[happylion0801]

As a fellow comment says - its all over the place and kind of hard to say, see [1] saying they are useless but lots of studies saying they are useful .

Personally as someone with IBS, I have tried many probiotics over the years and have mixed results - most of them were useless but for some time I found one or 2 that worked but I couldnt say for sure if they worked due to other factors (for e.g generally healthier food, lifestyle, mindset etc). You would have to try it out for weeks to see their effect (according to studies that say it work).

The doctors I spoke to though gave me strong probiotics (>100 billion CFU, for e.g something like [2]). I found anything that had 1 or 10 billion CFU to be pretty much useless.

I think you should work on your diet before taking probiotics. I dont think I am lactose intolerant, milk gives me bad bloating but yogurt doesnt. Yogurt worked for me over the course of weeks, kefir and sauerkrat gave me mega-bloating.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45434753 [2] https://www.amazon.com/Visbiome-Potency-Probiotic-Shipped-Sh...

[aussieguy1234]

Not sure if you have heard of the low FODMAP diet? Its now the standard treatment for IBS. The theory is certain bacteria ferment FODMAPS into gas and water which leads to the symptoms. They don't know which bacteria yet but going low fodmap is now a well researched and accepted treatment.

Everyone is different but personally, I'm able to tolerate everything except Fructans (one of several types of FODMAPS). So no garlic, onion or wheat for me.

https://www.monashfodmap.com/ibs-central/i-have-ibs/starting...

[happylion0801]

Yes of course. I did low-fodmap for many months few years ago and continue to do it (when I go to an unknown place for example or travel).

In studies Low-fodmap is typically only recommended for ~6 weeks. I now try to eat any kind food though, I eat everything in smaller quantities and this also helps.

I personally found that a combination of diet, stress, sleep control are the most effective for managing IBS symptoms. Any one of those can flare up the symptoms at any time and managing all of them is key

[dan353hehe]

I was skeptical of this when I first heard of it several years ago. It sounded just like every other popular diet does: “Just (don’t) eat this certain food, and you will feel amazing!”

But I have several family members on it right now, and they all report feeling WAY better. And this is after years of dealing with IBS type problems too.

[CodeGlitch]

Another successful patient of the low FODMAP diet here. As soon as I stray from the restrictions I will suffer the next day. IBS can be crippling.

Honestly the scientist(s) who developed the low FODMAP diet needs to be awarded a Nobel prize.

[aussieguy1234]

It's the same for me. If I eat the wrong food, I'll feel fine for the rest of that day.

Then the next day, almost always in the morning is when the problems will start. Perhaps the bacteria had time to ferment the food overnight.

So when I have symptoms, I always look at what I ate the previous day.

[Shank]

Low FODMAP works, but it’s precisely because it’s unlike all other “diets”. It’s a systematic removal of basically all short-chain sugars. The problem with it, as someone who was instructed to follow it, is that it’s extremely unintuitive to know what foods are low or high FODMAP without the list. Because of this, it’s really easy to make mistakes unless you consult the list prior to eating.

So it definitely gives positive results, but it’s also very difficult to follow.

[nvarsj]

As someone on FODMAP, what works for me is to do breakfast/lunch meal replacement with low FODMAP shakes (like Huel), then get a few FODMAP cookbooks and make dinners out of that. Works great and is fairly painless - lots of delicious meals can be made that are low fodmap, fortunately. It's really difficult to avoid FODMAPs when eating out, western food loves onions and garlic for instance - for these cases, I use alpha-glucosidase enzyme tablets (I take 2x 350mg tablets with a meal).

[aussieguy1234]

Yep, there are hundreds of foods out there that have them.

Personally I use this app when eating anything I'm not sure about, it has a database of foods and their fodmap content: https://www.monashfodmap.com/ibs-central/i-have-ibs/get-the-...