Does anyone take a probiotic

Whenever I remember. Used to drink a very lively goats milk Kefir but gave up as it was so fizzy it was hard to keep in the bottle when opening! Advice on that was to drink as soon as waking up which was always a challenge as it is an acquired taste to say the least.

I didn’t think it was such a precise art ?

When I’m on antibiotics (more regularly than one might think)

First thing in the morning.

Have kefir every morning as part of a smoothie - tremendous stuff 👌

Hot drinks kill them apparently 🧐 and empty Tum makes sense

well, I'm not so fussy about best before dates or cleaning the fridge...so basically every mealtime, just about.

We've settled on kombucha as its so easy to make and pleasant to drink.

I generally wash down some vit D with it first thing in the morning.

I make my own sauerkraut in industrial quantities. Eat it whenever really, usually coming in from work when I'm peckish before dinner.

I'll grab kefir any time I'm in a shop which has it.

I would've thought if they can tolerate your stomach acid, they can tolerate a bit of warm tea

Near me a local company prepares a great one from dairy. They even add an astringent vegetable high in antioxidants and fibre to the mix. I "take" it two or three times a week, after a meal or as a snack.

As I mentioned on another thread, Evri delivered me some probiotic stuff called Symprove instead of the Wiggle running kit I'd ordered. After reading their website, and some reviews, I decided to try it out. Touted benefits were that it would get past my stomach acid. Dosage was 70ml, first thing in the morning, and wait 10 mins before eating, hence the 4 x 500ml bottles I received would last a month. Long story short, I got mega-diarrhoea and the stuff went in the bin. Glad I hadn't paid 75 quid for it.

Strong Kefir can cause a few issues when first using it but that doesn't mean it is a bad thing for your gut once past those first few days.

Kefir in a smoothie everyday - no issues at all.

Is kefir significantly more mouldy (in a good way) than a regular plain unsweetened dairy yoghurt? I've never really looked into it but I'm on antibiotics at the moment, so I should.

As probiotics are classed as food rather than drugs, while they're probs not going to hurt anyone with a functioning intestinal system, they probably aren't doing much beyond placebo, as you can never really be sure that;

They contain the things the label says it does.

In enough quantity to have an effect

That can survive long enough.

Is kefir significantly more mouldy (in a good way) than a regular plain unsweetened dairy yoghurt?

Yes, some very much so. The Chuckling Goat kefir that I used was pretty crazy. Had to open it like you would a heavily shaken bottle of coke it was so fizzy

Cheers kerley. I might get some kefir grains off eBay and try making some, the proper ones are pretty dear.

Don't take a prebiotic as I doubt they survive passage into the gut but I do eat my homemade chilli kimchi with pretty much every meal and eat shitloads of seasonal veg from a mates garden/poly tunnels with every meal along with pickled veg/mushrooms that his wife makes, he's also got goats and makes his own cheese (I'm vegi/don't east any processed vegi meals etc).

I have live yoghurt most days and will be eating as many pickled onions, red cabbage and blue or unpasteurised cheeses as I can afford over Christmas.. Does that count?

I used to as my stomach was pretty sensitive to food, and quorn. If something wasn't right my stomach would start making it known in about 20 minutes...

The probiotic (from Amazon) did make my stomach more robust and I used it for quite a while, but nowadays I have changed my breakfast to Jordans Super Nutty Granola and either Rachels (Honey) Greek style yoghurt, or Yeo Valley (Honey) Greek style yoghurt (which might have one more bacteria than Rachels) and my stomach is even better, plus that cereal is so filling that I normally don't eat act until about 4pm for my final meal of the day.

The evidence is building to show that whole foods are the backbone of probiotics, since the fibre, flavinoids and other stuff provides a substate and nutrition in the lower intestine for your gut fauna/flora/microbiome, so I'm moving that direction. Perfectly happy to consume kefir et all, but I'm not treating it as a daily food unless I'm trying to re-innoculate my gut after antibiotics.

yes I have had ibs for a couple of years  few months back tried probotic from H&B (pill form) on the recommendation from my chiro.  it properly messed up my stomach and I've been feeling crap for about a month now after trying them for 5 days.

not for everyone

The evidence is building to show that whole foods are the backbone of probiotics, since the fibre, flavinoids and other stuff provides a substate and nutrition in the lower intestine for your gut fauna/flora/microbiome, so I’m moving that direction.

I had my gut biome analysed as part of the Zoe program and it turned out my biome was in pretty decent shape just from eating reasonably healthy food (and amazingly also a shit ton of crisps / dark chocolate).

I don't eat anything specifically probiotic and rarely eat yogurt.

I used to take VSL #3 on prescription to help prevent pouchitis in my ileoanal pouch.

I used to take it before bed though was told could take it at any time.

VSL is very concentrated and has to be kept cool. Some is supposed to pass through the stomach into the bowel.

I had my gut biome analysed as part of the Zoe program and it turned out my biome was in pretty decent shape

I had analysis via Chuckling Goat and would suggest that is a good idea to see if anything could be improved. Get a good follow up meeting as well to go through the analysis and guidance. Turns out mine was pretty good as well and while I do eat a wide variety of mostly healthy food and have done for some time there were things missing from my diet than could be improved by eating specific fruits and veg.

It is all very subtle though as the human body copes fairly well with less than ideal diet so it is not like you will be a different person but gut health does factor into overall well being.

Has anyone tried a fecal transplant?

When an FDA Ruling Curbed Fecal Transplants, I Performed My Own.