Jump to content

  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Blowing Money On Probiotics?

Pyro

By Pyro
in Coping with Celiac Disease

Recommended Posts

Pyro Enthusiast
Pyro
Posted

I've been using probiotics for probably about two years now, and have seen okay results. But then again can't be sure, because you don't really know what it's like to not take a medicine when you've been taking it constantly. Anyway they seem to at least do something and I'm actually afraid to go without them seeing how awful my gut can be even when using two per day. Along with acidophilus pearls, NOW acid $ bifidus caps (using currently, going back to the pearls), there is also natto which is a kind of rotten soybean covered in stringy snot-like phlegm. This seems to help a great deal, but like the rest is pricey being $1 per dose.

Though after ordering acidophilus pearls, an add came up for Dr. Ohhira's Essential Probiotic formula which is actually even more expensive but has tons and tons of reviews on Lame Advertisement. I'm torn between being jaded from frequently spending too much money on supplements and good food hoping that something will finally help, and being drawn in by the hype that promises to actually reinvent your intestine's countryside.

Does anyone have an opinion on this? Has anyone had great success with Dr. Ohhira's or any probiotic for that matter? I hate having to constantly pay for my own health like this and feel like while probiotics help the companies pull us along for a ride by conveniently selling a high price item that you NEED every day for it to work. True we can make our own, but most of us here are dairy intolerant and can't cultivate the yogurt/sour cream stuff that homemade people usually do.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


mamaw Community Regular
mamaw
Posted

Probiotics ---- not all work for us celiac & again its a prefence as to what our intestinal tract will accept & use to help heal. I don't think there ia a one fits all in probiotics. I use several in rotation. I do use Dr Ohirra's professional probiotics probably more than the others. I get them from Ecology Health site ( A crohn's site) shipping is free if you order several. expensive yea...

I use the pearls, align ( without much difference) & I also have Dr Ron's liquid probiotics. It is hard to swallow, pricey & I don't get much from it either. I was hoping for more results.

I do drink Kombucha tea which I think helps me more than anything. It does require learning to drink it but now I love it.....

I also use Digest Gold enzymes before meals. Chobani yougurt, yummy

,

hth

mamaw

sandsurfgirl Collaborator
sandsurfgirl
Posted

I'm leery of fancy supplements. The cynic in me thinks they know that people taking them are sick and often desperate, turning to them because the MD's have failed. They prey on that desperation.

I won't spend more than about $20 on a bottle of probiotics. It's bacteria. How much can that really cost? I say stay with the cheaper ones.

You made me hurk with the description of the gross one! LOL

ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted

Have you tried eating foods that are high in probiotics like yogurt with live cultures or saurkraut? I find those work just as well for me. You may also want to look into the possibility of other intolerances, soy and dairy being the most common if you are still having gut issues gluten free. Another possibility if you are still suffering digestive issues is that you are getting CC'd somehow. Do you have a gluten free house or do you eat a lot of processed foods? If the answer is yes you could also try going with whole unprocessed foods for a while till you are feeling better then adding back in your fav's one at a time and seeing if they agree with you.

JNBunnie1 Community Regular
JNBunnie1
Posted

I personally use PB8 for a probiotic, it's gluten-free and cheaper than most, and has 8 strains instead of just one or two. I do shell out for Dr Ron's cod liver oil, but it's the best one on the market, so there's good reason for that. When it comes to probiotics, it's all about what works best for you, not what's most expensive or whatever. So if you need more different strains, or if just yogurt is enough, it all depends on your system.

Also, Pyro, have you considered coconut milk yogurt?

Pyro Enthusiast
Pyro
Posted
  • Author

Do you mean the stuff from Purely Decadent? It gives me really bad gastric problems and so does the coconut kefir. Hate to be melancholy but it all seems really hopeless. No matter what I do, I've been having really bad times.

JNBunnie1 Community Regular
JNBunnie1
Posted

Do you mean the stuff from Purely Decadent? It gives me really bad gastric problems and so does the coconut kefir. Hate to be melancholy but it all seems really hopeless. No matter what I do, I've been having really bad times.

Er, no, I was thinking you could make your own? If you've had coconut milk, straight, with no problems, then maybe homemade coconut yogurt would help. I'd guess any stuff in the store would have some additives that might piss off your system.

Have you tried making homemade bone broths and sauerkraut? Two very healing foods, to my understanding.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


Pyro Enthusiast
Pyro
Posted
  • Author

I do my own soups sometimes but no on the sauerkraut. Maybe I'll look into this coconut milk thing for future purposes.

kayo Explorer
kayo
Posted

I never used probiotics until recently and I am using PB8 (gluten-free, soy free, dairy free). It really seems to be working for me. My middle is soooo quiet, non-rumbly, not bloated and I have significantly less gas.

