Probiotic Dosing

How Much Probiotic Should I Take?

The number of colony-forming-units (CFU), species/strains, and frequency of taking your probiotics should be based on the individual needs and health history of each person. As a general preventive dose, 2 to 10 billion CFU of a mixed strain probiotic is likely a good place to start for children over 1 year of age. There are special probiotics for infants up to 1 year. For adults, 8 to 20 billion CFU is a good daily preventive dose.  

Treatment doses and strains, e.g. for post-antibiotic complications, parasitic infections, immune system dysfunction, urinary tract infections and yeast infections (candidiasis), should be determined in consultation with your health care practitioner. Based on an ever-growing body of medical research, your practitioner can also guide you in the use of specific probiotic strains for particular health effects.

Special Uses for Probiotics

What Should I Take Probiotics For?

There are many different uses of probiotics, a.k.a. "friendly bacteria". They can be taken preventively all year round to ward off food poisoning-type infections, coughs and colds, to improve digestion and assimilation of nutrients, and to aid the detoxification of excess hormones and other toxins from the body. A 2009 randomized, controlled study showed that children who took probiotics twice daily had significantly decreased fevers, coughs and runny noses. 

Probiotics are also important for helping to prevent complications in pregnancy; this may be in part due to prevention of group B strep and urinary tract infections, which can bring about pre-term labor. 

Probiotics with Antibiotics

Probiotics should definitely be taken during and after antibiotics to prevent antibiotic-induced diarrhea and opportunistic yeast and Clostridium difficile infections. Probiotics do not interfere with the efficacy of antibiotics in killing the infective germs, but should be taken as far apart in time from antibiotics to preserve their survival. This is because antibiotics are non-specific: they kill the infective or "bad" bacteria as well as the good guys.

Probiotics for Travel

When traveling or camping in a new area, you may have low natural resistance to the microbial life in that environment and in the food and water you consume. When probiotics are in good supply in your gut with supplemental extras on the go, you'll be in better shape to have a trip uncomplicated by traveler's diarrhea.

Probiotic Prevention

Should I be Taking Probiotics?


Great question! and one I field often in my practice.  Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that normally colonize the human gastrointestinal system - in particular the colon or large intestine. In the gut, probiotics, such as Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis, help to prevent and treat a variety of conditions through several mechanisms: