Probiotics

[NoodlePip]

Hi all, I suffer with mixed ibs and awful trapped wind and have been reading around the benefits of using a probiotic, but it’s a huge mind field!! I just wanted some advice around what probiotics you have used with success. I’m from the UK so if you have any advice or brands or where to buy I would also really appreciate it thanks!

[Linley]

Hi! NoodlePip

This is only my opinion but-whenever I have to take antibiotics I do take Acidophilus extra to counter balance what the antibiotics have destroyed. I personally do not take them full time as I know my gut flora and forna are balanced but whats right for me may not be for you therefore I am sure you will get more replies that will be helpful

[NoodlePip in reply to Linley]

Thank you, this is helpful. My ibs has been bad since two courses of antibiotics earlier this year so I will look into acidophilus!

[Magic777 in reply to NoodlePip]

HI ive used quite alot over the year the years and the best ones are an individual .So do you know if you have bacteria or fungus you possibly have both .Take a look at Erick Bakker impo hes good at the gut .Do you get bloating with the gas which ibs are you c or d or alternating .Im trying Atrantil which addresses Sibo naturally .It all depends how sever it is and your gut flora .If you feel worse on taking them it could be sibo can you get tested for bowel bacterial that is really your 1st place of call you may just have low beneficial bacteria if so feed you gut up .Make your own yoghurt raw milk left out overnight makes clabber cultures are great but you need to start off small .I agree with Terry that one is great it has to be bile and acid resistant should not have to be refrigerated too .Go for patented strains too .

[JohnS63]

Not sure how typical my experience is and it's hard to be 100% sure how much my taking of probiotics has alleviated my IBS.

I was in quite a bad way with IBS-C with bloating, and stomach cramps. My only relief was to embark on a low FODMAP diet. I did this for about 8mths along with taking Bioglan probiotics. What might seem unbelievable but I'm now eating pretty normally and only avoid wheat. I never did get to the bottom of what food groups caused issues as whenever I challenged myself with a particular food group I would get awful symptoms.

All I can say is, 'touch wood', things seem fine for about the last month and apart from wheat, all foods are, so to speak, 'back on the table'!

[NoodlePip in reply to JohnS63]

Thank you for your advice, sounds very promising fingers crossed your symptoms are under control! I will look into the low FODMAP diet have heard a lot around it but it seems daunting to start!!

[one-n-den]

Hi,

I take Holland & Barrett Acidophilus (3 billion) - one capsule with water every morning on an empty stomach.

(That advice came from Nature’s Best, whose Acidophilus I used to take, until I decided it was far too expensive!)

If I need a boost, after illness, or antibiotics for instance, I find ‘Just for Tummies’ Live Bacteria very good, as they have several strains of probiotics as well as the Acidophilus. I take one of those and a H&B one at such times.

I would also suggest, though, that exercise helps a lot - and I am the World’s laziest person!

Walking a good distance every day seems to do it for me.

Hope that helps!

[NoodlePip in reply to one-n-den]

Thank you, I have been looking at the H&B one as it’s currentky half price, I may go and buy some see it if helps! Just want to get things back to normal, before having the antibiotics this year it was so under control and now I’m all over the place!

[TerrymC54]

Hi NoodlePip,

So do I! I've tried many Probiotics. This is the one I settled on that I get good results for a most reasonable cost, least side effects & doesn't need to be refrigerated. 60 pills will last you two months, 1 a day in morning on empty stomach, at least 1 hour before eating. From Amazon at $24.95 USD

Hyperbiotics PRO-15 Probiotics—60 Daily Time Release Pearls— Digestive Acidophilus Supplement—15x More Survivability Than Capsules—Patented Delivery Technology—Easy to Swallow

I purchase through Amazon at this link:

amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JEKYN...

All the best,

Terry

[NoodlePip in reply to TerrymC54]

Thank you!

[Dodie117]

I make my own kefir, which is a probiotic and after about 3 months my bloating has almost disappeared.

[NoodlePip in reply to Dodie117]

That’s excellent. How do you make your own?

[Dodie117]

You buy grains (about £5 from amazon) and put them in a jar with milk, leave for 24/48 hours and voila. Strain out the grains (they look like small cauliflowers) and put in milk again. Lots of info online. It’s easy, cheap, natural and works for me.

[NoodlePip in reply to Dodie117]

Thank you, I may look into this!

[claire_louise]

Try eating raw sauerkraut or kimchi (available from good health food shops and some supermarkets, in the fridge). Just a tablespoon a day. These are full of good bacteria - although, as someone else said, it might be worth ruling out SIBO first as adding more bacteria would be a bad idea if that's the problem!

[NoodlePip in reply to claire_louise]

Thank you x

[Ronnie6917]

Bio July is good but not cheap - tenner for 30 - daylight bloody robbery 😬

[NoodlePip in reply to Ronnie6917]

Wow this is expensive!!

[Ronnie6917]

Bio kult

[Audy]

I am having a lot of relief with Mango juice and Pineapple juice too.Helps my Wind and gives me a more comfortable stomach.

