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Comment by colordrops | Hacker News Reader

All the products containing Lactobacillus plantarum may see a boost in sales.

This strain is in milk kefir, no? Easy to cultivate at home.

Water kefir is also available :)

Anecdotal: I recently started taking Milk Kefir and it has been a life changer. I never thought I had any problems till they were resolved by Kefir. Seen great improvements in energy levels and anxiety. It even fixed the minor IBS I had.

Factory produced Kefir has very few probiotics. They were removed intentionally. So maybe just placebo.

I actually make it at home as Kefir isn't sold in my country :). I couldn't yet take a call on whether its a placebo or not. My partner says its placebo effect too but I don't think so.

Can you please give some details on how you take it?

I bought the grains locally and use them to ferment milk for 24 hours (I live near equator so you might have to adjust for your climate). I strain the kefir - seperate out the grains - add some milk and store in the refrigerator for a week (so basically I make it once a week). I store the seperated kefir again in the refrigerator. I take one cup after lunch and one before sleeping (without any additives or even sugar).

> See also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38800977

I don't see anything in the article about Lactobacillus plantarum, and there's quite a few strains of Lactobacillus out there.

List of all the strains: https://www.yemoos.com/pages/milk-kefir-strains

Depends on your kefir. Kefirs are unpredictable and they CAN go bad. Just be careful with that stuff, or even let a lab analyze yours if you can. Drinking up to 50 billion organisms (in one glass) every day has the potential to shift your microbiome for the better, or the worse.

When my son was born I did a bunch is research on probiotics with good scientific evidence of efficacy. I ended up getting him these which contain most of the promising/researched strains. It's also a liquid which helps in giving it to a baby. I'm pretty convinced that a good probiotic and Onega3 supliment are extremely beneficial.

https://www.amazon.com/BIOAMICUS-COMPLETE-Toddler-Probiotic-...

I would have a hard time trusting amazon to sell the actual product here and not a knock off.

Good point. And certainly not trying to plug amazon, I think the product is available direct from the manufacturer for about the same price.

Probiotics are in general a bit iffy in terms of knowing what you are getting. Also makes a huge difference what kind of heat history it has seen in terms of actual live cell counts (i.e. Sitting in warehouse or hot UPS truck, etc)

are there any though? From the article, it seems that they had to cultivate the colonies themselves.

VSL#3 has them (amongst others). Not sure whether it's the "ATCC strain 202195", though.

https://vsl3.com/about-vsl/

    Streptococcus thermophilus
    Bifidobacterium breve
    Bifidobacterium longum
    Bifidobacterium infantis
    Lactobacillus acidophilus
    Lactobacillus plantarum
    Lactobacillus paracasei
    Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus

Having had two major surgeries due to "unkillable" intestinal infection, I can advocate for the efficacy of VSL#3. My GI actually prescribed me a high-dose version post-op, and two years later i can say it has been life-changing. Other common "store shelf" probiotics are not the same for whatever reason (supply-chain refrigeration and cost might explain that somewhat).

Currently taking VSL#3 and it seems to be really helpful. How high was your dose?

My understanding is that Visbiome is also thought to be a comparable product that has the same formulation.

Yes, you can find it in some probiotic supplements.

https://www.gardenoflife.com/content/product/dr-formulated-p...

Many brewers actually use lacto P to sour beer quickly. It's cheap and widely available.

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