Are oral probiotics useful at all?

[MountainMama]

After having been on so many antibiotics the past year, I have been taking a daily probiotic for digestive health. I saw an oral probiotic that you dissolve in your mouth, to help replace good bacteria.

So do they work at all or is it pretty much useless? I am so limited on my diet right now due to missing/cracked teeth, so I am taking a multivitamin also.

 

[Judythecat]

I don’t know about for the mouth, but my understanding is that most probiotics are pretty useless - the ones that are like yoghurt drinks are a complete con. You’d need to drink litres of them to get much benefit. A decent one will have millions of live bacteria, probably need to be kept in the fridge, and will be pretty expensive. I have IBS and take one daily, which an independent health shop orders in specially for me.

 

[MountainMama]

I don’t know about for the mouth, but my understanding is that most probiotics are pretty useless - the ones that are like yoghurt drinks are a complete con. You’d need to drink litres of them to get much benefit. A decent one will have millions of live bacteria, probably need to be kept in the fridge, and will be pretty expensive. I have IBS and take one daily, which an independent health shop orders in specially for me.

I knew the yogurt ones were useless. My doctor actually recommended the ones I am taking for digestion, and they did help quite a bit when I was on antibiotics. The oral ones are refrigerated. I just don't know if they would actually work.

 

[jk1211]

Probably useless, most of those pills arent enough to make a difference.

 

[Scared all the time]

I’ve taken them in the past. The good ones that need to be refrigerated. For me I really saw no difference so I saved my money I know some people who swear by them though Like I said for me it seemed like a waste of money

 

[Dr. Daniel]

I guess they are not really helpful. The research about bacteria has been booming during the last couple of years but there is a lot to be discovered, we don’t know much yet.
What we do know is that the composition of the flora is pretty individual and adding a specific combination of bacteria is not only not suitable for the specific individual person but also it won’t change much the flora.

 

[MountainMama]

I guess they are not really helpful. The research about bacteria has been booming during the last couple of years but there is a lot to be discovered, we don’t know much yet.
What we do know is that the composition of the flora is pretty individual and adding a specific combination of bacteria is not only not suitable for the specific individual person but also it won’t change much the flora.

Thank you. I had wondered about that. I had read that people had different combinations of bacteria.