You just gave me a good idea about making my own coconut yogurt. The one from the store is too sweet. Never considered making my own... hmmm, thanks!

sunnybabi1986 Contributor
sunnybabi1986
Posted

I've been using Align, a probiotic, for almost a year now. It's helped relieve occasional diarrhea and nausea, and I've stopped taking it a few times, only to start getting diarrhea again within 3 days of stopping :(

I can't say I love paying for it each month, but wow, do I have my life back. I can eat small amounts of dairy and I don't have to worry about diarrhea from stress, etc. anymore. For me, it's totally worth it and not blowing my money. But each person is different! For some, Align doesn't do much at all. For others, like me, it's been a lifesaver.

afreeclimber74 Rookie
afreeclimber74
Posted

I can't imagine anything worse than having to eat natto. That stuff is on my list of foods that I'll never eat again, by choice.

I took probiotics here and there at different times before I knew I had celiac. I used to make my own kimchi and kombucha.

The only thing I ever took that made a difference was the Digestive Advantage for IBS, which I started taking at the same time I experimented with gluten-free. Those pills had me feeling better within 24hrs and I am so glad I found them.

sandsurfgirl Collaborator
sandsurfgirl
Posted

Do you mean the stuff from Purely Decadent? It gives me really bad gastric problems and so does the coconut kefir. Hate to be melancholy but it all seems really hopeless. No matter what I do, I've been having really bad times.

HUGS We all go through bad times. It will get better! Hang in there.

Pyro Enthusiast
Pyro
Posted
  • Author

Thanks for the support Sandsurf! I was feeling pretty lousy when I put that up. Sometimes recovery can be even more of a pain. When you know you have just a little ways to get better it feels really frustrating to have those last difficulties to put up with.

As for the coconut milk yogurt I already got some going (20 hours ago) after figuring out how easy it really is. There was some organic coconut milk on sale so it was basically begging to be made. Though I'm not really sure what's going on. So far there aren't very many bubbles and it's hard to tell if it's yogurt or not because it still tastes nice and sweet, indicating that there are still sugars there. And it's hard to tell if the amber-y taste is a result of fermentation or just the taste of the honey. Either it needs more time, the bacteria was dead, or it's actually just some fine yogurt.

ciavyn Contributor
ciavyn
Posted

I can't imagine anything worse than having to eat natto. That stuff is on my list of foods that I'll never eat again, by choice.

I took probiotics here and there at different times before I knew I had celiac. I used to make my own kimchi and kombucha.

The only thing I ever took that made a difference was the Digestive Advantage for IBS, which I started taking at the same time I experimented with gluten-free. Those pills had me feeling better within 24hrs and I am so glad I found them.

According to Wiki: "Nattō can be an acquired taste because of its powerful smell, strong flavor, and slippery texture." I don't know about anyone else, but I can't wait to try it! :P

Pyro Enthusiast
Pyro
Posted
  • Author

I actually like it now. At first it is kind of gross, but when you eat it for awhile it becomes more welcoming especially for its effects. And mixing in the mustard packet that usually comes with it makes it taste much less like old man stink.

Pyro Enthusiast
Pyro
Posted
  • Author

The yogurt is done and is excellent. Thank you very much for bringing that to light.

JNBunnie1 Community Regular
JNBunnie1
Posted

The yogurt is done and is excellent. Thank you very much for bringing that to light.

Hey! I'm SO happy something is working well for you. And that it's delicious. I hope it turns out to make your tummy happy rather than angry like the storebought stuff. As far as I know with yogurt, it's yogurt once it's not watery milk anymore. Once you have sludge, it's yogurt, right?

Pyro Enthusiast
Pyro
Posted
  • Author

When it tastes a little fermented and is a little sludgy I think that means it's yogurt. Don't take my word for it, though, I've abandoned all things yogurt/cheese/pastry when the intolerances were eliminated and I was sick of getting messed up from the replacements.

Again, a massive thank you to whoever pointed this stuff out. If everything continues to go so well with it, which it should, this is probably the biggest contribution to my culinary life in years. Definitely very major. Something that serves as a sauce, snack, extra probiotic during meals and is cheap (eliminating the need to buy all kinds of expensive vegan dressings), tastes great and is easy to tailor, and very easy to find is really a massive help. Especially since when I live on the west coast I always buy young thai coconuts for the water but have no real use for the meat. Midwest is $2.50 for a serving of coconut water and $2 for a can of coconut milk, and west coast has fresh whole coconuts for 99 cents... So yeah this is really special for me.

