ProBiotics with suppressed immune system?

A lot of online-talk about Crohns refers to Crohnnie's taking ProBiotics. I've been having stomach pain and inflammation as of late so I decided to buy some. I'm also taking Humira.

Reading the leaflet that came with the ProBiotics it says not to take them if your immune system is suppressed.

I don't know what to do now, shall I just bring them back and get a refund? I can't ask my GI/IBD nurse - I only get to see them a few times a year... my next appointment is July 10th

I think it would be good for you to take probiotics. Usually when a person has any type of gut issue they are actually lacking the good bacteria in their system. You could ask your GI nurse just to see, but I will be honest, western medicine does not really know much about gut disbyosis. You probably wont get much help in that area. Though you may, I mean I am taking very high doses of probitoics and my gastro doc knows about it. He said if it is helping to continue with it. I especially take them because I am having to be on low dose antibiotics all the time to prevent UTI's. Also when you have any type of immune dysfunction your gut flora usually is weaker and probiotics are recommended. If you are unsure you could ask your GI though. You could always start out on a very small amount of probiotics just to see how it goes. I always start out slow so my body can adjust.

KeithK28 said:

A lot of online-talk about Crohns refers to Crohnnie's taking ProBiotics. I've been having stomach pain and inflammation as of late so I decided to buy some. I'm also taking Humira.

Reading the leaflet that came with the ProBiotics it says not to take them if your immune system is suppressed.

I don't know what to do now, shall I just bring them back and get a refund? I can't ask my GI/IBD nurse - I only get to see them a few times a year... my next appointment is July 10th

Click to expand...

Can you call the company and ask why they put that on the leaflet? Many of us who are immune compromised take probiotics. It is healthy bacteria that are native to our gut. It should only help by beefing up the good bacteria.

I would guess the mention on the label has to do with the recent dust up between probiotic scientists and EU regulators. Many take probiotics in order to boost their immune system. Here in the US there is even a common TV commercial being shown with a popular sports caster mentioning a good way to improve immunity is to take probiotics.

The commercial can be seen here:

"Erin Andrews Takes TruBiotics for Digestive Health"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv_BcQeLREc

Well, recently in the EU regulators ruled against the idea of allowing probiotics sellers to mention that their products boost immunity. To make a long story short, there are some studies showing that some probiotics can help with immune health, but the studies were deemed as not being good enough.

EU regulators can be a little finicky. There was the famous incident from a few years back where it was ruled illegal in the EU to mention on bottle water that water will hydrate a person.

So what is mentioned on the probiotic label you have is likely a CYA statement. That is my guess.

Personally, I've not had success with taking probiotics myself. Others seem to have had good luck with some of them.

I've been taking various immunosuppressants for the last 5 years and probiotics have never caused me problems. I believe I have tried about 10 different products at this point, and while some were more beneficial to me then others I never had side effects from them. They're vital to people that have taken lots of antibiotics, and generally seem to help with crohns symptoms from what I have read.

Start with a low dose and build up!!!!~