On last week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy (the week before Thanksgiving), the show introduced a woman with a C. diff infection during a small five to ten minute side-story of the show. However, we here at Truth About Probiotics felt that this important and newsworthy issue was not given enough air-time on the show. Did you know that many people who are going into hospitals today for unrelated issues end up contracting C. diff, which can be deadly? What’s worse is that many hospitals don’t have a strict procedure in place for how to treat it (see our previous blog posts on this issue). On Grey’s, Alex (one of the male interns), treats the woman with a fecal transplant from her husband, after she has taken too many antibiotics and has made herself the perfect candidate for a C. diff infection. However, what was disappointing about the episode was that this huge medical pandemic received hardly any airtime and was downplayed as something that is entirely curable (which is not true). We were, of course, also disappointed by the fact that probiotics as a follow-up health tool were not mentioned. If Grey’s is supposed to be on-top of the cutting edge in the medical community, why not discuss a highly-potent probiotic supplement, as an add-on to conventional treatments? In my personal opinion, I believe that Natren probiotics are an excellent answer to the current C. diff pandemic because your gut needs to have the good bacteria restored in order to fight off the invaders successfully. What do you think? Have you ever faced a C. diff infection? What did you do to cure it? Did you try a probiotic therapy? We respond personally to ever comment that’s posted, so rest assured your comment will receive an answer…
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TRUTH ABOUT PROBIOTICS · Natasha Trenev's Blog
my mother suffers from c diff and indeed she highly recommends probiotics to help her get through the symptoms. In fact she’s found a strain called S. Boulardii which literally flushes out pathogens like E.coli which cause diarrhea. I don’t know about US manufacturers but in the UK we buy a brand called DiarSafe for her, which works wonders.
Hi Jo–
Thanks for your fantastic comment and excellent question. Here at Natren and Truth About Probiotics, we only recommend Natren’s Healthy Trinity as the ideal probiotic. S. Boulardii is supposedly a non-pathogenic yeast, but it’s dangerous to fight an organism with a yeast because there’s no conclusive evidence to show the yeast is actually beneficial to you. A better and safer choice for your mom would be Natren’s Healthy Trinity because of the power house of three specific species and super strains included in the product (all of which are not yeast organisms). You can order it online at http://www.natren.com or look for it at your local health food stores! If you have more questions, please feel free to ask, and please let us know how your mother does on the product! Best of luck to you and your mother,
Sincerely,
Natasha
Hi,
I’ve had c. diff for three years and had “better” results with the symptoms by taking enzymes and a pro-biotic… but now I’m in a full relapse (pre-treated with antiobiotics for a dental procedure). So, while I am on the 2 week course of Flagyl, I am taking S. boullardi, since pro-biotics are killed by the antibiotic. After the Flagly course is complete, I will then go back to the pro-biotics since it worked so well while I was infected!!!
Hi Barbara–
Thanks for this comment. As you’ll see with the other response on this page, we never endorse or ever recommend that someone take an S. boulardii yeast organism because of safety issues. We only recommend that you take Natren’s Healthy Trinity, which is in fact, currently in a clincal study at a major US Hospital as a possible treatment for C. diff. The correct way to take your probiotics with such a strong antibiotic is to take your Natren probiotic three times a day, 2 hours away from any antibiotic, and the probiotics will live. I hope this answers your question.
Sincerely,
Adriana (On Behalf of Natasha)
I was just diagnosed with C Diff last week and am currently on flagyl. I saw what you suggested as far as probiotics go while you’re on the antibiotic, but what after you get off? I was told by my pharmacist and nurse to wait until my antibiotic was finished before I started probiotics, so that’s what I’ve done. I am hoping to start taking probiotics this weekend. Any advice would be helpful! I had never heard of C Diff before I got diagnosed and my doctors have given me very little information about it.
Hi Alyssa–
Thanks so much for your great comment. I am going to reply to your question with an answer that is my opinion, and it is not to substitute for or conflict with your current medical advice. In my opinion, I do recommend probiotics for use with any antibiotic because when you are on antibiotics, they kill all of your natural good bacteria as well as your bad bacteria. You don’t want this state of imbalance to ever occur, especially when you’re fighting a bad bacteria as strong as C. diff. I recommend two capsules minimum of Healthy Trinity taken two hours after each dose of the antibiotic, and once you are off of your antibiotic, uping your dosage considerably to a minimum of 4 capsules three times a day for at least a month to replenish your good bacteria. We hope this answers your question, and we hope that you will seriously consider the use of probiotics as an effective aide against C. diff.
In Health,
Natasha