Probiotics can support the effect of antidepressants
unibas.ch
unibas.ch
Probiotics are a cheap and low-risk. If you have any general inflammation type issues that don't seem to have a cause, it might be worthwhile to just try probiotics.
My Dr. told me to try them for a digestive issue - and they sort of helped that.
But a handful of other things unexpectedly improved. Acid reflux went from really bad to barely noticeable, and my skin really cleared up. I had red, flaky skin on my face for 20 years and suddenly it's gone within 48 hours of starting probiotics.
Yeah... post hoc ergo propter hoc, but it's a cheap and harmless shot in the dark.
Worst case scenario, it doesn't work and you're out $10.
Edited to say "low risk" instead of "risk free".
What are you even buying if you don't mind me asking? I don't get acid reflux often, but I definitely want to prevent it happening so often, because it continues for days when I do get it. There's all sorts of things that say they have / are probiotics, including a few different sodas out there.
The first thing I tried worked so I haven't tried anything else. A friend of mine had the same problem and he buys generic bulk acidophilus from amazon and he says it works for him.
I didn't expect it to work, but I didn't want to wonder if it failed because I cheaped out, so I went for the expensive stuff.
Not entirely risk-free, but the side effects of a negative reaction don’t last too long at least.
I felt notably worse for about a week after trying one of the mainstream probiotic brands with strange brain fog I couldn’t shake. This effect was repeatable and I could start the malaise again by resuming the probiotic. The same effect didn’t happen with another antibiotic with different strains.
Probiotics could be worth trying, but you have to go in with the understanding that the possible outcomes are more than just “no effect” and “improved health”. Worsening is also a real possibility.
These negative effects have been noted in the literature, too, so I’m not alone: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6006167/
So whether the issue is too much bacteria or poor compatibly with a host remains unanswered by your linked study.
They are not risk-free, also not in inflammation type issues. In this (RCT) trial in patients with acute pancreatitis, probiotics actually lead to death (with no deaths in the control group). [0]
For reference, I’m a 37 y/o fit male and donor was 18 y/o female. After 2nd week I got the deepest sleep since I was a child (slept for 11 hours straight - went to bed, teleported to the morning) and woke up with this hard to describe feeling. I literally felt like I was 16 again. This sort of optimism / happiness I hadn’t felt in years. And I’m a generally happy dude! All my symptoms went away and the euphoric feeling persisted. Whatever the bacteria did was truly remarkable. The bad news is a few weeks after the FMT was finished, things went back to the way they were before. I’d continue to do them forever but it was very expensive, $1400 for the month. Fwiw, I tried it again with another donor with zero results so I could have been a fluke.
I do think I’ll try it again with the original donor. It was a spectacular month. I really think the microbiome is a major key to our health and wellness. Remember the blood boy from Silicon Valley? I bet we see ‘fecal boys’ for rich people in the near future.
If you’re interested, I’ll link the source and study I based my dosage off below. The guy who runs the fmt operation very passionate about the concept.
Hopefully this becomes an area of major research because all the anecdotes sound so promising.
I hate that machine, but it works.
Incidentally I had it and never knew about it until I had the sleep study. I never woke up gasping for breath or anything like that.
If it stops working, and you can't reproduce it the second or third time, then it's probably better to give up and look for another solution.
Assuming the translated gut flora to be the cause of your improvement then I'd look at two things. What bacteria the beneficial transplant contains, you can have it assayed (I believe it's called a bacterial culture test) and then find a cheaper source for that bacteria. Two, what the diet of the donor is, so you can try to replicate the beneficial environment in which those particular bacteria flourish.
AIUI, your own bacterial flora are in competition with the transplant. So, I wonder if a doctor would prescribe antibiotics (or something else) to wipe out your own flora, then the new flora (possibly with a diet change) would have a greater chance of taking hold?
I wonder also if the causal flow is different here, that there's maybe an underlying condition that is causing the gut flora to not prosper (like making an excessively acid environment).
What they make a point on is diet, she insists on the importance of having a diet that gives desirable bacteria strains an environment where they can thrive to achieve a balance.
