Why are probiotics making me feel ill?

Question

I bought some probiotics a couple of days ago. They're good quality, contain 4 billion organisms, and I've refrigerated them. After two days of taking them I've started feeling ill like I'm coming down with a cold. Its possible I could just be getting sick but I'm almost positive it's due to the probiotics. Is this just my body detoxifying or can probiotics actually promote harmful bacteria?

Answer 1

Intestinal Bacteria:

You have bacteria living in your gut. Some of them could make you sick, however there are also bacteria that are actually beneficial. These "friendly" bacteria help keep bad bacteria and yeast from growing in your intestinal tract. Bacteria also help make vitamin K and keep your immune system functioning properly.

Normally you have an abundance of friendly bacteria, however antibiotic therapy, stress and poor dietary choices may all cause intestinal dysbiosis, which is a bacterial imbalance that results in overgrowth of bad bacteria and yeast.

Dysbiosis:

When the bad bacteria and yeast become overgrown in your intestinal tract, you have a condition called dysbiosis. Dysbiosis has been linked with disorders like yeast infections, irritable bowel syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis. A common cause of dysbiosis is antibiotic therapy. The antibiotics that you take for killing an infection will also kill the healthy bacteria in your digestive tract.

Prebiotics and Probiotics:

Prebiotics and probiotics can restore the balance of bacteria in your digestive tract. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that can be found in various foods. When you eat probiotics, you will add these healthy bacteria to your intestinal tract. Common strains include Lactobacillis and Bifidobacterium families of bacteria.

Prebiotics are non-digestible foods that make their way through our digestive system and help good bacteria grow and flourish. Prebiotics keep beneficial bacteria healthy.

Prebiotics in the Diet:

Prebiotics that feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut mostly come from carbohydrate fibers called oligosaccharides. You don't digest them, so the oligosaccharides remain in the digestive tract and stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria. Sources of oligosaccharides include fruits, legumes, and whole grains. Fructo-oligosaccharides may be added to many foods. Yogurt made with bifidobacteria contain oligosaccharides.

Probiotics in the Diet:

Probiotic bacteria like lactobacilli are naturally found in fermented foods like sauerkraut and yogurt. Some foods will have added probiotics as healthy nutritional ingredients, which will be evident on the label.

Prebiotic and Probiotic Supplements:

Probiotics are widely available as supplements. However, not all probiotic supplements are created equal. My favorite probiotic is OMX 12. To make sure your probiotics get a good start, add some oligosaccharides to keep the probiotic bacteria healthy in your digestive system. The prebiotics may be taken as a supplement or may be added to your health foods. Be sure to check your local health food stores and look on labels when you buy probiotic supplements.

Sources:

Prebiotics in the Diet:

Prebiotics that feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut mostly come from carbohydrate fibers called oligosaccharides. You don't digest them, so the oligosaccharides remain in the digestive tract and stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria. Sources of oligosaccharides include fruits, legumes, and whole grains. Fructo-oligosaccharides may be added to many foods. Yogurt made with bifidobacteria contain oligosaccharides.

Probiotics in the Diet:

Probiotic bacteria like lactobacilli are naturally found in fermented foods like sauerkraut and yogurt. Some foods will have added probiotics as healthy nutritional ingredients, which will be evident on the label.

Prebiotic and Probiotic Supplements:

iotic supplements are created equal. My favorite probiotic is OMX 12. To make sure your probiotics get a good start, add some oligosaccharides to keep the probiotic bacteria healthy in your digestive system. The prebiotics may be taken as a supplement or may be added to your health foods. Be sure to check your local health food stores and look on labels when you buy probiotic supplements.

You might need to have your doctor check into what is bothering you! But I am with the second guy you might be taking too much!

Answer 2

may be u r hypersensitive to probiotics.You may take 3 pills of sulphur 1m a dose early in the morning to detoxyfy urself

Answer 3

The problem you are having is that many of the probiotics sold on the open market today are not good.  They contain many bad bacteria and it has been found that many of them actually contain harmful bacteria.  If you bought your probiotic from a store, it is virtually impossible to get one that is fresh.  Natren Company makes a high quality probiotic that is shipped to you in dry ice to preserve it's freshness and there is a very good reason for that.  

