Why a Probiotic Won’t Work

Hello, welcome. You’re listening to Dr. Martha Reid at Doctor’s Choice Integrative Medicine in Downtown Vancouver, a space where I bring passion, inspiration and nourishment to the conversation of your health.

So one of the questions I’d like to speak to is around probiotics. I get this a lot from my patient base, our probiotics, even a thing. Do they even work in my clinical experience? Absolutely. Probiotics work, but you need the right probiotic for you at the right time, at the right dose and for the right condition that you’re trying to treat.

Because you see, not all probiotics are the same. Not all of the strains in a probiotic are the same. And as I’m sure you’re well aware since you’re listening to this podcast and my patients ask this question, do they even work?

There is an incredible amount of marketing around probiotics. The more billions in a capsule, the better the quality. The more strains you’ve got, the better your probiotic. Good quality probiotics don’t need to be refrigerated. As long as they assure potency at production, they’re good.

A lot of this stuff isn’t true, right, the jury or at least not proven to be true at this point. The scientific literature is exploding with information regarding the microbiome, and the microbiome is the collection of microorganisms that live in us and on us. And one of these groovy fun facts that I like to share with my patients is there are more bugs in you and on you than there are cells that make you up. Let that sink in for a second.

The bugs are the ship, you are their passenger. So there are trillions of bugs in our gut. Over 500 species have currently been identified. But we don’t necessarily know what all of these species do. So when you’re looking for a probiotic, you need to identify for yourself, what are you trying to do? What are you wanting to achieve and then seek a probiotic that has very specific bacterial strains that have been researched and clinically proven? To do just what you’re looking for, different strains do different things. Your gut is a complex ecosystem, and the bacteria within that ecosystem work together to support your health.

So, bacteria that you may want to use to treat, for example, IBS, would be different potentially than bacteria that you might want to use if you’re getting vaginal yeast infections. Because you see the vaginal microbiome is impacted to a large degree by what’s going on in the gut. But the bacteria and the dosing and the concentration of what you might use for the vaginal tissue is totally different than what you might use in the digestive system. So you need the right strains. At the rate potency for what you’re trying to achieve, and the literature is not clear yet on whether a multi stream formula is better than a few really good strains. So the bottom line is to choose bacterial strains and a probiotic formula that have been proven to do what you’re seeking to do. That’s the first thing. And then the second thing with your probiotic is you got to make sure those strains are human sourced.

We’re not pigs, we’re not cows. So getting bovine or porcine probiotic strains and expecting them to do in your body what you would like human strains to do, I think is a bit erroneous. Get humans or strains, and the label should indicate that a probiotic label should label the exact strains that are in there.

So, for example, acidophilus, we’ve probably all heard about acidophilus super important and Lactobacillus acidophilus is one of the key strains to supporting gut health, but you need the exact strain of Lactobacillus acidophilus. They’re not all the same, so you need to look to the science for that. And if you don’t know where to find that, then speak to a naturopathic doctor who’s well versed in probiotic use to help you out. The third thing is that what you might see out there is that probiotics, if they’re good, don’t need to be refrigerated. Well, that’s not entirely true. Different strains have different temperature requirements in order for them to be effective. These are live organisms, so some things like warm climates, other things like colder climates. So it really depends again on the strain that you’re using and what you’re trying to achieve with that strain.

And then one of the other myths I hear out there is that potency up production, as long as that’s on the label, then you’ve got a good quality probiotic. It’s potency at expiration that matters. You need to know that the bottle you’re purchasing has live microorganisms that are going to do their work right up until the end of the job. So when expiration comes, they need to still be potent. So potency of production isn’t quite good enough. It needs to be potency at expiration. So so far, you need to sum all this up, you need a probiotic that has humans or strains.

You need a probiotic that has scientific research, in my opinion, scientific research behind it and clinical research behind it to prove that it does what we set out to achieve. You need to have those strains identified on the bottle. You need to have that they are human, sourced, identified on the bottle. You need the temperature requirements of that product identified on the bottle and you need the potency at expiration identified on the bottle. And then you need to take the right dose of probiotics for you at the right time.

So, yes, in my clinical experience, probiotics absolutely work to support my patient base, but these are the things that I look for. And then one other thing that I think is absolutely important is that a probiotic, from my point of view, be free from common allergens. So that means dairy, wheat, corn, soy, a lot of my patient base struggle with food sensitivities. And if we’re taking medicines that have these allergens within them and even something where the probiotic strains have been grown on those food sources. So those food sources may not have been added to the product, but if the bacteria themselves were grown on those growth mediums, for someone who has a supersensitive system, that might be just enough to aggravate them. And so then with the medicine, you’re getting two steps forward, one step back. So I like to choose probiotics that don’t have any of those allergens in them because I may not have identified yet what people are sensitive to. So I like my medicines to be as pure as possible. I like my medicines to be backed by research wherever possible. And then it’s just so important the right medicine at the right time, at the right dose, for the right patient.

So I hope this helps. I hear these questions a lot, and I think there is just so much confusion out there and a lot of that I think has to do with marketing. So I hope this information helps. And as you’re choosing a probiotic, keep these thoughts in mind. And if you don’t remember everything I’ve said to them, pop over to the website. There’s a really fantastic article I wrote there called “Why a Probiotic Won’t Work” and read through that and pop that back into your mind. And then you’ll remember.

And of course, any questions feel free to give me a call.

Thank you so much for spending this time with me and joining this conversation. If any of the things that you’ve heard today have landed with you, moved you, resonated with you, and you’d like to pipe in, I would sure love to hear from you. Some of the best conversations happen right in the medicine house with me and the easiest way to do that.

Pop over to the website www.doctorschoiceintegrative.com. Book a discovery conversation with me. It’s called a discovery call, and it’s a complimentary 15 minute slot where we can explore health together. I’d love to do that with you. Hope to see you there.