IIRC she also mentions how it's not as simple as having "good" and "bad" strains and how balance is key.
It's a really interesting and funny book to listen to if you have a few hours for it.
So in the case of OP I think you're right about finding out more about the donors diet and replicating it as well as adjusting anything necessary for the newly arrived colonies to last through time.
I don't know sh!t about it nor do I intend to sound like I do so please correct me if I'm wrong.
Ha! As someone who has done clinical research on human subject on gut microbiome following blood & marrow transplants, this title is truly, truly great. My old lab needs t-shirts with that on it!
How much did you order, were they prepackaged capsules, did you go on an antibiotic regimen ahead of time? I'm not sure if I want to take a chance at 1400 for a month that things rebound to the way they are now but I'm desperate.
I use "Culturelle Digestive Daily Probiotic".
My Dr. suggested either that or "Align". His comment on that was that they are delivery systems that are designed to let the bacteria survive the trip through the extreme environment of the stomach.
Probiotics, tinctures, vitamins and a gluten free diet basically killed a friends mother who spent years on these things while her undiagnosed stomach cancer spread everywhere.
The issue as i see it, is that there is profit to be made stringing people along from one 'cheap and harmless shot in the dark' to the next.
For what it’s worth, and doctors obviously don’t suggest this, you can easily do a fecal transplant at home. By “easily” I mean that the process is simple, not that it isn’t super gross.
Now a turkey baster with a partner whom has no STD's might be doable.
I once had a perpetually happy virginal, before me, girlfriend whom would have made a perfect donor.
https://www.statnews.com/2019/04/05/your-sexual-partners-can...
I guess it's herpes for most of that number?
Something was coming up that'd wipe out my intestinal flora, and I'd been feeling extremely healthy lately. So I preserved a chilled sample of the 'good stuff.'
Usually I'd have all sorts of problems as the gut bacteria sorted itself out, but this time it was... smooth sailing.
Sure, it's... WEIRD in the extreme to actually perform. But I can't argue with the results.
I take one every other day.
A lot of packaged foods that are high in fiber that you wouldn't expect to be, have inulin. I remember buying some plain 'greek' yogurt for a while that was advertising fiber per serving, and it had added inulin. Anything containing chicory or jerusalem artichoke is probably high in inulin.
If you're not used to eating it - and this is true of a lot of dietary fibers and prebiotics - be prepared for gas. Like potentially uncomfortably large amounts of it. That side effect is supposed to lessen as your gut adjusts to the change, though.
Quoting directly from [1] "Effect of Probiotic Use on Antibiotic Administration Among Care Home Residents: A Randomized Clinical Trial"
"...participants who were randomized to the probiotic group were administered significantly more antibiotics for lower respiratory tract infections, had small but statistically significant lower self-reported generic well-being/capability scores at 3 months, and a prespecified sensitivity analysis found a significant increase in cumulative systemic antibiotic days.
