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Can I rotate different probiotics?

Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 1:02 pm
by Bennet
I am having my first occurrence with C diff and am on my 8th day of Flagyl. At first I thought it was working but now I'm not so sure. I have read through the recommendations on this site and have ordered some VSL#3 which will arrive tomorrow. I have also been taking Florastor, Culturelle, and several other probiotics that I found at Walgreens. I know I have gone over board on the probiotics and am wondering if I can alternate some of them?

A friend told me her son had C diff 10 years ago that put him in the hospital. At some point, they moved him to another hospital and gave him massive doses of probiotics which cured him. I'm just wondering, can I take too many different kinds of probiotics at once?

Thanks in advance

Re: Can I rotate different probiotics?

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:45 am
by Ril
There is no rule about probiotics but why would you want to do that? And as you say, you are taking too many. Too many will produce GI symptoms in many people so will negate benefits and confuse the situation so you won’t know what is really going on. You are best to pick a couple that contain enough of a variety of “good” gut flora that will help repopulate your mictobiome but not make you feel ill.
There is currently no proof that I am aware of that c diff can be successfully treated with massive doses of probiotics.

Re: Can I rotate different probiotics?

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 6:14 am
by roy
Probiotic are not normal gut flora, they do not take up permanent residence in your gut and what you take today is gone within 72 hours.
Take too much and you end up with a soup of "alien" bacteria that your body reacts to and wants to expell as fast as it can.
Swap the word probiotic for "untested medication" and you realise that yes you can take too many and they might cause harm.

If you search the internet there are cases where people say mega amounts of probiotic cured c.diff but perhaps they would have recovered just as well without them.
Mild c.diff can be self limiting or they probably had medical treatment before or during their probiotic.
One more thing.
your taking loads of probiotic and Flagyl will certainly be killing most, if not all of them shortly after you take them.
Florestor is the only one that will survive flagyl.

Re: Can I rotate different probiotics?

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 10:25 am
by Bennet
Thank you everyone. So I will just cut back to Culturelle and Florastor. I think the other probiotics are causing bladder irritation. (I also have interstitial cystitis that seems to be made worse with anything that makes histamine).