Anyone here take these and really believe they have a positive impact on your health? Have there been studies that have attempted to prove they really do any good? Until recently, I didn't even know what they were, but I've suffered from digestive problems for several years. And, so I'm very intrigued and intested in probiotics, but before I start spending my hard earned cash on this expensive little organism, I want to hear some nonbiased opinions from my wise fellow dp'ers.
As far as I know they help if you have indeed digestive problems.. if you don't then you probably won't feel a lot of difference. Other things like natural yoghurt, kefir, .. probably help you equally well and cost a lot less.
What flippers said. Don't waste your money, just eat more yogurt. Yogurt is loaded with bacteria cultures along with calcium and a variety of other nutrients. Make sure you buy real yogurt, otherwise you might not get the health benefits.
I try probiotic yogurts and I didn't notice a positive effect, though I know that you have to eat everyday and for a long period of time to work it... You have to change your diet and eat more yougurt, but the sugar-and-fruits-free one....this is very healthy!
Correct me if I am wrong, but the problem with yogurts though is that they only have a few million good bacteria. Anyone know of a particular brand of yogurt that has more than that? On the other hand, the quality concentrated supplements have several billion. I just found a product in the refrigerated section of my local grocery store that touts 20 billion per serving (two tablespoons). Now, even that is less than .0001 percent of what's in your gut at any given time, it's probably a significant amount.
Probiotics will do a lot of goodness to your health and they have different methods of action in the system to impart the good effect. To be effective, the probiotic should have a minimum concentration of 1 billion cfu (colony forming units) per gram. The famous bacteria in the probiotic is Lactobacillus acidophilus . You can have more information about the probiotics in my first signature link
Activia with probiotics is the yogurt brand that was suggested to me by a doctor and a pharmacist to help combat the digestive problems that taking antibiotics can cause and it did help.
I've seen the Activa yogurt brand in the supermarket. I just tried to look up on their website to see what the bacteria count was, and it only says "billions". That probably means two or three billion at the most. It makes me thing that this product doesn't have a real concetrated amount, otherwise they would probably state more accurately what the count was.