Any thoughts about what a probiotic intake regime ought to be?
- Whether there is a distinction between loading and maintence periods.
- Daily vs occasional consumption.
- Dosage.
- With or without food.
I'm unsure of the answers. Labels on these probiotic supplements most often say they are to be consumed every day with food. That could be correct but I'll take that with a degree of skepticism for now. Here are some thoughts of mine.
- After a certain period of "loading", I'm guessing the bacteria are self sustaining. In other words, I think that there is a distinction between initial and maintenane periods in terms of dosage and frequency of use. I just don't know what the dosage and length of time ought to be in either.
- If one requires probiotic supplements such as after receiving antibiotics, I guess it should be taken daily, maybe even several times a day. But what about after the intesttinal bacteria count has reached a steady state level. Here, I'm guessing that one does not daily intake of probiotics if any at all afterwards.
- I'm guessing that probiotics should be taken alone with water so that it goes straight to the intestines. That way, they are not in the stomach acid for an hour, the usual length of time when food matter is detected. I'd imagine a lot of the probiotics would be wasted that way. And the food probably does not help bacteria in establishing along the intestines.
- As for dosage, consider there is suppose to be a 100 trillion bacteria in a healthy instestinal tract, the majority at the end. The typical bateria count of these probiotic supplements is 3 to 12 billion. If 10 billion is used, then it's 1/100%. In other words, 10 billion is 1/10K of 100 trillion.