Probiotics and Advanced PC

[Schwah]

Any thoughts from all the smart people here on the good and bad of adding probiotics ? It sure helps my wife’s acid reflux which I occasionally get. Better than antacids ?

Schwah

[arete1105]

It will help your GI, but I don't think your prostate.

[cesanon]

Probably no harm.

[Doggedness]

I wouldn’t be surprised if gut microbes become the next big thing... and probiotics can’t hurt?

[p3d1]

Probably no harm but I would run it by your treatment team.

Depending on you medication anything else you put in your body must not interact to lessen the treatment effect.

As an example, I am on a PARP inhibitor, 2 months ago I experienced stiffness in some joints.

Took a joint supplement which had a high concentration of Turmeric in it.

The turmeric has a negative effect on the CYP3A4 enzyme (WHO KNEW!!!)

It turns out that in the literature that the trial gave me it stated....

"Do not take anything that interacts with CYP3A4".

Caught it in time by checking the MSK app about herbs. (Definitely worth downloading to your phone.)

The joint pain went away, but that was a close call.

It makes you wonder how many guys are not having a response to PARPi because they are eating something which srews with the drug?

[tom67inMA]

There very few specifics, but it does seem that the gut biome has huge effects on lots of things including cancer progression. This may explain in part why vegan diets help, and why sugar is bad for you in a way that has nothing to do with blood glucose or feeding tumors.

[LearnAll]

The best way to get probiotics is to make your yogurt at home and eat a full cup every day.

The bacteria packed in the capsule are almost 70 to 80 % dead bacteria. The capsule tells you it has 500 million but in that only 50 million are live bacteria ..rest of them are dead and useless. When you eat fresh homemade yogurt, it gives you 95% live bacteria.

How to make home made yogurt ? Very simple ! In the evening, Take 1/2 liter of milk and boil it. Let is get cold until it is luke warm then, put spoonful of left over last days yogurt. Stir the pot with spoon. Leave the pot in a warm place in the house. cover it. In morning, you will find a pot full of homemade made yogurt which has lots and lots of live, good bacteria.

I eat a full cup of home made yogurt every day..it helps me a lot.

[pjoshea13]

As of 2014: "There is no specific evidence regarding benefits of probiotics or prebiotics in prostate cancer." [1] But anything that improves general health might have some incremental benefit.

[Probiotics seem to be beneficial for prostatitis.]

-Patrick

[1] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/249...

[FCoffey]

Probiotics are very safe and quite unlikely to cause any harm. As Learnall noted, you can get the same effect from a diet rich in lactobacillus. Most fermented foods qualify, kimchi is another good source.

Quality of probiotics varies widely. Bottles of the same brand can have substantial differences if some are refrigerated and others are not.

I'm allergic to casein, milk protein, so yogurt is out. Lots of people have trouble with lactose and/or casein. Few are aware of the problem unless they get tested or try an elimination diet. Kimchi isn't always easy to find in local stores and my efforts to make it at home have not been very successful.

It took me a few years to find a good brand of probiotics. I don't claim to know what fraction of the bacteria in those capsules are live, but I can tell that it works.

[tallguy2]

Likely no harm. I use probiotic capsules twice a day. Helps keep the groceries moving.