Interesting article on Probiotics

Hi all

I've just read this article and I found it very interesting. I would say it's best to follow a diverse diet in order to get all the nutrients needed, no surprise there then.

dailymail.co.uk/health/arti...

[xjrs]

Thanks for sharing the article. It is interesting. It is always better to get what your body needs from food rather than take supplements, since your body has evolved to get what it needs from food. The best way to support your microbiome is by consuming prebiotic foods i.e. foods that feed your gut bacteria - this provides microbiome diversity and helps to keep pathogenic bacteria at bay. However, the crux of it is that those of us who suffer from IBS can do quite badly on prebiotic foods (fodmaps come under this category). In us they produce lots of gas, which can cause bloating and cause the colon to overstretch which can set off nerves in the intestine and in some sufferers this causes pain (by the brain interpreting the normal activity of the bowel as pain) . In some IBS sufferers some fodmaps such as the polyols (containing sorbitol and mannitol) can act as osmotic laxatives drawing too much water into the intestines causing diarrhea. I would love to eat these foods, but they don't like me! One interesting point that I've found out recently is that some good fats found in olive oil and oily fish (omega 3 oils) can act as prebiotics feeding your good bacteria without the side effects of fodmaps. You can have up to 2 servings of oily fish a week (4 individual mackeral fillets), which is what I have spread throughout the week and I have 1 tablespoon of olive oil with every meal (including porridge) without issue. Having said that since I have been on a low fibre diet (to reduce intestinal pain) and I wasn't feeding my microbiome, I have felt that I have needed the support of a probiotic supplement otherwise pathogenic bacteria could increase. This could be one of the risks associated with a low fodmap diet, which means you need to find the boundaries within which you can consume fodmaps rather than eliminate them altogether. The article is very interesting, but it also needs to be read in the context of the reason people are taking probiotics, what conditions they have and whether the benefit of them outweigh the risks of taking them. If anyone is interested in following microbiome research you can sign up to this newsletter - gutmicrobiotaforhealth.com/....

[Hidden in reply to xjrs]

Thank you so much for your excellent response and it makes perfect sense what you are saying. I also have IBS and am having many issues at present.

I totally agree with what you have said and I will look at finding other ways to help my gut.

I would also like to thank you so much for the link to which I'm going to sign up to.

[MrsMouseSJ]

I saw this yesterday. There is so much we have still to learn about probiotics, it seems: how to harness the correct strains correctly. But the time-honoured advice of eating a balanced, diverse, non-processed diet seems to be key.

[Hidden in reply to MrsMouseSJ]

There really is a lot to learn and 'we are what we eat for sure.

We do need to ensure we eat as many different foods as possible and I'm definitely one that is stuck in a rut eating the same foods as I have IBS and it's hard.

[MrsMouseSJ in reply to Hidden]

I know, it's hard. Eating out, if like me you follow a moderate to low FODMAPs diet, is particularly challenging. Everything seems to have at least some dairy, or gluten, or onion in it!

[Hidden in reply to MrsMouseSJ]

It's very hard and you really don't know what to eat and I sometimes feel awkward saying I can't have caffeine, gluten, dairy (I'm Vegan but have a sensitivity to dairy anyway), it's not easy.

[xjrs in reply to Hidden]

Both of you, I feel your pain - my diet has been so restrictive this past year (white rice, protein and certain veggies for breakfast, lunch & dinner) - it has been terrible and not good for my health. I have finally found out the cause of my lower back pain that I get at night (intestinal nerve pain) and am trialing some meds for it. I need to get off this highly restrictive diet, so I've been gradually trying to introduce more foods (the meds help the pain a little), but I'd love to stop taking Magnesium Oxide to achieve a bowel movement and am trying to introduce psyllium husk powder gradually instead (no joy as yet!) - I hope I haven't created a dependency on the Magnesium. You need to be a detective about it and find what is right for you. I've given up eating out for now, but when I did some of the waitresses used to roll their eyes at me when I said I didn't want certain veggies and more of others - like I was being a fussy child. There has been some great progress in regulation about allergens when eating out, but it would be really handy if it were mandatory that waiting staff were trained in food intolerances and fodmaps (or other eating protocols for health reasons) and not make you feel like a weirdo for asking.

[MrsMouseSJ in reply to xjrs]

That's a really good idea.

But I'm sorry to hear about all your problems.

[Hidden in reply to xjrs]

Thank you for your understanding and I also feel your pain, that's a lot to go through.

It is such a menace if you do eat out and say you can't have this, can't have that but I am noticing there are some restaurants that are improving their menus particularly as I'm a Vegan. There are some near me now that have specific Vegan menus but of course I still have to ask for GF.

Before I had food poisoning in November last year, a year tomorrow, I was doing really well as I'd swapped to a Vegan diet and was feeling so much better then the food poisoning, well that upset everything and to still have issues a year later isn't good.

All the very best for getting off the Magnesium.

I've used psyllium husk before and didn't seem to get anywhere with it but what I found really good was Golden Linseeds soaked in water for at least an hour, I then drank it. It was about a tablespoon of the linseeds in around a mug of water but you do need to ensure you drink some water afterwards.

[xjrs in reply to Hidden]

Oh dear food poisoning can play havoc. That's how my IBS started many years ago. I used to have milled flaxseed when my intestinal pain wasn't so bad. If I don't get on with the psyllium once I have ramped up to the full dose, I can try your method. Thanks for the advice. Hope you manage to come out of the other end of your issues and get back to feeling good again. Sometimes these things take time and when you have IBS it is easy to lose patience (I found this out when I'd previously tried to increase my fibre intake too quickly to get a response and was in intense pain). Good luck with it all and thanks for your support.

[Hidden in reply to xjrs]

it certainly can, fortunately I'm feeling so much better today and have to say I have been having more good days than bad of late but this week really threw me. Yes my IBS started in 1996 from Salmonella and initially I had pain and constipation then I read an article in a magazine where someone started taking Multibionta vitamins and their IBS disappeared. I started taking the Multibionta vitamins and was quite good for many years, I used to have occasional pain and did have a fair bit of constipation but it was well and truly manageable (I'm now a Vegan and the multi vitamins have fish oil in them so I am trying other vitamins). Then I had the food poisoning again last year, a year ago tomorrow, and I've had a lot more problems this time. I've ended up having a Colonoscopy, Ultrasound x 2 and an Endoscopy and a myriad of blood tests but all have annoyingly come back clear. I've now also got Pruritis which is very itchy skin and I see that condition can be brought on by post infection.

I'm going to see if I can see a Dietician as I cannot do this on my own without expert advice.