My gastroenterologist insist on probiotics, we have been taking them for many years, so he was happy to see that. They have made big differences to me in my digestive problems. Since the vet put my dog on probiotics it's made a big difference to her also. We all also incorporate apple cider vinegar.
It doesn't surprise me at all how much our gut health affects all aspects of our health.

I didn't read the whole article, but I have become aware of this in recent times. I take a powdered bifido bacteria every morning, along with a powdered l-glutamine and have been doing so for the past 6 months. I don't really feel any different, and I rarely got sick before but it will be interesting to see what my immunity is like this winter. This past week everyone at work was coughing and sneezing because we have many people who insist on coming to the emergency room for a common cold and pass them on to us. I didn't get sick despite being in close contact. My dog is on antibiotics now and the last course she was on the vet gave me some probiotics to sprinkle on her food. This time I am giving her some of my bifido since I ran out of it. I also drink organic raw kombucha for the probiotics.

Other than the first baby steps - GI functions and conditions, immune system matters, benefits of replenishing bacteria and other living things when taking antibiotics, etc. - it's my understanding that it's very early days for the medical world as regards consequences of the gut's biome. Maybe there's a doc or other more knowledgeable reader here who can chime in and supplement or correct my comments.

The psychiatrist cited in the article is more of a media personality than a practitioner, and more importantly he's not a researcher. I've been told that many docs take a "can't hurt, might help" view of probiotics for now, which is something very short of how things would be if there were widespread research that demonstrated therapeutic benefits for specific conditions outside the GI area. That hasn't happened yet.

The "tick doctor" I saw last week recommends probiotics for all his patients. I'll let you know if I become saner. :-)

That's funny...but .......?

I wonder if eating yogurt is enough to make any difference? Maybe not...

I think yogurt has to do something. For a long time, yogurt has been the thing to eat when we're taking antibiotics, but that was before we ever heard the word "probiotic." I eat a lot of plain Greek yogurt with live and active cultures, but as far as I know, no yogurt claims to have the billions of colony forming units that probiotics brag about.

What I find entertaining is people who poo-poo the idea of taking probiotics but promote yogurt... for the probiotics!

I too had a near-deadly case of c-diff (and other GI issues) a few years back and my body hasn't been the same since. (I never realized how quickly and thoroughly something can knock the wind out of your sails as can GI issues, but I digress). One of the things they talked about during recovery was probiotics and I had some introductory knowledge of probiotics from work. I decided it was worth a try and have been taking them ever since. Another of those things that I can't prove, but from the response, I plan to continue using them.

cynic, just want to agree with you about the GI issues. Up to the time I contracted c-diff I'd never once in 56 years had issues; never really even thought about my gut, and certainly had no idea that gut issues can affect everything else in the body. Although now fully cured I am not the same--hard to pinpoint but just not the same. It was an eye opening and frightening experience. I too am a big believer in probiotics and eagerly read everything coming out on GI advances. I expect there will be a huge blossoming of this area of medicine coming. Oh and as I mentioned above I am especially a believer in the age-old remedy of kefir! You can buy active cultures and make your own, very simply, with milk. I really don't think it is just a placebo--you can almost feel it working!

It goes beyond probiotics, but that's a good place to start....

My daughter is a school psychologist and she uses food and diet for a number of her students with behavioral issues with some awesome results. So often it starts in the gut. There have been tests with prison inmates with diet and helping mental illness with great results as well. So this isn't new information, by any means. This includes gluten, lactose, and fructose (FYI - there is such a thing as fructose intolerance). All have a gut/brain connection. According to one "expert", "The human gastrointestinal (GI) tract is supposed to contain 85% "good" bacteria and 15% "bad" bacteria. Today most of us in the Western world have exactly the opposite ratio."

If you want to learn more on the subject, I suggest a copy of "Digestive Health with REAL Food" by Aglaee Jacob, M.S., R.D. But it includes more than just probiotics - that's just one point of light - food intolerances are also a problem that can result in mental issues. Fix the gut and you can often fix the problem.

From a personal stand-point, my mother experienced schizophrenia and mental problems associated with celiac disease (a gut issue), and only eliminated gluten from her diet when she became seriously ill from the symptoms, and the mental issues went away as soon as she stayed gluten-free. I know another woman who does the same thing, and her husband has to have her placed in a mental hospital to recover from gluten -- like alcoholics recover from alcohol. Ironically, her grandmother experienced the same mental issues because of gluten.

