How long do you need to take a probiotic before the bacteria becomes established in your intestines

[pizzahead]

How long do you need to take a probiotic before the bacteria becomes established in your intestines and you can stop taking it?

 

[morse27]

its necessary to take different probiotic 8 month to see improvment(change every 15 days)

you cant stop taking this therapy , if you have some benefits , continue for life .....

 

[Sea]

It varies. For some people whose microbiome has been depleted by antibiotics a short course of probiotics is all that is needed. Some people need to continually provide the microbiome with probiotics and some need to focus on a prebiotic as well.

My son-in-law has been taking good quality high strength probiotics for a year and a recent stool test showed a reduction in bad bacteria but still an incredibly low count of friendly bacteria.

 

[Richard7]

Most probiotic bacteria wont become established in your gut.

according to this blog post, transient probiotic bacteria are useful because they can provide some of the functions of a healthy gut during their transit. http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/gut-flora-risk-and-repair.html

When it comes to establishing them, I gather that the most important thing that we can control is giving them the right food, the right kinds of fibre to live on.

(The thing we cannot control is how the bacteria already in the gut will react to them. I recently glanced at a paper talking about how listeria could stop some probiotic bacteria or other from establishing itself.)

 

[helen1]

Yes, many probiotics are transient and won't colonize your gut. Some probiotics do colonize the gut, there's lists if you google for it.