
Why bother juggling the above variables? Well, in my own personal experience, having like 2/3 of terminal ileum removed and resectioned 10 yrs ago, I am allowed to eat wider range of real foods, even cheating sometimes, and have fully formed stools with less urgency and dramatically less frequent cramping/diarhea episodes. When I stop, run out, of probiotics for a couple days, I immediately have problems tolerating a range of foods and loose stools reappear quickly.
In my opinion, daily probiotic supplementation should be at least given a serious chance by all Crohn's patients--especially those with symptoms stemming from disease from the small intestines, on down. It is my opinion that just constant probiotic supplementation alone, 1-3 times a day, prevents further damage and general health deterioration by a) lowering inflammation by regulating the immune response, b) contributing to mental well being via proven gut-brain connections like the vagus nerve.
I currently take Health Force Nutritionals Friendly Force, which is 25 billion cfus per cap. I generally tend to experience benefit from multi-strain enteric coated capsules when taken on empty stomach (at least hour before meals and 1.5 hrs after meals) which have 4 billion or more cfus per cap, 3 times a day (before bed, upon waking, at least once throughout day, hour after caffeine). I have experienced benefit from Primal Defense Ultra and Jarrow EPS, among others, but this Friendly Force has additional prebiotics and what seems FOR ME a good balanced mix of strains.
Aside from the first 1.5 yrs of diagnosis, which I entertained Pentasa and Imuran, I have been mostly free of conventional pharmaceuticals. I have not had any additional surgery nor any further discernable inflammatory damage. During the last 3 years, or so, I have been taking LDN which I consider another option all Crohn's patients should at least try--no side effects, very low dose, will just block opiates within 3 hours of taking.
Other than that, I constantly evolve my diet and supplements. Avoid processed foods, trans fats, avoid GMOs, exclude sugars (fake and corn syrup especially, but honey, stevia and limited cane sugar okay), limit caffeine, eat lots of good fats, take 3 grams actual omega three enteric coated fish oil daily, take 5000 iu D3 plus K vitamins to prevent arterial problems and promote gut/immune health, limit alcohol, moderate exercise daily, etc..
My main complication which has worsened over the past couple years is axial arthritis of the SI joint. This occurs independently of any digestive symptoms, but is usually spurred on by multiple successive days with less than 7 hours of sleep and forgetting daily D3/K vitamin dose, like clockwork. This became even more aggressive despite watching my sleep/D3, and I have since resorted to a 500mg Black Cumin seed/250mg Curcumin dose daily, in the morning before eating anything. For the past month I have been SI Joint pain-free which I can only attribute to finally finding the Life Extension brand's Black Cumin Seed/Tumeric Extract product. So far so good. Do some research on Black Cumin Seed extracts and you will find interesting results.
Thank you for reading my rambling. For more, search the Success Stories thread for "MY Supps for MY Dis-Ease".