These findings should be interpreted with caution, given multiple testing. However, this study does not rule out harm from probiotics. Certain probiotics may delay the return of the host gut microbiome to its normal state after antibiotic treatment,[2] and a retrospective single-center study found probiotic exposure was associated with C difficile infection in hospitalized patients.[3]"
[1] Butler CC, Lau M, Gillespie D, et al. Effect of Probiotic Use on Antibiotic Administration Among Care Home Residents: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2020;324(1):47–56. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.8556
[2] Suez J , Zmora N , Zilberman-Schapira G , et al Post-antibiotic gut mucosal microbiome reconstitution is impaired by probiotics and improved by autologous FMT. Cell. 2018;174(6):1406-1423.e1416. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2018.08.047
[3] Carvour ML , Wilder SL , Ryan KL , et al. Predictors of Clostridium difficile infection and predictive impact of probiotic use in a diverse hospital-wide cohort. Am J Infect Control. 2019;47(1):2-8. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2018.07.014
- 10: Eating a serving of Brussels sprouts, preferably daily
- 10: Taking about 3 psyllium husk capsules occasionally with FODMAP and spicy meals
- 10: Taking a digestive enzyme occasionally with FODMAP and spicy meals (Digest Basic, no affiliation)
- 10: Taking a "stress" B complex with 100% daily, instead of 1000% weekly (Nature Made, no affiliation)
- 10: Avoiding all beans, unaged dairy, whole-grain wheat and most tree nuts for a few months
- 8: Drinking at least twice as much water as I feel that I need, from one big container over the course of the day
- 8: Eating plain giant salads with dressing, preferably spinach-greens mix, several times per week
- 8: Drinking Kefir daily
- 6: Trying several different brands of probiotics occasionally in no particular order
- 6: Eating 1-4 eggs per day, preferably on post-workout days
- 6: Taking an iodine supplement initially, a few times per week until the bottle was gone
I think what kicked this all off was dabbling with keto 5 years ago which might have cost me most of my tolerance to milk, and prolonged dehydration from intense workouts and large servings of protein without proactive hydration. When I lost my gut health, I may have picked up bad bacteria or parasites from food poisoning or raw seafood. I was also under debilitating stress during the last few years at my previous job, so began every morning on an empty tank spiritually. I never listened to my body until my health failed and it made the decision to stop for me.
The biggest change has been that being tired feels ordinary and rare, with no emotional component. Instead of the crushing "universe is against me" sense of being attacked, alone and hopeless knowing there was no end of it in sight, which I endured for many years before my physical health's deterioration finally caught up.
It's a completely meaningless list for us and (possibly) for OP.
My theory now is that ADHD is tied to diet and environment.
So basically what happened was, my psyche was already vulnerable to anxiety and depression when it got coopted by my physical health issues. I struggled chronically to make an appointment to see a doctor for years, always letting work and family obligations take priority, which prolonged and exacerbated my suffering. This all happened while I was broke and out of work too. After years of being gaslit about my instincts, going all the way back to childhood. That's why I didn't listen to my intuition and just take care of myself. I still thought there was nothing wrong with me, so projected my false confidence onto the world by blaming it for my problems.
Please view the list I posted more as leads than evidence. Also you're right, none of what I posted really applied to me until I hit 40, except maybe the general health advice about drinking more water and eating better. I do worry about leading people astray in their own journeys.
I agree that it is, and it has shown to be linked to diet & environment. ADHD isn't strictly defined enough to be only diet & environment though. There's a whole bunch of ADHD symptoms that present as a result of an underlying health condition. Hypo/Hyperthyroid problems look like ADHD-PI and ADHD-H. Vitamin deficiency and environmental poisoning can create symptoms too.
But also some people have it regardless of those factors, so it's really a broad label at the moment which could do with a lot more refinement.
Another key seemed to be avoiding artificial sugar.
Following these heuristics (not rules - strict diets encourage you to chase losses if you slip up) seemed to help more than any strict diet, though it helps with depression, not anxiety, which is mostly situational.
(This is a news site. The news is not good right now, even here, away from war and famine in the "tech world".)
Antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA)
Baylisascaris Procyonis intestinal roundworm
Celiac
Epstein Barr virus
Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency EPI
Find a medication that does what ashwaghanda does (like Wellbutrin?)
H. Pylori
Hashimoto’s
Lactose intolerance
Lyme disease
Parasites
SIBO
Testosterone level
Thyroid level
Wheat sensitivity tests: 1) wheat allergy 2) celiac 3) non-celiac gluten sensitivity 4) non-celiac wheat sensitivity 5) non-celiac wheat intolerance
WormsIodine related to hypothyroidism?
I took "thyroid energy" (NOW Foods, no affiliation) which has some additional micronutrients like selenium and felt shockingly better within just a few days.
Evidently gluten can sensitize the immune system into fighting proteins in the thyroid. Also Hashimoto's thyroiditis can cause the thyroid to spike up and down so it gets missed in yearly screenings. And celiac disease plays into it too. And it didn't help that where I live in Idaho had radiation levels 80 times higher than normal after Fukushima. Hormones are so powerful and glands are so sensitive to the environment that it doesn't take much to disrupt them. Also trace minerals like cobalt have been depleted from soils, but are involved with vitamin B12 which prevents anemia. I think that my high consumption of beans and foods high in anti-nutrients might have bound up minerals and made me deficient, even though I was eating plenty and working out.
