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by chrisfosterelli 3021 days ago
> So eat plenty of fermented foods and prebiotic fiber, consider a probiotic supplement

There is very little conclusive evidence that suggests probiotics are actually useful. In the EU and USA companies are not able to claim health benefits from them legally.

Some good studies cited on the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probiotic#Scientific_reviews_a...
2 comments
manmal 3021 days ago
Yeah, many diseases are related to the microbiome (although there is the question of where does the cause/effect arrow point?), but current probiotics are for the most part not sticking around in the gut. The usual suspects just have an indirect effect on the bacteria you already have, and get excreted within days/weeks. Spore forming bacteria survive longer, but might become a problem of their own if overpopulated. Also.. if your goal is a more diverse microbiome, then supplementing the most abundant L-bacillus strains might not be a particularly effective option?

And the microbiome is so vast that it’s hard to influence on the long term. With a very strong probiotic you get 5 * 10^10 bacteria (of which most die in the stomach and small intestine), but at the same time you have 3.8 * 10^13 native bacteria settled and accustomed to your body, feeding on the sugar you have just eaten. You need a lot of those tablets to have a meaningful impact.

Just like a great body, a great microbiome gets made in the kitchen. AFAIK dietary changes work way faster than popping probiotics. With the exception that you are missing certain strains (eliminated by antibiotics?), which should be replaced.

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dawnerd 3021 days ago
They may be useful in some situations https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3424311/

I was prescribed some a year or so ago when I was on some heavy antibiotics. Reading that article still makes it look like efficacy is pretty minor. Since it doesn’t really hurt to take it why not?

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drakonka 3021 days ago
Every time I've had to take antibiotics here (which admittedly has only been a couple of times) the doctor made sure to tell me to take probiotics as well until the course of antibiotics was over.
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