In a bygone era we consumed a LOT more foods that were teeming with probiotics; but now it's just the opposite with over-processed - refined foods, high-sugar content, foods that lack fiber and beneficial bacteria, chemical additives in our food, chemical farming and chlorinated water, and last-but-not-least, DEAD soil.

The exception is probably yogurt, and yogurt is actually a poor choice. Kefir, made with real kefir grain (always leave the fake stuff at the store), is a superior choice, whether you make milk or water kefir (I make both and consume them daily). Lactobacillus bulgaricus in yogurt is destroyed by stomach acid and cannot survive in humans, so yogurt is not the "heavy-weight" it is thought to be. You can read about that in Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking". It's just much easier to make yogurt commercially and sell it for what it really ISN'T, than real kefir made at home.

Other forms of probiotics... Homemakers made naturally-leavened breads (using a starter), before the advent of active dry yeast during WWII, as another food that was superior. They ate fruits and vegetables that were fermented but not heat-treated (like sauerkraut, pickles, etc.), because that was how they could preserve many of these food items. Once sauerkraut is heat-treated (canned - commercially or at home), it loses all the "good stuff", so make your own at home simply by using a quart jar or a crock (the traditional way), or a Pickl-it (http://www.pickl-it.com/) and don't heat-treat it. Store it in the freezer if you make more than you can easily eat from the fermenting jar. Add: unpasteurized versions of pickles, miso (and other bean ferments), lacto-fermented grains, and grain beverages like Ann Wigmore's "Rejuvelac" (http://www.rawmazing.com/rejuvelac/), kombucha tea, beet kavas, or milk and water kefir, to your diet.

-Grainlady

A stool transplant is a cure for c-diff. I know it sounds gross, but they make it into a pill that can be swallowed.

I take a probiotic when I'm on an antibiotic. IMO these should be prescribed along with the antibiotic -- just as you may need a sleeping aid if you're on cortizone.

I jotted this information in my "Book of Odd Knowledge, and neglected to write the reference information, but.... "Probiotic Foods and Social Anxiety - yogurt and kefir is low-risk intervention for reducing social anxiety."

If you are going to choose yogurt, try Stonyfield Farm because it contains not only the two common strains of bacteria used in most commercial yogurt, but they add a total of six live, active cultures.

FYI - If you are taking an antibiotic, you should wait until you are finished with the coarse of treatment before taking a probiotic because an antibiotic can/will kill both good and bad bacteria. Add the probiotic after the treatment to build back the good bacteria.

-Grainlady

Here's the thing - for grainlady and others.

Anyone can write a book or have a web blog. Anyone can hope or wish that a substance or food type has a beneficial effect of one kind or another, or even expound on what they THINK is the consequence of one thing or another. Or report anecdotal "findings".

In the absence of hard evidence, it's unsupported speculation or worse, innocently or otherwise. It's bunk. Fortunately medical treatments and advances in medical sciences depend on reported findings, iterative third-party testing of findings, and third-party efforts to disprove findings. Only through this normal course of discovery is knowledge advanced. Until that happens, it isn't how someone wishes or thinks it should be. People who resort to that are often being deceitful for their own benefit, not for the benefit of those whom they target with their made up "insights". And they know it.

Someone writes a book, with altruistic intentions or otherwise, to advance a point of view or to share the "knowledge" that they have invented. What evidence is cited? What opportunity is given to prove or disprove the suggestions? In too many cases for health related books written for the popular market, the answer to both questions is "None". Flip a coin, at best they're as likely to be wrong as right. Actually not, for made-up science, they're far more likely to be wrong.

Here's a current article.

Habitual Yogurt Consumption and Health-Related Quality of Life: A Prospective Cohort Study: Esther Lopez-Garcia, PhD, Author Vitae,
Luz Leon-Muñoz, PhDAuthor Vitae,
Pilar Guallar-Castillon, MD, PhDAuthor Vitae,
Fernando Rodríguez-Artalejo, MD, PhD

Abstract

Background

Health-related quality of life (HRQL) is a global indicator of perceived health status, which includes physical and mental domains. Several biological mechanisms might support an association between consumption of yogurt and better HRQL.

...

Conclusions

Habitual yogurt consumption did not show an association with improved HRQL