Anyway, I was tested and my thyroid is fine, but it's important to remember that gluten is inflammatory for everyone. Even sugar and alcohol are inflammatory. So someone can get symptoms whose cause is difficult to isolate, even if their tests come back negative.
But I'm angry/concerned that I had to derive this information myself over several years. Why is this not one of the top news stories, when hypothyroidism and obesity are rampant? I blame the Big Ag lobby, factory farming and the passion with which people believe the mainstream news.
>But I'm angry/concerned that I had to derive this information myself over several years. Why is this not one of the top news stories, when hypothyroidism and obesity are rampant?
Holy sweet crackers, yes. It's crazy how much information we have access too and so very little useful knowledge gets delivered, particularly on health and this topic.
Never even heard of an "anti-nutrient" and while I skim a google search, I'll read up on tannins as I drink some hot tea regularly. Thanks for the post again.
You can't do all that stuff to yourself - and - go through COVID (and other things) which has caused widespread depression, and assume any of that had an affect one wary or another without a fairly big randomized trial isolating all of those elements.
Even just the notion of 'regime' will change people's psyches via placebo.
I mean, I would certainly 'feel' healthy if I did such a list of 'ostensibly healthy things'.
That said, I wouldn't doubt some of it did, and that we are just barely beginning to understand gut health.
It's handwavy about some things but it doesn't assert anything beyond "I did this list of things and I, as an individual, am better now."
... 'this is how they worked, to varying degree'?
One thing I can understand. Was sick -> did this -> was better.
But a 'regime', it feels like infomercial logic though I doubt doubt the author's motivations.
The OP isn't selling anything, so it's not infomercial logic which is designed to get you to buy a product.
The gut is complex. I wouldn't expect one single thing to fix it.
Again - I'm not doubting anyone's intentions, but I'm fully doubting the veracity of all of this.
'Self Medicating N = 1 Belief' - is extremely common among people.
Even among diligent, intelligent people who actually can and do 'research'.
But with a single 'blind spot' in self awareness, it goes awry with these kinds of 'beliefs'.
Everyone who works out at the gym consistently has a 'belief' about a lot of things.
There are dozens of magazines and quasi health magazine's offering these kinds of solutions.
It's frankly as old as time and probably more common than not.
Without getting too far into it, here's the stuff that finally worked
My two cents is the biggest factors were the keto and the stress. A low carb, high fat diet does not traditionally feature intact plant cell walls, or what we otherwise know as "fiber". There are literally thousands of different of variations of "fiber" of which we have catalogued only a few, but these structures feed the microbiota in your gut. And they really do depend on fiber in a profound way.
Without this fiber, they tend to starve and adjust to feed on the epithelial lining of your gut. It also gives an opportunity for the pathogens in your gut to "takeover", especially when paired with the stress since most of the "beneficial" microbes will tend to die off.
When you read stories of people who got an autoimmune problem, there's almost always a period of severe stress prior to it. My working hypothesis is this impairs the immune system which is what keeps the pathogenic bacteria in check through several mechanisms (pathogen-associated-molecular-pattern detection or PAMPs for instance).
Through much, much trial and error and a lot of scientific article research, I've found the most consistent way to restore microbiota ratios is with Vitamin D, followed by a clinically tested probiotic like Visbiome, followed by Kefir. The Vitamin D alone at moderate to high doses will get you very far, although it doesn't necessarily restore diversity (since Vitamin D in of itself does not contain any microbes) but it helps shift the balance of microbes through a variety of biochemical functions.
Vitamin D also helps with gum disease in my experience and in a way no other supplement or product has so far. Highly recommend and you don't even have to take a high dosage to see it for yourself. You just have to be consistent.
One last thing I'll say is that for whatever reason taking the supplement seems to work better than exposing yourself to sunlight, which is unusual, but there may be something about the biochemical pathway Vitamin D takes when consumed as a supplement as opposed through the cholesterol-synthesis that happens with UVB.
Unless one has done proper, randomized, medical trials, I don't see how anyone could use such unambiguous language.
These n=1 experiences lacking in objectivity and also likely proper measures might help us discover new ground for things that might work (i.e. the basis for a trail), but without any testing it's not something any reasonable person should be walking around saying 'works', unless you mean to indicate you're referring to the literature.
But I will say, everything I've said lines up with the scientific literature, so I can have my cake and eat it too, backed by both personal experience (skin in the game) and an informed understanding of the biochemistry at play and randomized, controlled trials with large populations.
If you're curious, and not just trying to nitpick out of a deep, misplaced sense of cyncism, I highly recommended diving into the literature and doing some reading.
Elicit.org is one of my favorite tools for gathering information, although the "Takeaways" can be sometimes be wrong so I highly recommend reading the abstract too.
I have a colleague who hands out TCM 'remedies' every day, she and her patients all believe they work, in the medical sense, in a very rational way.
Even though 'Western Medicine' has a pretty good foundation, it's layered in complexity and ambiguity.
So if someone had some recurrent, acute issue, that was solved with some diet or action change that was discernibly impactful - maybe. That would be worthy of note.
For example: "I had chronic fatigue - mostly we changed my diet to low carbs, no alcohol, regular sleeping and basic cardio + vitamin D due to deficiency and within a few months it was gone". That rings reasonable.
But 'these are 10 things that worked' raises many red flags.
I've had CFS myself - and ran the gambit of different angles of attack on it, and it's a tricky set of symptoms that doesn't even represent a verifiable ailment: CFS, lethargy etc. is the result of a bunch of different things which we do not even fully understand.
More important note what I just said: 'symptoms' not an 'underlying condition'. There are multiple things that cause them. Even the notion of treating 'symptoms' before arriving at a proper diagnosis is a pretty giant red flag.
Some of symptoms described could feasibly be the result of forms of ulcers, cancer, HIV, iron deficiency, kidney problems, liver problems, adrenal gland problems, gluten intolerance etc. etc..
So no - we don't just go to 'Probiotics and Vitamin D' - necessarily.
Personally - getting rid of energy drinks and sleeping a regular schedule 'cured' me but it's rather impossible to tell what did what. But merely seeking medical advice, and knowing it was not 'something serious' (like Cancer) was a huge load off my shoulders, which can affect recovery dramatically. In fact, I literally started feeling better the day I knew I wasn't dying. But that's just me.
If someone is feeling tired consistently and it's clearly not due to some obvious event or issue - then they should !! see a doctor !! and go from there.
On the other hand, this was an interesting read recently:
The first line is vit-d and pro-biotics, especially if you have heavy inflammation and microbiome issue or have taken antibiotics.
Alongside those would be eating a generally “higher quality diet” with a fair bit of variety. Reducing sugar and avoiding highly processed foods and preservatives helps significantly. Foods with less antibiotics help too, so items like free range eggs, organic milk can be helpful. Vegetables seem less affected by organic or non-organic.
Fermented foods are pretty important in providing a wide variety of microbes. I’ve noticed that lots of traditional spices like turmeric or black pepper are beneficial. I have a pet hypothesis that most “traditional diets” in a region would adjust to include useful spices and come to “taste good”. Almost every regional cuisine also used to have a staple fermented food. Nowadays fermented foods are generally replaced by vinegar substitutes nowadays (sauerkraut, pickles, Kim chi). Ketchup has roots as a fermented chutney like tomato sauce for example. Obviously kefir and such are different.
Going more keto or alternatively vegetarian doesn’t matter as much once your gut biome can shift. Though often going keto or vegetarian tends to get people to start eating better quality food. It also encourages a wider variety of foods which help prevent mono-cultures forming in the gut microbiome.
However good food isn’t a cure all, just a helper too keep the microbiome healthy. It can reduce chronic inflammation alongside vit-d.
Just wondering. How do you clean your brussel sprouts?
I roast mine with olive oil and fairly simple spices.
Roasting with bacon is a delicious, if less healthy, alternative.
- 10: Pumpkin seed granola (Nature's Path, no affiliation)
Skip down to Figure 1 to see the chart. Note that the response to placebo is normally extremely strong in depression studies, so it’s normal to see both groups improve drastically like this.
The only thing that jumps out to me is that the probiotic group started with HAM-D depression inventory scores that were notably higher. When measuring absolute reduction of HAM-D scores, this actually leaves the more depressed patients with more room to improve and can therefore inflate the perceived effectiveness of their response, placebo or otherwise. And indeed, both groups had basically identical scores at the end of the trial. They only really diverged at follow-up where the probiotic group had improved slightly more than placebo.
I’ve seen enough probiotic stories that failed to pan out later that I’d take this one with a huge grain of salt. Trying probiotics might be worthwhile if you can afford them, but the probiotic-depression link never seems to actually play out from online anecdotes of people taking them. Note that we’ve been seeing small studies about this exact topic for a long, long time.
What does this even mean? Monoamines aren't fat or glycogen stored in the body. The digestive tract has serotonin receptors, like the brain, but they differ in purpose entirely. Monamines are just messenger chemicals. Their context determines the actual message. I get it... it makes sense, humans are basically worms and worms are basically digestive tracts, that's our main thing, but taking this fact and making predictive science out of it is not trivial at all and anecdotal evidence means absolutely nothing so please never ever ever ever mention it in public forums.
Gut motility is driven by the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system controls colon motility, and the parasympathetic controls digestion and stomach emptying. Depending on the type of depression you have, it can alter the HPA axis up or down. Let's say you have the "don't want to get out of bed and do anything" type. In that case your HPA axis is likely underactive. That results in reduced sympathetic nervous system activation (as it operates in parallel with the HPA axis). That then results in reduced colon motility and constipation.
Sometimes often I get constipation at weekends for this reason. I'm not depressed, but if I don't do much at the weekend after a busy week then (I assume) my HPA axis reduces, and that causes constipation.
Below is a quick rundown of the essential tools for feeding one's gut microbiome.
- Prebiotics: Carbohydrates and fiber that our body can't digest but act as food for the bacteria in our gut.
- Active culture foods: Yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, etc that contain active bacteria which support the growth of other bacteria.
- Probiotics supplements: contain live active cultures.
If you have a depleted gut microbiome due to stress, disease or recent usage of antibiotics, probiotics are useful to restart the gut microbiome but probably aren't needed for maintenance. Instead, you may be better off eating a diet that contains a healthy amount of prebiotics (fiber, complex carbs) and fermented foods.
Reality is probably a mix of both (ie we are a complex system with wants/needs influenced by both our own body and the Flora that live within it).
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/microbiome-we-are-what-they...
My "chronic" acid reflux disappeared by simply doing what I already knew I should be doing: Eat fruits and vegetables. Fish > chicken > beef > pork. Don't buy snacks or sugary drinks. You aren't hungry, you're bored.
I wish doctors would treat the whole person rather than prescribing a pill. I wish my doctor told me to do these things before prescribing me omeprazole when I had an issue.
Or maybe it's a moving target and people eat every day and their eating habits are part of why their gut is a mess to begin with.
I got food poisoning while abroad shortly after college, and took some shitty OTC antibiotics. I was low-grade sick for ~1 month, and when I came home I started developing IBS which got progressively worse over the next few years. FODMAP saved me, but at the detriment of needing to eliminate a lot of foods that I loved eating.
Recently I started eating 2tbps of chia seeds with some lemon juice and water daily. Chia seeds are incredibly fibrous. Over the next month, my stomach seemed to get permanently better - I can now eat larger quantities of some of those "problem" foods without debilitating side effects.
The bacteria in your gut affect a whole lot of things. And there are competing cultures, all of which like to eat different things. My hunch is that I coaxed the fiber-loving ones back to health, and they in turn did me the favor of repressing the cultures that liked fermenting beans and cruciferous vegetables. There's a lot we don't know about our gut microbiome, but my guess is that eating high-fiber, high-diversity diets is a much better solution than taking a pill.
So taking care of yourself in numerous ways is helpful. Not sure if that’s all that’s going on with the probiotic link but it’s a factor.
Unfortunately, depression saps your will to care for yourself so eating better, exercising, sleeping better are all easier said than done
I always get confused while looking at all the various options, and this seems like a good place to find someone who’s done a lot of research.
Neither of these are bad for you, just don't be obese
> kombucha with sugar
Every bottle of kombucha I have ever seen has at most 16g of non-added sugar from fruits, the same as a banana
> fermented vegetables like kimchi have shown to increase prostate adenocarcinoma
Fake / trash science. More studies say the opposite than agree with this
Every nutritional authority in the world disagrees.
> Every bottle of kombucha I have ever seen has at most 16g of non-added sugar from fruits, the same as a banana
Right, sugar from a drink and banana are identical, even though only one has fiber. What mental gymnastics!
> Fake / trash science. More studies say the opposite than agree with this
Why didn't you cite them?
Since you did not link to any literature backing up your claim, I want to share this paper[0] as a counterpoint. Kimchi has been found to have active ANTI-cancerous effects, opposite to your claim.
Please change my mind with referenced material.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2409746/
Vegetables, but not pickled vegetables, are negatively associated with the risk of breast cancer
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20432165/
Your study was in vitro and given the authors' background and affiliation was most likely made to promote agricultural production.
[0] https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-acidophilus/art...
He is not a medical doctor, he is a chiropractor.
Antidotally, I recently started taking a probiotic and have had great improvements in digestive health. I also have a chronic digestive disease.
Ritual recently launched a probiotic which includes the two most studied strains, LGG and BB-12. Our formulation and technology is very much driven by science. Maybe it’s right for you.
A fun example is that we did not have the concept of a cart at the very beginning. You don't need a cart when you only have one product, so why spend development time building that? My most recent work has been performance because that was worth spending time on now. Before that, I worked on allowing customers to update their subscriptions via an email magic link for the launch of Synbiotic+ (the probiotic). We then look at our data to see how effective our efforts were in supporting the hypothesis which initially kicked off the work. Hope that helps!
Also, nicer grocery stores typically have a refrigerated probiotics section, and those are typically good brands as well (Garden of Life is one). Generally, shelf stable probiotics are less potent and varied in cultures than ones requiring refrigeration.
It's worth pointing out that the actual biotic payload is exactly the same between the two products, only the dosage is different.
In other words, taking two packets of the regular unflavored powder should deliver the same payload as one packet of the rx-only "extra-strength" powder.
I suspect the only reason the higher strength product exists, and is rx-only, is so that it can be covered by health insurance for some people.
So, yogurt everybody ? [1] [2]
[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-022-01977-z [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogurt#Health_research [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probiotic
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20389060/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23415826/
Also, the citations in the wikipedia article are hilariously biased.
> Presented at the satellite symposium “First Global Summit on the Health Effects of Yogurt." The conference was organized by the ASN, the Nutrition Society, Danone Institute International, and the Dairy Research Institute
Another paper was straight up one paid consultant writing an industry-funded article. Here's who edited and reviewed it:
> Editorial assistance was provided by Chill Pill Media LLP, which was contracted and funded by Danone Institute International.
It's hilarious how desperate the dairy industry is to cook science.
They literally haven't eaten meat, dairy and eggs 3-5x per day. This is a new phenomenon in the last half-century. And to go back even further, our biochemistry is millions of years old, and is frugivorous in nature. We have no physical adaptations to eating meat. We only started doing it recently as a means of survival when humans left their tropical niche.
> a controlled, healthy, low-calorie diet
Plant-based foods are naturally low in fat, which is calorie dense, so such a diet is in fact ideal for weight loss.
