“How do I know which probiotic brand to buy?”
I’ve had IBS as well as sleep problems and moderate anxiety/depression that all seem to make each other worse/be connected for the last ten years. I’ve tried multiple general practitioners, gastroenterologists, nutritionists and even a Chinese medicine doctor for some help over the past ten years and no one has been able to give me an actual explanation for the cause of my problems or any real improvement/solution. I’m on a waitlist for a new gastroenterologist who takes more of a wholistic approach and seems promising but in the meantime I want to try probiotics, which I haven’t tried before because was afraid they were a quick/surface level fix, and hopefully one that would help my stomach problems, sleep and mental health, but don’t know how to select which brand and type.
Female | 31 years old
Complaint duration: 10 years
Conditions: IBS
1 Answer
Gastroenterologist
As much as we wish probiotics could help, unfortunately, they have not panned out very beneficial based on many studies done to date. Take a look at this statement from a review just published by the American College of Gastroenterology:
"There is substantial interest in the use of microbiome-based therapeutics for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) given the often unsatisfactory responses to dietary modifications, medications, and behavioral therapies. The literature in this area is heterogeneous, with limitations including lack of standardization of the intervention, inclusion of multiple IBS subtypes, and variable definitions of outcomes. In addition, studies have included varying combinations of dietary interventions, prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics. Because of these limitations, evidence to support most microbiome-based therapeutics in IBS is lacking, and the recent AGA guideline makes no recommendation for the use of probiotics in IBS because of this knowledge gap (35)."
"There is substantial interest in the use of microbiome-based therapeutics for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) given the often unsatisfactory responses to dietary modifications, medications, and behavioral therapies. The literature in this area is heterogeneous, with limitations including lack of standardization of the intervention, inclusion of multiple IBS subtypes, and variable definitions of outcomes. In addition, studies have included varying combinations of dietary interventions, prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics. Because of these limitations, evidence to support most microbiome-based therapeutics in IBS is lacking, and the recent AGA guideline makes no recommendation for the use of probiotics in IBS because of this knowledge gap (35)."
