Hi the book says there is a list of the best brand of probiotics here. Can anyone help me find it please? Thanks x

Anyone managed to find the list of probiotics?

I’m also looking for the probiotic list.

Not found most of the lists mentioned in the book so far, I’m afraid. I’ve stuck to Kefir for probiotics and inulin powder in green tea for prebiotics since they were recommended on the Michael Moseley programmes.

Also looking for the good quality probiotics list

Hi, have been looking for the list too.
VSL#3 was mention in the book so did a google search and found the supplier. Just ordered a batch today… not cheap though.
https://www.vsl3.co.uk/index.php

VLS#3 MAY decrease bloating. I’d welcome news of how successful you find it. Thanks for the info about Amazon as a supplier. Good luck!

Michael has written about probiotic brands in his post “A note from Michael on the book” in the Welcome section of the forums.

posted by cleverguts (CG Admin)
on 5th June 2017 at 10:46 am Reply • Report post • permalink
Hi everyone,
Welcome to the Clever Guts website. I’m hoping that people will come here to share their experiences and create a community. The book that this website is linked to is selling well in the UK and Australia (where I am currently doing a book tour), which is great.
In the book I said that people would be able to come to the website and get additional information. So, first of all, an apology. I have not been able to pull together more information on things like probiotics, olive oil and a proposed sleep experiment as fast as I would have liked. It is happening and below are some updates, but things are progressing slower than I had hoped. I am, I promise, onto it. Do sign up for the newsletter and I will keep you better and more rapidly informed.
Probiotics
As I mentioned in the book probiotics are the living bacteria that are sold, mainly in capsule form, in the hope that they will help improve a number of different conditions. If you don’t have a specific condition then I suggest you aim to improve your microbiome by following the menus in the book and on this website. I also suggest you try adding in some fermented foods to your diet (see Clare’s video about how to make delicious purple sauerkraut here)
Although they do contain living bacteria I think it is unlikely that buying one of those yoghurty drinks in plastic bottles will make a significant difference to your health. That said, some people swear by them. You should be aware that they may contain significant amounts of sugar or artificial sweetener (depending on whether you go for regular or light versions) and relatively few bacteria (usually 6-10 billion in a bottle. You should be aiming at more like 20 billion)
If you do have a specific issue that you want to try a probiotic for then below is currently the best I can do. Recommending a particular brand is tricky because it depends on the reason you are wanting to take it and the strength of evidence behind that brand. The following brands have a degree on scientific evidence behind them, but I would be grateful for any feedback on how helpful (or otherwise) you have found these products. Also if there are others you would like me to take a look at.
VSL#3
This is a probiotic which contains a mixture of different strains of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus and Streptococcus. It has been shown to be effective in the treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, though I would still recommend that if you have IBS you try to sort your diet out before/while taking VSL#3. You can buy VSL#3 via their website.
HOWARU Protect
This is a probiotic which contains Bifidobacterium lactis and Lactobacillus acidophilus According to Medline Plus, part of the US National Library of Medicine, taking HOWARU Protect may help reduce reduce symptoms of cough and runny nose, also lung infections in children under 6. Visit their website for more information
Health Span Elite
This is made by a British company for athletes and was recommended to me by someone who also advises the English Rugby team. He recommends their products on the basis that they contain what they say, and nothing more, something which is important for an elite athlete. The danger with buying supplements in any form off the internet is they can contain substances like steroids which for an elite athlete would be career suicide. More information on Health Span Elite at their website.
Sleep and Prebiotics
In the book I wrote about wanting to set up an online study to see if consuming potato starch helps improve sleep quality. Since writing the book I have also tried a special pre-biotic fibre, which was originally developed by Reading University. I found this to be more effective than the potato starch, though also more expensive. What was striking was that within a week of starting on the fibre supplement the quality of my sleep, as measured by devices leant to me by scientists from Oxford University, had improved significantly. It could be chance and there is no guarantee that it will work as well for others, which is why I want your help.
I’ve decided to set up an online survey asking people to try this, potato starch, or another well tested way of improving sleep quality, and report back. We’re just ironing out some glitches and I’m hoping this trial will be ready to go soon, for anyone who fancies joining in. I will give you full details of the pre-biotic and where to get it then.
Olive Oil
In the book I also wrote about the fact that extra-virgin olive oil is the most counterfeited food in the world and that I would try to find brands that have some degree of certification. It is still early days but what I would say is that small, specialised providers are likely to be your best bet for price and quality, though they will be more expensive. If you are particularly concerned, it appears that Italian olive oils have some of the biggest problems. I will update when I hear more and happy to get recommendations from you for your personal favourites. I also welcome any manufacturer who cares to get in contact who can guarantee, on the basis of lab tests, that their extra-virgin, really is extra-virgin.
All the best,
Michael
posted by Beatrixinvogue
on 6th June 2017 at 1:10 pm Reply • Report post • permalink

Unfortunately the suggested suppliers for probiotic pills doesn’t ship to Australia. Any suggestions for an Australian supplier?
Also if you haveFODMAP intolerance should you starve out the bad bacteria or take a probiotic

I am also looking for a good quality probiotic in Australia. I suffer from mild IBS and have been recommended to take them by GP. I am currently taking Faulding IBS support probiotic and sometimes I have thought they have helped and other times not so sure. I have had a fair amount of antiobiotics recently for tooth infections and then also with surgery so I have been taking them then but not sure if really helping or not as still got diahorrea from the antiobiotics.