JNBunnie1 Community Regular
JNBunnie1
Posted

When it tastes a little fermented and is a little sludgy I think that means it's yogurt. Don't take my word for it, though, I've abandoned all things yogurt/cheese/pastry when the intolerances were eliminated and I was sick of getting messed up from the replacements.

Again, a massive thank you to whoever pointed this stuff out. If everything continues to go so well with it, which it should, this is probably the biggest contribution to my culinary life in years. Definitely very major. Something that serves as a sauce, snack, extra probiotic during meals and is cheap (eliminating the need to buy all kinds of expensive vegan dressings), tastes great and is easy to tailor, and very easy to find is really a massive help. Especially since when I live on the west coast I always buy young thai coconuts for the water but have no real use for the meat. Midwest is $2.50 for a serving of coconut water and $2 for a can of coconut milk, and west coast has fresh whole coconuts for 99 cents... So yeah this is really special for me.

That was me! I rock. :):D

Pyro Enthusiast
Pyro
Posted
  • Author

Oh it was! Haha sorry, too lazy to go check. Again, thank you thank you thank you. It's hard to convey how much you appreciate something on a forum, and I really mean that this is very awesome for me.

missy'smom Collaborator
missy'smom
Posted

Pyro,

Could you share more about this homemade coconut yogurt? I have made yogurt before with milk and used a bit of commercial yogurt to get it started. What did you use for the starter? and what brand of coconut milk did you use? I can't have the commercial coconut yogurt because of the sugar content. Does this homemade coconut yogurt taste good unadorned?

Pyro Enthusiast
Pyro
Posted
  • Author

Yes it tastes really good plain.

Making it was really easy, and IMO a lot of the things they mentioned were unnecessary (sterilizing and heating). All I did was take a can of Thai Kitchen Organic Coconut Milk

http://www.wellnessgrocer.com/images/3762807950_d.webp

, Poured it in a freshly cleaned glass jar, squeezed in what looked like 1-2 tablespoons of raw honey, mixed it up, and then dumped in a probiotic capsule. First I did half the capsule, then it seemed like nothing was happening so the rest went in. Still nothing seemed to happen, so I cut open an acidophilus pearl and stirred that in. This was the only complicated part, and either I was too impatient or the NOW probiotics were actually dead for some reason. During all that it either stayed on the counter by the oven when it was in use, or inside with the light on with an occasional quick blast of heat just to make sure it was toasty enough. That's it! All I did was pour in a can, squeeze in honey, and toss in a capsule. This morning I poured another can in with some more honey and the old batch should be enough to inoculate the rest. Sterilizing probably is a good idea but I like to experiment with keeping things as simple as possible.

Just to re-emphasize the cost savings: If you live on the west coast you can get fresh young coconuts for $.99. Which I would recommend because the water alone really helps with frustrating bouts of anemia and electrolyte imbalance. Then the meat can be made into the yogurt, replacing store bought, and making one probiotic capsule into a farm in a jar. THEN the yogurt can be eaten typically or made into all kinds of condiments with just a bit of spices and blended herbs/veggies which will taste better and replace the rip-off $4-8 a piece vegan dressings from places like Whole Foods and co-ops. Hate to bring up money so much, but it makes a really big difference especially now since I really need to stop using up my cash on groceries.

Bobbijo6681 Apprentice
Bobbijo6681
Posted

My boss forwarded this website to me yesterday and I thought I would share here.

Open Original Shared Link

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):


  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      131,964
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748
    Cbear
    Newest Member
    Cbear
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.5k
    • Total Posts
      1m
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):


  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Scott Adams
      Does anyone here also have Afib

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      If black seed oil is working for his Afib, stick to it, but if not, I can say that ablation therapy is no big deal--my mother was out of the procedure in about 1 hour and went home that evening, and had zero negative effects from the treatment. PS - I would recommend that your husband get an Apple watch to monitor his Afib--there is an app and it will take readings 24/7 and give reports on how much of the time he's in it. Actual data like this should be what should guide his treatment.
    • Jacki Espo
      Covid caused reoccurrence of DH without eating gluten

      By Jacki Espo · Posted

      This happened to me as well. What’s weirder is that within a couple hours of taking paxlovid it subsided. I thought maybe I got glutened but after reading your post not so sure. 
    • Mari
      New Celiac Mama in My 30s

