Recently, Natasha Trenev received a great question from a retailer by the name of Tom (last name withheld for privacy reasons):
Hi Natasha,
I was wondering if you have research links or attachments that you could provide for me on why you don’t recommend combining other synergistic probiotic strains together in a single product?
Many consumers are being informed to look for products with a variety of strains. There is some research that shows that using multiple species had more benefit over single strain products – Int J Food Microbiol. 2004 Nov 15;96(3):219-33.
Monostrain, multistrain and multispecies probiotics–A comparison of functionality and efficacy.
There are also hundreds of species of bacteria that exist naturally in the gastro-intestinal tract together, so I was hoping that you could shed some light on why you don’t generally recommend probiotic “cocktails”. This will aid in my customer’s education as well as my own.
Great Question Tom! Natasha’s response to Tom is below:
Natasha says synergy or symbiosis is not very prevalent in the microbiological world—it’s very rare. When you mix micro-organisms in a capsule or a bottle that are not separated by a barrier such as oil, they are not dormant—they are still growing but at an arrested rate. As a consequence, there is going to be competition and die-off because of being put together in an environment where they can’t get extra food or find new territory. The only reason to mix micro-organisms is that each one of them should provide a different benefit to the area of the GI tract that you are targeting. For instance, bifidobacteria targets the large intestine, L. acidophilus targets the small intestine and the bulgaricus is for the transient flora. Basically, unless the manufacturer provides good science and an explanation as to why they are making this blend, there is no good reason for a blend and it dilutes the value and quality of the product. The problem with putting a multi-strain probiotic product out on the market is that it does not necessarily benefit the end-user, sometimes these manufacturers put in very inexpensive, less desirable strains versus the higher quality strains, and you don’t know what you’re getting—you might be getting much more of the lesser-quality strains. In other words, you don’t know what you’re getting in the end product—and that’s why Natasha generally recommends avoiding these multi-strain products/blends.
Natasha always recommends researching your probiotic manufacturer. Make sure the product is made in the USA, and has a guarantee of potency at the time of consumption for each and every strain listed on the label. In terms of children, look for strains of Bifidobacteria infantis, which is a naturally-occuring species in a child’s GI tract. Once they start eating table food, you can add in safe probiotic strains and create your own multi-strain probiotic for your child. And we feel that this is much more appropriate than just giving them an unscientific blend of microorganisms.
TELL TAP: What do you think of the probiotic blend products out there?