I have just purchased Udo’s Choice Probiotics having googled best probiotics to use. They arrived today and I will let you know how I find them. Would be good if CG Admin could take a look at them to see if they are what they claim.

Yes so hard to know which ones might be effective. On looking at the Faulding ones they only have 1 type of lactobacillus so suspect not great whereas a powder I bought recently had 10 strains. It was expensive and neither my husband or I liked the taste even if tried to disguise it. As didn’t like it I have not kept what the name was. We travel quite a bit and especially like to have them when traveling so really need a capsule that you don’t need to refrigerate. Would like to know how you go with the Udo’s. Are they a capsule that is non refrigerated?

They are a capsule that should be refrigerated, although they say on their website that they can be out of the fridge for short periods of time while travelling – although they don’t say how long that short period is, guess it would depend on the outside temperature. I think I might buy the VSL 3 ones when away.

Surprised nobody has yet mentioned Symprove – http://www.symprove.com. In trials it was one of only three products which delivered the number of bugs as advertised, survived stomach acid and reproduced in the gut. You need a three-month course and it’s not cheap, but it does seem to help. It’s a liquid you keep in the fridge by the way – even took mine on holiday to the US!

I am in Australia and gave been diagnosed with IBD. With the aim of not being on medication for the rest of my life, I saw a dietitian who specialised in IBD and she prescribed a probiotic from the Bioceuticals range. Check out their range of probiotics; I was told they are one of few supplements with strong research evidence behind them.

Thanks for the tip of Symprove they do ship to Australia and sound good and Bioceuticals

Does anybody know if probiotics will help or exacerbate FODMAP intolerance?

I was told to take the probiotics along with a FODMAP diet and noticed a significant improvement in my symptoms.

Hi I have been using home brewed milk kefir from e bay purchased grains so that it only costs me 5 minutes per day and the cost of the milk to feed them. I have had the best improvement to my and my husband’s health EVER and I’ve been subjecting the poor man to every new nutritional idea I can find for years!
I thoroughly recommend fermenting your own kefir. It is really easy. I think that the most natural products from foods usually turn out to work best for optimum health and I’ve also read that probiotics delivered in liquid form deliver the most viable probiotics. So before you spend loads of money on shipping supplements I would try kefir.

Thanks for your reply. Have been searching for info for ages. Can I ask which probiotic you used

Hi SueC unfortunately milk is one of the FODMAP intolerance foods to avoid . I wonder if kefir can be made from lactose free milk?
I’ll give it a try and post results

My pleasure. I used Bioceuticals which are apparently one of few evidenced based probiotics. You can get them from some pharmacies or health food stores like About Life or alternatively order online.

Thanks for the info about Bioceuticals and where to buy. Much appreciated. The trouble with FODMAP intolerance is that most of the healthiest or yummiest foods like all the legumes, apples, pears, figs, garlic, onions, kefir etc, that all help the gut can’t be tolerated. I wonder if there is, or will be, an actual cure for FODMAP problems.
Difficult to get ones Gut back on track when over half of all of the most beneficial nutrients are off the list of tolerated foods.
Thanks again for your post

I know. I have been reading the book and many of the recipes call for foods that I know cause problems for me. When I started on the FODMAP diet, I followed it quite strictly just so that I could give myself the best chance of reducing the inflammation. Once things settled down (i.e. my symptoms started to disappear), I was told I could reintroduce some of these foods again in a slow and graded way as many of the intolerances are based on a cumulative effect. For example, I could start to reintroduce dairy again in small amounts. I noticed that there were some foods that I could tolerate in small-moderate amounts (dairy) and other foods that I couldn’t tolerate at all (onions, apples, pears) which has allowed me to work around it to some extent. Hope that helps!

I also follow a FODMAP diet and have found it has really helped with certain inflammation, especially in my joints, and resolved a runny nose in the mornings. How does the ‘clever guts’ diet fit in with the restriction of foods on a FODMAP diet?