Contrary to what some have told you here by people who have no training in nutrition or even understand how probiotics actually works in your body, a good quality probiotic will not give you any so called "die off reaction" that is totally made up foolishness.  Any "die off reaction" would come from simply bad probiotics.

By the way, Doctor J., Magnesium stearate, stearic acid and calcium stearate, are made by hydrogenating cottonseed or palm oil, and are used throughout the supplements industry as lubricants, are "TRANS FATS!"  They act like saturated fats, but are not.  For your information also, there are NO completely saturated fats found in nature, only mixtures of fats.  You need to go back and do some more studying of your biochemistry sir.  You need to stick to subjects you know something about, and leave the nutrition to those who have at least studied it before making comments as if you knew what you are talking about.

In regard to your cold reaction, it is not uncommon to find bad product in stores these days.  You need to follow the "buyer beware" process.  The cold reaction may or may not be due to the probiotics and simply a coincidence.

To understand what truly happened with the probiotic you bought and to see if there was any connection, whatsoever, I would call Natren (www.natren.com) and talk directly with Natasha Trenev, whom I've spoken to on a few occassions, and get the truth about what happened to you.  Her family supplied yogurt to King Peter II and continuing generations of the royal family of Yugoslavia, where she was born.  Natasha’s parents decided to come to the United States when she was eight years old. Almost immediately upon arrival, her father founded Continental Culture Specialists. Continental’s yogurt product is still found in grocery stores around the nation.

After graduating from UCLA, Natasha followed a generations old tradition and joined her family’s business, which benefited from her enthusiasm for several years. She then took her knowledge of live cultures, and expanded her work. Knowing that the bacteria used to produce yogurt could fight existing ailments, she set out to offer these bacteria in a concentrated, more potent form than found in foods.

Natren’s International Drug Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification guarantees the ingredients and potency listed on the product labels. Without independent audits from government agencies that enforce the International Pharmaceutical Inspection Convention Standards (PICS), other companies’ GMP certification cannot guarantee the same degree of product quality.

She is recognized as the expert and lone authority in the use of probiotics to battle such illnesses as GERD, gas and bloating, constipation, diarrhea, vaginitis, candidiasis, yeast overgrowth, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, acid reflux, and a host of other ailments. Natasha’s work is so respected that her probiotic production standards were read into the United States Congressional Record and are currently cited as the Probiotic Industry Standards. Natasha was invited to speak at the World Health Organization’s Congress of Health in Adelaide, Australia.

Good luck to you - Talk to someone that really knows what they are talking about.

Answer 4

You are probably experiencing a "die-off" reaction.  This is common with high quality probiotics.  The probiotics (good guys) are effectively competing with the bad guys    , so the bad guys are dying.  The die-off of the pathogens (the bad guys) releases bacterial toxins which can cause symptoms.

Usually, the die-off reaction only lasts a few days because the probiotics eventually gain the upper hand.  Try taking 3 to 6 capsules of Activated Charcoal (available at your local health food store).  The charcoal will absorb the toxins released by the dead pathogens.

If you continue to have significant symptoms after more than a couple of weeks, it may be wise to see a nutritionally trained health care professional for additional guidance.

Best wishes and good luck.

Answer 5

Are they milk and dairy free?? Perhaps you are lactose intolerant ............  take a look at the side of the bottle and check to see that it contains no milk and dairy products, wheat, yeast, added colorings and sweetners or artificial flavors .........  none of these have any place in a good quality supplement at any rate ...........;0)

Lactose intolerance can cause acid reflux, alternating bouts of constipation & diahorrea and will also lead to a compromised digestive system thus laying the groundwork for a body which is extremely susceptible to developing nose, throat, sinus, ear, bronchial, bladder and other infections as well....... Other symptoms of lactose intolerance are mucous in the stools, bloating and cramping, digestive troubles such as constipation, belching and burping, gassiness and wet f*arting (sorry, no other way to say it), ribbony and stringy shaped bowel movements or rabbit pellet shaped movements are all symptoms of lactose intolerance.