      By Mari · Posted

      Hi Tiffany. Thank you for writing your dituation and  circumstancesin such detail and so well writte, too. I particularly noticed what you wrote about brain for and feeling like your brain is swelling and I know from my own experiences that's how it feel and your brain really does swell and you get migraines.    Way back when I was in my 20s I read a book by 2 MD allergist and they described their patient who came in complaining that her brain, inside her cranium, was swelling  and it happened when she smelled a certain chemical she used in her home. She kept coming back and insisting her brain actually swelled in her head. The Drs couldn't explain this problem so they, with her permission, performed an operation where they made a small opening through her cranium, exposed her to the chemical then watched as she brain did swell into the opening. The DRs were amazed but then were able to advise her to avoid chemicals that made her brain swell. I remember that because I occasionally had brain fog then but it was not a serious problem. I also realized that I was becoming more sensitive to chemicals I used in my work in medical laboratories. By my mid forties the brain fog and chemicals forced me to leave my  profession and move to a rural area with little pollution. I did not have migraines. I was told a little later that I had a more porous blood brain barrier than other people. Chemicals in the air would go up into my sinused and leak through the blood brain barrier into my brain. We have 2 arteries  in our neck that carry blood with the nutrients and oxygen into the brain. To remove the fluids and used blood from the brain there are only capillaries and no large veins to carry it away so all those fluids ooze out much more slowly than they came in and since the small capillaries can't take care of extra fluid it results in swelling in the face, especially around the eyes. My blood flow into my brain is different from most other people as I have an arterial ischema, adefectiveartery on one side.   I have to go forward about 20 or more years when I learned that I had glaucoma, an eye problem that causes blindness and more years until I learned I had celiac disease.  The eye Dr described my glaucoma as a very slow loss of vision that I wouldn't  notice until had noticeable loss of sight.  I could have my eye pressure checked regularly or it would be best to have the cataracts removed from both eyes. I kept putting off the surgery then just overnight lost most of the vision in my left eye. I thought at the I had been exposed to some chemical and found out a little later the person who livedbehind me was using some chemicals to build kayaks in a shed behind my house. I did not realize the signifance  of this until I started having appointments with a Dr. in a new building. New buildings give me brain fog, loss of balance and other problems I know about this time I experienced visual disturbances very similar to those experienced by people with migraines. I looked further online and read that people with glaucoma can suffer rapid loss of sight if they have silent migraines (no headache). The remedy for migraines is to identify and avoid the triggers. I already know most of my triggers - aromatic chemicals, some cleaning materials, gasoline and exhaust and mold toxins. I am very careful about using cleaning agents using mostly borax and baking powder. Anything that has any fragrance or smell I avoid. There is one brand of dishwashing detergent that I can use and several brands of  scouring powder. I hope you find some of this helpful and useful. I have not seen any evidence that Celiac Disease is involved with migraines or glaucoma. Please come back if you have questions or if what I wrote doesn't make senseto you. We sometimes haveto learn by experience and finding out why we have some problems. Take care.       The report did not mention migraines. 
    • Mari
      My only proof

      By Mari · Posted

      Hi Jmartes71 That is so much like my story! You probably know where Laytonville is and that's where I was living just before my 60th birthday when the new Dr. suggested I could have Celiacs. I didn't go on a gluten challange diet before having the Celiac panel blood test drawn. The results came back as equivical as one antibody level was very high but another, tissue transaminasewas normal. Itdid show I was  allergic to cows milk and I think hot peppers. I immediately went gluten free but did not go in for an endoscopy. I found an online lab online that would do the test to show if I had a main celiac gene (enterolab.com). The report came back that I had inherited a main celiac gene, DQ8, from one parent and a D!6 from the other parent. That combination is knows to sym[tons of celiac worse than just inheriting one main celiac gene. With my version of celiac disease I was mostly constipated but after going gluten-free I would have diarrhea the few times I was glutened either by cross contamination or eating some food containing gluten. I have stayed gluten-free for almost 20 years now and knew within a few days that it was right for me although my recovery has been slow.   When I go to see a  medical provide and tell them I have celiacs they don't believe me. The same when I tell them that I carry a main celiac gene, the DQ8. It is only when I tell them that I get diarrhea after eating gluten that they realize that I might have celiac disease. Then they will order th Vitamin B12 and D3 that I need to monitor as my B12 levels can go down very fast if I'm not taking enough of it. Medical providers haven't been much help in my recovery. They are not well trained in this problem. I really hope this helps ypu. Take care.      
    • knitty kitty
      Does anyone here also have Afib

      By knitty kitty · Posted

      Fascinating.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.