# Probiotics



## valwi (Feb 17, 2004)

Has anybody tried probiotics for IBS? Do they work?


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

At present the use of probiotics remains guesswork which elicits spotty results.Until it is possible to determine with precision what a persons normal flora was, so as to comapre it to their present flora, it is difficult to determine whether they actually suffer dysbiosis or not.This is further exacerbated by the fact that even after serial courses of borad specturm antibiotics the gut is normally quite efficient at recolonization.There is no doubt that there is a population of people who present clinically with GI symptoms diagnosed as so called IBS who do have some form of dysbiosis, who/what/hwne/where/why is anything but easy to work out yet.Best bet if you suspect it is to obtain the boradest possible spectrum probiotic of confirmed live cultures, sort of like using a shotgun since you cannot zero in with a silver bullet, and try it for a while to see if it helps.MNL


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