Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Anyone heard of Flora-Q?

Thank goodness. I posted the same question about a month ago and got zero replies. I thought maybe Flora-Q was some probiotic my doctor got samples of because it fell off a truck somewhere. I'm in New Jersey, my doctor's in NJ, the stuff is made in NJ - logical assumption. If someone else's doctor is recommending it, that makes me feel a little better.

Okay, now that I've vented, here's my understanding of what's going on. Flora-Q looks good to me because it's got very high counts ("at least 1 billion colony forming units") of several probiotics (lactobacillius acidopholus, bifidobacterium, lactobacillius paracasei, and streptococcus thermophilus). From what I've read here and on other Websites, the first two, in particular are good stuff and 1 billion is the magic number you want in your probiotics.

However - you just knew this was coming - the stuff is in capsules that you store on your kitchen shelves. There seems to be some sentiment that the only probiotics that are any good are the ones that are "live" and must therefore be refrigerated. IBS being what it is, there is, of course, some other sentiment that non-refrigerated ones are okay, too.

I haven't tried the Flora-Q yet. I see my GI guy again next week and I plan to talk to him about the whole live/unlive issue. The phrase "colony forming units" sounds great - they've even got an acronym for it on the box ("CFU"). It makes me think that once I take the capsules, the little guys will suddenly rise from the dead and fan out through my digestive system, which is what I want.

I'll post whatever I learn from my GI guy. In the meantime, if anyone on the Board has any thoughts about Flora-Q or about the whole live/unlive thing with probiotics, I'd love to hear from you.

Sorry, kidsx4, I sort of feel like I hijacked your post. And I'm so, so glad to hear your son is doing so well. Hurray!

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