08/01/2022
Does taking probiotics daily help your overall health? Are there any studies that looked into this question?
I wouldn’t normally share a thing like this but here is an extract from an email sent to me this week. You can decide what my answer is to your question.
“Dear John and Lyn
Thank you for helping me understand better the importance of caring for my microbiome, in a way I was easily able to understand.
I believe the suggestion to get away from gluten and dairy has had a huge effect on how my body reacts to these foods but the greatest change to my health, in my opinion, has been from using your probiotics.
My gastroenterologist had me on just about every appropriate drug available to try and slow down my aggressive flare up of Crohn's Disease. None of these drugs slowed down the progression of the disease.
I have had 4 bowel resections and 1 intensive bowel repair due to a perforation of the bowel which led to sepsis and near death. The last resection being in 2003.
The disease flared severely again around 2008-2009. For 2-3 years my gastroenterologist tried in vain to slow down the progression and aggression of the disease but unfortunately it was in vain. She was quite disappointed for me and needless to say for the work she does in this area, that nothing she had tried had made any difference, no slow down, not even a slight change, the disease was progressing regardless.
Colonoscopy's were performed every 12 months as a matter of course. With drug therapies, I had the severe reactions, at time suffering neurological side effects.
In 2011 after a colonoscopy, my gastroenterologist was so very disappointed to inform me the tests weren’t good and we’d be heading back to surgery in the not too distant future. With that being said, she proceeded to instruct me that she was putting me back on a particularly strong and very expensive drug, however I needed to be off all other medications she had me on for at least 3 weeks. She wrote me out a prescription with a schedule for the drug dosage and charges for 3 months until seeing her again.
3 days after seeing my doctor and receiving this disappointing news, John, you had spoken to me (not knowing at that time about my recent test results). You asked me if I would take your probiotics to give my “poor old bowel” the best way to get some healthy gut flora to give it a bit of a fighting chance against this wretched disease. You said outright that the probiotics won’t heal the disease, but will aid my gut microbiome to have healthier flora to fight off the overload of bad bugs ( my layman’s terms, sorry).
I had to be off all meds for a minimum of 3 weeks. I knew your kind offer of using your probiotics might be my only drug free window, to see if and what effect the probiotics might have.
Seriously, taking your suggestion was like a miracle had been given to us, the change was immediate for me and just blew our minds. My family and I had lived on a knife edge - literally. We tried to live as best we could “around” this disease. My first bowel resection happened when I was 26 years old and 5 months pregnant. I was hospitalised for 1 1/2 months prior to surgery. Back in the 80’s they couldn’t perform X-rays if you were pregnant. Out of options, exploratory surgery found I had Crohn’s disease and needless to say, a blocked bowel and looping.
This was the continuing story of my life. That was until 2011 when I was introduced to your probiotics and taking in the dietary changes suggested due to the damage in my bowel. The great news was and still is, from the day I started taking the probiotics, the chronic Diarrhoea I lived with for over 35 years had stopped. I was finally able to tell what foods disagreed with me.
The clincher is, if I forgot to take the probiotics, regardless of how well I managed my diet, the diarrhoea returned. A valuable lesson learned :)
The dilemma I had was telling my specialist that I hadn’t started her drug therapy after the suggested three weeks break from all medications she had previously prescribed. I was 3 months into the probiotics, no drugs and had never felt so good in all my life and due for my 3 monthly specialist visit.
I was truly concerned my specialist would say she was unable to treat me as her patient (hospital specialist protocol).
Instead, when I told her about the diet and probiotics, she said she was happy to support me and do 6 monthly colonoscopy’s to monitor my progress.
After 6 months from prior colonoscopy, she performed another and was so pleasantly surprised to find the disease had NOT progressed. She told me to continue doing what I was doing and we would do another colonoscopy in 6 months.
That colonoscopy showed clearly the inflammation had settled and the ulceration had reduced in size and number. She followed through with 6monthly colonoscopy’s for 2 years, then reduced down to 1 year. She could barely see any sign of the disease so suggested leaving it for two years for the next colonoscopy but always letting me know to call her immediately if there was a change. With that colonoscopy she couldn’t see any Crohn’s.
Here it is, 2019 and I have NO return or any sign of the disease.
I have had to have stoma surgery done, not because of a Crohn's flare but because of MND/ALS. This disease has caused an inability to get to the bathroom quickly due to my legs no longer working and a very short bowel causing urgency- as a result of too much bowel being removed due to the Chohn’s flares- which I now know can be avoided.
My Colorectal surgeon said he was surprised to find my bowel was very healthy. My gastroenterologist was working with him doing the surgery and said there was no sign of the disease.
I was prewarned that Crohn's patients have a very high percentage rate of a flare up after stoma surgery. Well, it’s been two years since my stoma surgery. I have had also had the stoma resighted a year ago and there’s no flare up nor tenderness to indicate the Crohn’s starting to flare again.
I would definitely say the 8 1/2 years of being drug free and experiencing the reversal from chronically bad to incredibly great gut health is an amazing and awesome testament to your probiotics that in my heart I know work.
With gratitude that goes beyond words.
Sincerest thanks
Shirley Bossard