Probiotics

[aurelius]

Hear me out! I swear they work. I was sitting on 180 pounds forever. Changed my diet zero. All I introduced was probiotics and I'm losing about 0.5 to 0.75 pounds a week. Anyone else experience this?

[mgil]

Which ones?

[iamsmu]

I tried them twice and got some insane brain fuzz. I couldn't concentrate for shit. I have no idea what was going on. All I know is that I'm not going to do it again. . . . Something similar happens if I take Claritin. If I were to be stuck in that fuzzy state, I'd kill myself. I hate it.

[SJB]

I brew animal probiotics, for domestic pets, horses, and food type animals. All of my company's testing indicates that animals do better condition wise after taking probiotics, so weight gain not lose.

I drink a couple of large swallows of brew every working day (good bugs is good bugs). Fresh brewed probiotics are best as freeze drying kills around 90% of the bacteria and freeze dried ones take time to come back to life and start doing what they are paid for.

[Shane]

It's a bit dated now, but this piece at Science Based Medicine was my last contact with info about probiotics. Based on that, I kept eating yoghurt, and kept routinely saying "no thanks" to the staff at the chemists who try to push probiotics on me every damn time I'm there. Some notable quotes:

"When you give probiotics to normal humans you are introducing, relative to the number and quantity of bacteria that are already there, a small amount of foreign bacteria. Continuing our metaphor, it is like trying to put a putting green in an Amazonian rain forest. For normal people, it makes no microbiologic sense to take probiotics."

predictions the author makes about chronic probiotic use:

"My first prediction for probiotics: long term use in normal people will lead to increased risk of IBS."
....
"Population studies will show an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, and pulmonary emboli as a consequence of the mild increase in the inflammatory state induced by chronic probiotics.
Infections will increase in the month or two after stopping chronic probiotics."

I haven't dug deep into what's been revealed in the last few years re the effectiveness. But I do know my bullshit meter pinged off the charts when I first heard about probiotics, yet another fucking thing I just had to fucking take to be healthy.

[broseph]

I've see some "studies" where humans lose weight when taking probiotics. That doesn't make sense to me. Like SJB said, IMPROVING digestion = get more nutirents (calories).

Our guts are so effing full of bacteria, I also don't see how taking a small dose of a nonpathogenic bugs is going to totally reform your personal colonies. Especially when part of our stomach's function is to kill what we ingest.

Regarding obese unhealthy folks having different gut flora than healthy skinny folks; a culture will wax and wane depending on environmental conditions. Someone that regularly eats a ton of fermentable fiber will grow cultures that... ferment fiber. So I would think the best way to improve gut flora, if that's even a thing, would be to eat more fiber (and different types of fiber), aka "PREbiotics."

Regarding the low dose inflammation- there's so much conflicting stuff out there. The "old friends hypothesis" and "hygiene theory" say a little immune inflammation is actually a good thing. It's a hormetic stressor (like exercise, moderate alcohol consumption, antioxidants, iocane powder, etc). But these are the same people that say the low dose inflammation from gluten = end the world.

[Murelli]

I've see some "studies" where humans lose weight when taking probiotics. That doesn't make sense to me. Like SJB said, IMPROVING digestion = get more nutirents (calories).

Our guts are so effing full of bacteria, I also don't see how taking a small dose of a nonpathogenic bugs is going to totally reform your personal colonies. Especially when part of our stomach's function is to kill what we ingest.

Regarding obese unhealthy folks having different gut flora than healthy skinny folks; a culture will wax and wane depending on environmental conditions. Someone that regularly eats a ton of fermentable fiber will grow cultures that... ferment fiber. So I would think the best way to improve gut flora, if that's even a thing, would be to eat more fiber (and different types of fiber), aka "PREbiotics."

Regarding the low dose inflammation- there's so much conflicting stuff out there. The "old friends hypothesis" and "hygiene theory" say a little immune inflammation is actually a good thing. It's a hormetic stressor (like exercise, moderate alcohol consumption, antioxidants, iocane powder, etc). But these are the same people that say the low dose inflammation from gluten = end the world.