How curious that we are so perfectly able to digest it and thrive from it! I wonder why so many other herbivores didn't get so lucky.
> Plant-based foods are naturally low in fat, which is calorie dense, so such a diet is in fact ideal for weight loss.
Yes, of course a low calorie diet is ideal for weight loss. What does this have to do with cows milk yogurt? Are you an obese diabetic? If not, I don't see the relevance between your links and the avoidance of milk.
Humans can also eat and digest shirts, pencils and small pieces of plastic. And you didn't provide any evidence of any adaptations we have to meat eating. Check and mate.
Probiotics linked to brain fog, severe abdominal bloating
https://www.healio.com/news/gastroenterology/20180808/probio...
“What we now know is that probiotic bacteria have the unique capacity to break down sugar and produce D-lactic acid,” he said in the press release. “So, if you inadvertently colonize your small bowel with probiotic bacteria, then you have set the stage for potentially developing lactic acidosis and brain fogginess.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnJM_jC7j_4
because probiotics are the "ones that mother gives you [that] don't do anything at all"
(Right up there with Vitamin D supplements. Everything good, like low blood pressure and your team winning the Superbowl seems to be associated with high vitamin D in the population and everything bad is associated with low vitamin D... But when you supplement Vitamin D seems to lower your blood pressure as much as it makes your team win the Superbowl.)
Because you need UVA to convert the vitamin D to nitric oxide, and if you're getting enough UVA to do that then you're also more likely to already be getting enough UVB to create sufficient vitamin D in the first place.[1] Not super complicated.
Taking vitamin D supplements is probably still better than not taking them if you're deficient, but if you understand the mechanism of action then it should be obvious as to why the science is always equivocal.
[1] Or, more precisely, vitamin D regulates nitric oxide synthesis.
https://hubermanlab.com/how-to-enhance-your-gut-microbiome-f...
https://hubermanlab.com/dr-justin-sonnenburg-how-to-build-ma...
I found them quite interesting.
I don't have a blood glucose problem particularly, but I am hoping to reduce inflammation. The manufacturer offers several probiotic supplements, and Sugar Shift seems to be the most comprehensive.
[0] https://biotiquest.com/pages/sugar-shift [1] https://biotiquest.com/blogs/blog/sugar-shift-challenge-the-... [2] https://drdavisinfinitehealth.com/
[1] https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22572-seroton...
I'm not a doctor but I think what that means is "seratonin in your gut probably doesn't make it's way to the brain; but, the rest of the body is already awash in seratonin, so additional production in the gut can help increase those levels, which may have some sort of yet-to-be-understood action that has an impact on depression"
Is there some special delivery mechanism behind it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_serotonin_reuptake_i...
Serotonin isn’t just a “happy chemical”. The body uses it in different places for different functions.
Of course one can expect the usual "less sugar and fat, more macro nutrient", but unless there's proof and proper cause-effect relationships, it's going to be complex to draw conclusions. I'm not really sure that sugar causes a bad balance in the gut bacteria.
Not to mention all the chemicals in food and the environment that makes it almost impossible to track what could work and what would not.
1. https://www.monash.edu/medicine/ccs/gastroenterology/prebiot...
I haven't studied this topic however.
Just wanted to share this article to let people know they are not always harmless, and in some very specific cases, could lead to death. [0]
https://forbetterscience.com/2022/06/17/schneider-shorts-17-...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-022-01977-z/figures/1
they were using the HAM-D instrument to measure impact. The probiotics group appears to have initial +2 HAM-D (19 vs 17), and have -1 at follow-up (7 vs 8).
This is for relatively small N (21 completed probiotics course, 26 placebo), and the fact that the difference is smaller at the end vs at the beginning says 'within the noise' to me.
results section also notes probiotic group had twice the drop-out rate of the placebo group (30% vs 13%)
My favorite dish (that I still eat!) was simply mixing powdered baking chocolate with Greek yogurt.
According to them it's because it is easily accessible and has multiple strains of bacteria in it (they were not trying to go for one strain in particular).
1 : chapter "Study intervention" of https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-022-01977-z