Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Another question about probiotics

The number of bacteria is not an effective measure of the potency of a probiotic. The proper measure is colony forming units [CFU]. In the research publications the number of bacteria in Align is given in CFUs.

Not all Bifidobacterium are beneficial for IBS. In fact, some probiotics might even make the IBS symptoms worse. In Align the the Bifidobacterium bacteria species infantis has been shown to be effective for IBS. In fact only the specific strain Bifidobacterium infantis 35624 has been clinically tested for IBS. However, I have been have been using Bifidobacterium infantis NLS found in the product Life Start from Natren with reasonable success. It has not been clinically tested. UDO's choice has not been clinically tested for IBS and its effectiveness is unknown.

There are other Bifidobacterium in VLS#3 which have not been shown to be individually effective. Generally speaking the over all results for VSL#3 for IBS has not been shown to be as effective as Align. It quite possible that the bacteria other than Bifidobacterium infantis in VSL#3 are not effective for IBS.

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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS

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