Ditch the milk and dairy products i say if you haven't already as many many people have trouble digesting lactose.

Take a good quality calcium supplement containing vitamin D3 (easiest to assimilate) on a daily basis and pump up your intake of leafy and green vegies, organic nuts and seeds (for calcium and organic to avoid nasty sulfites and chemicals that they use to "preserve" commercial varieties  that may upset sensitive little bodies) and fresh cold water fishes such as tuna, sardines, salmon and whiting (calcium & vitamin D).......  if you don't like fish all you need is 10 - 15 minutes per day of safe sun exposure to get your body's requirements of vitamin D.

don't forget to check the bottle and see if it contains milk and dairy .................. easy as that ............;0)

peace & good health 2 u & yours

CHEERS

♥

Answer 6

Some few people are especially sensitive to probiotic bacteria, even plain old acidophillus. On the Medicine Net website, I found this, "Probiotics' side effects, if they occur, tend to be mild and digestive (such as gas or bloating). More serious effects have been seen in some people. Probiotics might theoretically cause infections that need to be treated with antibiotics, especially in people with underlying health conditions."

I would stop the probiotic for a few days and see if I got better. Then take less than the recommended dose, maybe one capsule every 2-3 days.

If you turn out to be one of those people sensitive to probiotics and if you don't have a particular reason for taking probiotics, just for general health, you will probably do better just eating fermented foods like buttermilk, raw k***t (Claussen's, Hebrew National) and yogurt.

Answer 7

Some of your answers are actually very confusing to the laymen.  Firstly, you haven't been taking the probiotic product long enough to have ANY affect whatsoever.

So, the answer I have for you is an emphatic NO! - A healthy lower intestine should contain at least 85% friendly bacteria to prevent the over colonization of disease causing micro-organisms like E. coli and salmonella.

Probiotics prevent illness because they keep the bad bacteria from parking in your gut.  Probiotics help the body manufacture good HDL cholesterol.  They help to break down and metabolize specific carbohydrates and they also promote good digestive enzymes, because they actually manufacture them.

WE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT THEM.

You haven't been on the probiotics long enough for them to multiply and become beneficial to you.

Have you recently been on antibiotics?  If so, that is what is making you ill.

Are you drinking milk? If so, that is what is making you ill, because you may be loaded with Candida which causes bloating and the runs.

Candida, a type of yeast overgrows in your gut from LACK of probiotics because probiotics are killed 100% by antibiotics.

Probiotics are found in the trillions in home grown raw fruits and vegetables and our modern diets have all but eliminated them and now with overrun antibiotics in our food and water, we have people suffering from IBS to Chrons, to cancers, because we are "lacking" in probiotics NOT dairy.

Take your probiotics before you head hits the pillow at night to give them a chance to park themselves along the digestive walls of your gut every single night.  So, that the first thing you put in your mouth in the morning, which preferably should be whole fruit and not sugar and coffee, will help you to metabolize those food molecules that your body is starving for.

Answer 8

The Healing Crisis was originally observed while administering antibiotics during the treatment of syphilis, but was later identified during the treatment of other illness and in a wide variety of natural healing programs. It is characterized by a temporary increase in symptoms during the cleansing or detox process. Reactions may be mild or they may be severe. You should expect it and work with it. It is an indicator that the cleanse is working.

There are several causes

The body must go through an elimination process to achieve good health. There will be ups and downs. You do not go immediately from disease to good health. This elimination process is what we call the "healing crisis." The healing crisis is the result of every body-system, in concert, working to eliminate waste products through all elimination channels and set the stage for regeneration. The end result: old tissues are replaced with new.

There are three distinct categories of Cleansing Reaction

   1. When any treatment or cleansing program causes a large scale die-off of bacteria, a significant amount of endotoxins (toxins within the bacteria itself) are released into the body. The more bacteria present, and the stronger their endotoxins, the stronger the cleansing reaction.

   2. When any treatment or detox causes the organs of the body (particularly the liver, which is a storehouse of drug and poison residues) to release their stored poisons and toxins, a cleansing reaction may occur.

   3. Any program, such as fasting or the use of weight loss herbs which causes a rapid breakdown of fat cells (which are a storehouse for toxins), can be accompanied by a detox reaction.

Specifically, we can now see that a variety of cleanses and/or products can initiate a detox reaction.

Category 1

    * Intestinal Cleansing and Detox Programs can obviously trigger a die-off of bad bacteria in the intestinal tract and colon.

    * Likewise, use of the probiotics will cause a die-off of bad intestinal bacteria (as much as 3 1/2 lbs worth) as new beneficial bacteria take their place.

    * Digestive enzymes when first introduced can literally eat up colonies of bad bacteria, thereby releasing their endotoxins.

    * And use of immune enhancers and pathogen destroyers can produce die-off, not only in the intestinal tract, but throughout the entire body.

Category 2

    * The liver is the primary processing and storage organ for drug residues and poisons in the body. The primary purpose of the Liver/Gallbladder detox program is to flush those toxins out of the body. The bottom line is that this makes the use of this program one of THE most important for improving your Baseline of Health, but also the program most likely to cause a healing crisis.

    * Use of an herbal blood cleansing program can likewise initiate a Herxheimer reaction

Category 3

    * Rapid weight loss, when fasting for example, can also produce a healing crisis as toxins previously lodged in the fat cells are released into the blood stream

Symptoms

The healing crisis will usually bring about past conditions in whatever order the body is capable of handling at that time. People often forget the diseases or injuries they have had in the past, but are usually reminded during the crisis. Reactions may include:

    * Increased joint or muscle pain

    * Headaches

    * Diarrhea

    * Extreme fatigue and/or its opposite, sleeplessness

    * Nausea

    * Sinus congestion

    * Fever (usually low grade) and/or chills

    * Frequent urination and/or urinary tract discharges

    * Drop in blood pressure

    * Skin eruptions, including: boils, hives, and rashes. Note: skin eruptions are often misdiagnosed as allergic reactions, resulting in the premature cessation of the cleansing program.

    * Cold or flu-like symptoms

    * You may think that you actually feel worse or that the treatment is not working at all during a cleanse. Do not despair. These are all signs that your treatment is working and that your body is going through the process of cleaning itself of impurities, toxins and imbalances.

    * Such reactions are temporary and can occur immediately -- or within several days, or even several weeks, of a detox. Symptoms usually pass within 1-3 days, but on rare occasions can last several weeks.

If you are suffering from a major illness, the symptoms you experience during the healing crisis may be identical to the disease itself. A cleansing, purifying process is underway, and stored wastes are in a free-flowing state. Sometimes discomfort during the healing crisis is of greater intensity than when you were developing the chronic disease. This may explain why there may be a brief flare-up in one's condition. Often the crisis will come after you feel your very best. In fact, most people feel a surge of energy during the first few days of a cleanse. It is at that point that your body dumps toxins into the blood stream for elimination. Thus the healing crisis. Do not be upset. It means your body is eliminating the toxins. Go as slowly as your body needs to so that your elimination is gradual and comfortable.

With a more serious condition there may be many small crises to go through before the final one is possible. Everything must be considered and given its proper place in the build-up to a healing crisis. You should expect it and work with it.

Easing Your Way Through the Healing Crisis

    * Drink plenty of fresh water (especially water), juices, and herbal teas to flush the body of toxins.

    * Use colon stimulation formula to make sure that you are eliminating waste promptly. Symptoms frequently disappear immediately after a good bowel movement.

    * Use ground flax seed daily to absorb toxins and to help speed their transit through the system.

    * On occasion, a good e***a or colon-irrigation can provide relief.

    * Sometimes, rest is the best therapy.

    * And, on rare occasions, a reduction of the dosage or temporary cessation may be required.