Fiber is key! Several studies support that eating a correct amount of it promotes good flora activity and its consequences - regularity, weight loss/gain, less gas, etc...

Not time to get the sources now, sorry.

[cwd]

The ultimate probiotic would be fresh poop from a healthy human. This would have exactly the right varieties of thousands of strains of bacteria.

Seems like eating at a salad bar after each time you use antibiotics would get your colony re-established just fine.
Not even that, if you live in a house full of dogs and kids like I do.
Nothing's sterile here...

[broseph]

Fecal transplant. It’s a thing.

[Shane]

Fecal transplant. It’s a thing.

Yep. I'd be happy to sell my shit in a bag on ebay.

[cwd]

Fecal transplant. It’s a thing.

Yep. I'd be happy to sell my shit in a bag on ebay.

Why would anyone pay medical-procedure prices when they can be exposed to someone else's feces for $8 at a salad bar or Chipotle?

[broseph]

Or just borrow other people's phones. So many opportunities for fecal-oral transmission.

But with the fecal transplant they implant the other guy's poop up your own pooper, bypassing the death trap of the stomach.

For your health!

[cwd]

Or just borrow other people's phones. So many opportunities for fecal-oral transmission.

But with the fecal transplant they implant the other guy's poop up your own pooper, bypassing the death trap of the stomach.

For your health!

So you're basically paying for the pegging, not the poop itself. Makes sense I suppose.

[aurelius]

Which ones?

After a little Googling, labdoor said this one had good stuff that was mostly alive.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002H ... =UTF8&th=1

It could be snake oil. There really isn't conclusive evidence on the efficacy of over the counter probiotics. I was giving you guys my n = 1 experience.

[DoctorWho]

I tried them twice and got some insane brain fuzz. I couldn't concentrate for shit. I have no idea what was going on. All I know is that I'm not going to do it again. . . . Something similar happens if I take Claritin. If I were to be stuck in that fuzzy state, I'd kill myself. I hate it.

Are you related to Jan Smuts?

[iamsmu]

I tried them twice and got some insane brain fuzz. I couldn't concentrate for shit. I have no idea what was going on. All I know is that I'm not going to do it again. . . . Something similar happens if I take Claritin. If I were to be stuck in that fuzzy state, I'd kill myself. I hate it.

Are you related to Jan Smuts?

You have to go back at least several generations to get a common branch. I overheard some people talking about me one. They said that I had South African ears. I have no idea what that means. I just looked at a picture of the general. He has detatched ear lobes. Mine are attached. I never noticed that about my ears before. . . . .

[Idlehands]

Does skyr count?

[Allentown]

Apparently I never commented on this but I think probiotics are great if you need them. I would have to look at the brand, but long story short I was having digestive issues, took them, almost entirely stopped having digestive issues. Even if placebo, it was worth the $20 or whatever.

[platypus]

Fiber is key! Several studies support that eating a correct amount of it promotes good flora activity and its consequences - regularity, weight loss/gain, less gas, etc...

Not time to get the sources now, sorry.

I don't know about that; for a while I had to deliver offerings to the porcelain god upwards of four times a day until I started taking probiotics. Adjusting my fiber intake didn't make a difference.

I've been taking a probiotic every day for the last three weeks or so and I've only been having to sit on the toilet twice a day. It could be coincidence. But I think it's the probiotic. More experimentation will be necessary to know for sure.

[Allentown]

I don't know about that; for a while I had to deliver offerings to the porcelain god upwards of four times a day until I started taking probiotics. Adjusting my fiber intake didn't make a difference.

I've been taking a probiotic every day for the last three weeks or so and I've only been having to sit on the toilet twice a day. It could be coincidence. But I think it's the probiotic. More experimentation will be necessary to know for sure.

You know, I switched from brown rice to white rice around the same time as I started taking the probiotics. Possibly? Hmm.