Hi Suey
I have only personally used milk kefir as I find it so very easy to manage on a daily basis but I believe that water kefir grains work well for people. Here is a comment I got from another post:
‘Hi, I’ve dropped in from the 5:2 diet after reading the Clever guts book, I’ve suffered from excess stomach acid form 20 years but don’t have GERD. I have been on PPIs for that length of time, in increasing, finally ridiculous strength. I’ve lost some weight on the 5:2, mostly around the waist, and am now on a mission to cut my meds. I’ve currently halved my Nexium and Ranitidine, which I’m doing gradually because I understand if you cut it out too quickly it can make the problem worse. As far as diet is concerned, I only drink decaf tea and coffee and limit alcohol (should stop it altogether!) The biggest boost I think, has come from drinking daily kefir like Sue C – I use the water type mainly because I don’t like the taste of the milk variety, – and have increased my water intake considerably. At the beginning, I found fasting made my acid worse, but it soon settled and now I only eat two meals a day, brunch and dinner in a window of about 8 hours. My glob is to cut my tabs to one a day. I’m getting there. Good luck ‘
If you read up on it I believe that it delivers a good variety of probiotics and in a ‘trust me I’m a doctor’ episode, of all of the probiotics tested, kefir had the greatest impact on increasing microbiome diversity. Good luck, I hope that you try it

Some of the microbes in kefir grains need milk sugars (lactose) for food – this is converted to lactic acid. The resulting lower pH affects which other microbes thrive.

You can get a live fermented product without using lactose, but it won’t have the same probiotic composition as milk kefir. Water kefir employs different ‘food’ such as table sugar or fruit. *Not saying better or worse just not the same.*

Residual lactose largely ends up in the whey portion of yoghurt or fresh cheese – this can then be drained off (and is in Greek yoghurt and Skyr). Hence hard cheeses are much lower in lactose than milk.

Some research suggests live fermented products with residual lactose are better tolerated than pasteurised ones. How much residual lactose and how much live culture is present in DIY kefir is likely to be highly variable.

Has anyone here taken Symprove? It sounds as though it should be very affective but before spending a lot of money it would be good to hear of people’s personal experiences with it – thanks

Hi all,
New to the whole forum thing and new to gut health too! I am in Australia and just thought I would share a probiotic that my nutritionist put me onto. It is called ‘immunity fuel’ and is a certified organic probiotic superfood. It contains 15 strains of live probiotics and 19 nutrient rich whole foods. It works by using the bacteria and then the wholefoods and fermenting them together. Just wondering if anyone can give me any feedback on is? Have you tried probiotics this way and have any feedback on how effective this actually is??
TIA
Jade.

Re probiotic pills Australia. I have just bought Blackmores probiotics. 4 strains with 7 billion in each capsule and a use by date. My supermarket had raw apple cider too and kimbucha, organic tumeric, seaweed etc.. The cheap chemist catalog which arrives today had this brand of probiotics plus the cider vinegar at discounted prices.JennyC

For NZ and Australian users of this forum, Nutralife do probiotics with the HOWARU strains and they have one with 50 billion CFUs of various strains (L. acidophilius, B. animalis ssp. lactis, HOWARU B. animalis ssp. lactis, B. breve, B. logum, L. casei, L. paracasei, L. plantarum, L. salivarius ssp. salivarius, L. rhamnosus and L. delbrueckii ssp. bulgarius). I take this probiotic due to the variety of strains and number of CFUs.

I have been taking Ora Organic Probiotic with Prebiotic Capsules for about 5 months, and I absolutely love them! I have tried different probiotics, and these definitely work the best of any I have ever taken, so far. If I take these every day I hardly ever have any gut cramps, or gas problems. I highly recommend these for anyone who wants a probiotic that really works. Very important to me was the fact they contain an excellent prebiotic, and also think this the reason they work so much better than other brands. I bought them here incase you anyone wants to check them out:

http://bit.ly/2ymgMTH

All: pre/pro-biotics are NOT the same. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. The appropriate pre/pro-biotic will very much depend on what problem you are trying to solve. I highly recommend Symprove for irritable and inflammatory bowel disease. Unlike some of the snake-oil-peddlers wares (!) it has been clinically proven.

VSL #3 has been extremely invaluable in my healing process. However, I was very distressed to read the latest study done by consumerlab.com in which they discovered that the Italian formula “may significantly affect the response and health status of the person ingesting it”, due to the greater number of dead bacteria.

And, according to their website, it’s no longer possible to buy the original formula made in the U.S.

I must say how very disappointed I am that the product I relied on may no longer be safe and effective.

I profoundly doubt any of that! Send me the link to the consumer lab report. I’m in fairly close touch with Ferring (UK distributor of #VSL3) and the evidence to support the product is reasonably convincing. It certainly has a hole lot more clinical evidence than most probiotics. Sounds like scaremonger tactics by consumerlab to me

You can access the probiotic reviews by Consumer Lab at http://www.consumer lab.com. Under reviews, just select probiotics. Consumer Labs has impartially tested products for over 20 years so I rely on their testing rather than just take the word of the manufacturer.

does anyone know how good the Jalna brand of yoghurt ( pot set) is in australia plse ?

No – sorry- but it won’t compare with your own home-made KEFIR! Some folks get really excellent results after a week or two but, as ever, “it depends”