[NoodlePip in reply to Audy]

Oh that’s great, I love both of those!

[Stuart24]

Hello, I've got a drawer full of medicines and pro-biotics that I have taken over the years, and do you know what I take now? None of them. After 27 years of suffering with IBS-D I have found that the long term solution that actually works is all about vitamins and fasting and both are equally important.

This is based on some excellent publications, and also just observing how healthy people live. First, go to the doctors and get yourself checked for intestinal infections, and whatever other tests they want to do, you can be a carrier of some bugs and only suffer occasional flare-ups. But, if you are all clear then the first thing to sort out is your vitamins and the timing of your eating (fasting periods). An incident of food poisoning or infection can start you on a cycle that you need to make a really concerted effort to break out of. IBS causes vitamin deficiencies which are very difficult to overcome in most people’s diets, especially because you are probably eating selectively to manage your symptoms. Your vitamin levels affect the health of your guts, and the health of your guts affects your vitamin absorption, so it is a vicious circle that you have to break. Get some really good, expensive, multi-vitamins (ideally constituted for your age) and take them without fail every day before your breakfast. Do not get the ones with high calcium and magnesium initially as certainly in large doses these minerals can mess you up as they consume your stomach acid, and you should get enough of these minerals from your diet. If you are on low FODMAPs, go for all lactose free dairy products to boost your calcium. At the same time, sort out your fasting periods straight away. Your small intestine should be practically sterile, and your stomach acid along with bowel cleaning during fasting (called MMC) will usually do this. You need to fast for this to be effective, and by that I mean, ABSOLUTELY NO eating in between meals, only water, or tea with saccharin. Imagine that you never washed your dinner plates and just kept putting food on them all the time!, they would be filthy. You need to give your small intestine plenty of time free of food for cleaning. God didn't design us to have cupboards full of rich foods permanently available day and night. Your stomach will sort itself out when you have got control of your small intestine (although if you've got gastritis you'll need to finish a course of omeprazole first), and then your large intestine will improve later as nutrients are more efficiently absorbed from your small intestine. Eat a good breakfast at say 7am (porridge with 50% lactose free milk) or what suits you and then a good lunch at 12 o'clock - absolutely no food in between. After lunch, no food again for at least 5 hours, and eat well again for your evening meal because it has got to get you through the night. No supper or snacks, no food or milk at all until breakfast the next day. In general, do not eat fried or roasted starches, i.e. crisps, chips, roast veg or fried rice. The high temperature that gives the lovely crispy bits, makes complex polymers that are very difficult to digest, they feed the bacteria and make you ill. Starches should only be boiled, and this is enough. Red meats spend longer in your stomach, so don't be put off if you occasionally get symptoms following a heavy meal. You will feel hunger in the fasting periods, but you must not respond to it - only with water or no-sugar drinks. Importantly, when you are feeling better, do not resort to your old ways, you are still recovering, and you need to make a life-style change to have this level of discipline in your eating and continue with it. Start doing some exercise if you don’t already, as this will also help with your gut motility. Your intestines take time to fully recover, it takes a few weeks at least, and you need to persevere. You then need to maintain a healthy and consistent way of eating and always keep the vitamins topped up all the time to prevent you from relapsing. There is a lot of support for L-glutamine to help with nutrition specifically for your intestinal lining, this means buying 500g of the bodybuilder powder type and having a couple of tea-spoons of this a day, one before breakfast and one just before you go to bed, and you can have this in a light cordial drink. A lot of this was taken from this GENIUS paper below, but it does fit exactly with what I have experienced, and for the first time I really feel in control of something that has been a burden for years, but is no longer. Good luck.

Treatment and Management of SIBO — Taking a Dietary Approach Can Control Intestinal Fermentation and Inflammation

By Aglaée Jacob, MS, RD

Today’s Dietitian

December 2012, Vol. 14 No. 12 P. 16

[NoodlePip in reply to Stuart24]

Wow Stuart this is such a detailed post and I am so grateful for all your advice. Willing to give anything a go, particularly if there is reliable research to back it up! Thank you so much ☺️

[Haz999]

Hi, I use probiotics that I buy online from Simplysupplements, they help me.

[leavelee]

I use h & b acidophilus mega it is always on offer there and has really helped my ibs though never completely gone I would say it's more manageable

[AudreyJ]

I take Boots digestion support daily and that seems to help. They're about £8 a packet but are often on offer three for the price of two.

[cpidoc]

I use Symprove with good effect. symprove.com/symprove-expla...

[oneoffhorsemen]

hey Noodle. In my opinion, when it comes to probiotic or any other supplement for that matter of fact, try to choose those that are natural and from reliable brands. You might want to make sure they have undergone some clinical tests and trials.

I was also suffering from stomach problems and one probiotic supplement which got me through it was Flourish Probiotics by Eu Natural. I got mine on amazon, I can send a link if you want.

This is a completely natural combination of good bacteria that supports digestion, gut health and urinary tract. Check it out, let me know what you think.