# Florastor or Culturelle?



## Ashford (Nov 23, 2008)

Hey everyone. Which do you recommend for my IBS? My most bothersome symptoms at the moment are my noisy stomach and gas, but I also have urgency, incomplete evacuation, and diarrhea.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I don't think I can say for sure one or the other.There isn't any good head to head studies of any of the brands and even when someone takes a couple of different brands all of which actually have some clinical data in IBSers they find that one may work and another doesn't work as well.


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## Concerned lady (Oct 14, 2007)

Here are some thoughts:Can you keep a journal, as this IBS website recommends, of _everything _you eat, drink, take (meds, supplements, etc.), daily, for a week?Do you eat any foods containing GLUTEN? (WHEAT, RYE, BARLEY, ETC.)Do you eat any foods containing MILK PROTEINS? (milk, cheese, yogurt, casein, whey, pepperoni that had "whey" added to it, ice cream, whipped cream, cheesecake, sherbert, gelato, etc.)Do you eat any foods containing SOY PROTEINS, or YEAST PROTEINS, or CORN PROTEINS, or EGG PROTEINS?Have you visited Dr. Kenneth Fine's "EnteroLab" website, at http://www.finerhealth.com ? Dr. Fine's website is about food protein "sensitivities" that can mimic IBS. ---------------------------Have you taken any ANTIBIOTICS recently, that could have caused a C. diff. (Clostridium difficile) infection in your digestive tract?ACID BLOCKERS can pre-dispose a person to getting the bad intestinal infection called C. diff !!!Florastore is a friendly ("probiotic") yeast called S. boulardii (Saccharomyces boulardii) that is made by a French company called Biocodex, and sold over the counter at pharmacies. It's a bit costly, but works very well to fight C. diff. in many cases. Another, less expensive brand of S. boulardii is made by the Jarrow company (health food store brand).Be sure you're not "sensitive" to yeast proteins, if you want to try the Florastor or Jarrow brand of S. boulardii friendly yeast.If a person cannot take this friendly yeast, there are other ways to fight C. diff, that I mention in my website, at http://cantbreathesuspectvcd.com (see webpage 5).----------------There are other conditions that can also mimic IBS.One of such conditions is an "eosinophilic" condition, and allergists/immunologist docs know about these, or if not, try seeing a good gastroenterologist (stomach/digestive system doc).--------------------Another condition can be Crohn's Disease, which has been linked in some cases to a "yeast sensitivity" auto-immune reaction! If a person has Crohn's Disease, check with the doctor to know whether to avoid Florastor or not, since it's a friendly/probiotic YEAST.----------------------------If someone wants to use probiotic BACTERIA, like Acidophilus, Bifidus, etc., there are MILK-FREE VERSIONS (FORMULATIONS) available at health food stores, & pharmacies, in case someone has a milk protein sensitivity.One thing I learned not too long ago, is that in milk-free probiotic preparations, sometimes a company adds FOS's (fructo-oligo-saccharides), but...these FOS's not only feed the good (beneficial) bacteria, but, the FOS's can feed BAD BACTERIA TOO, causing IRRITABLE BOWEL!!!So, after I once tried FOS's in a milk-free probiotic preparation, and it almost destroyed my digestion, I never used any probiotics that had FOS's in them, again.Good luck to you and to everyone!Carol/Concerned Lady


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