Several Questions About Probiotics

[psytew]

Hello.

Full disclosure, I am experiencing gut-related issues, and my GI is largely unfamiliar with this topic, and says he has not seen this before. So I am not seeking advice, but rather to acquire the knowledge needed to better converse with him about my options and situation and then get the actual advice from him.

Basically I experienced minor gut issues, and after a clean endoscopy, colonoscopy, and ultrasound, he recommended I take probiotics, specifically Digestive Advantage (a Bacillus Coagulans strain). So I took them. They made me feel exhausted/gave me muscle fatigue, with no other symptoms. I thought it could be die-off, but after two weeks, felt that it probably was a bad reaction and stopped. Now, two and a half weeks later, I'm still very tired and my muscles get sore easily. My GI says he's never seen probiotics give someone a reaction like this before.

As such, I want to confirm some things before my follow up. But trying to do my own research has offered differing answers to basically all of the following questions, and turning to a more research-oriented place seems my best option.

• Are there any statistics on how often probiotics actually cause adverse symptoms, and what the breakdown of root causes are? (ie dysbiosis vs allergic reaction vs something else entirely)
• Bacillus Coagulans are spore-forming. Some places online say that spore-forming probiotics are transient, some say they are not, some say they aren't supposed to be but have a higher chance of populating your gut. What does the research indicate?
• I see all sorts of figures online about some probiotics lasting for 1-2 weeks, some saying they last 3-4, some saying that whether they're spore-based matters, etc. Is there a consensus on this?
• There seems to be a lot of fearmongering about Bacillus Coagulans, but is any of that based on actual research, or just anecdote?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Michael Harrop]

That's not uncommon. Probiotics and prebiotics are heavily marketed, but can have a wide variety of detriments. Professionals not being familiar with commonly reported adverse effects is common as well.

Regarding your questions, there is plenty of variation from person to person, probiotic to probiotic, and brand to brand. Re "fearmongering" always look to see if the claims are backed by citations. Though people saying "I had this bad reaction" is useful as well, because the research is quite flawed. The wiki page on probiotics covers the research.

Are there any statistics on how often probiotics actually cause adverse symptoms, and what the breakdown of root causes are? (ie dysbiosis vs allergic reaction vs something else entirely)

The root cause is that you're messing with an extremely complex ecosystem that impacts and regulates virtually every aspect of the human body.