I know that I have been bashing HSOs lately with hard science. Maybe I should recommend a “HSO” probiotic for a change.
There is only one “HSO” I can recommend as a probiotic supplement and that “HSO” is Saccharomyces boulardii.
Saccharomyces boulardii is a strain of beneficial yeast that is a soil based organism and is only found as normal gut flora in humans that eat lychee fruit on a regular basis. Saccharomyces boulardii has great potential to help with digestive disorders BUT like all other probiotic bacteria, you should supplement it with caution.
S. boulardii was discovered in the 1920’s by French biologist, Henri Boulard, while he was in Southeast Asia looking for a strain of heat-resistant yeast to help production of wine. A cholera outbreak occurred during his exploration. Boulard noted that natives would either chew on the skins of lychee/mangosteen fruit or make tea with the skins to relieve diarrhea. He later isolated S. boulardii from lychee fruit.1
Saccharomyces boulardii as a probiotic should be used for certain conditions and should not be supplemented on a daily basis. I consider Saccharomyces boulardiito be a specialty probiotic. You should only supplement with S. boulardii if you are suffering from certain medical conditions. S. boulardii also has been shown to help people suffering from acute diarrhea, IBD, and travelers’ diarrhea.2 3 S. boulardii has been shown to help relieve food-borne diarrhea, bacterial related diarrhea, and has been shown to greatly help people with a C. difficile infection by competing with the bacteria directly and inhibiting C. difficile toxin A-associated enteritis.4 5 6 7
The reason I put Saccharomyces boulardii as a HSO in quotation marks is that I do not consider it to only be a soil-based organism. Even though it is not technically part of the natural intestinal flora of humans like most other non-HSO probiotics, I consider Saccharomyces boulardii to be rare important exception. Saccharomyces boulardii unlike another HSO yeast Phanerochaete chrysosporium (which only has one human pathology case study,8 no case studies of its supplementation benefit) has been studied greatly and both the benefits and risks of Saccharomyces boulardii have been well documented. Saccharomyces boulardii can be a beneficial addition to your gut flora if supplemented properly.
S. boulardii should be used with caution in people who have severely compromised immune systems (the same can be said with any probiotic) because of the rare chance of systemic fungal infection (fungemia).9 If fungemia occurs, follow the advanced Candida protocol advocated in Fix Your Gut as well as the yeast herx protocol. S. boulardii may cause allergic symptoms in people with yeast allergies and may sensitize the gut to histamine in people with an elevated Th2 immune system.
Brands of S. boulardii I Recommend:
See more from this series:
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2868213/ ↩
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2868213/ ↩
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296087/ ↩
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2868213/ ↩
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296087/ ↩
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805518/ ↩
- http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/31/4/1012.long ↩
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rcr2.31/abstract ↩
- http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/83/6/1256.full ↩
“You should only supplement with S. boulardii if you are suffering from certain medical conditions.”
And what are they? Unfortunately, this article is keeping too much of a mystery which cases benefit from this supplement, really needing more clarity and straightforwardness in that regard. I’m just left not knowing what to decide here, frustratingly.
My gastroenterologist in India prescribed me to take S. boulardii for one year, every day, at a 250mg dose twice daily. I has helped enormously for IBS symptoms.
I have diarrhea, constant and unstopping unless I take the Jarro-Dophilus original probiotic. I have recently been looking into my gut health related to mood, anxiety, depression, and cognitive performance as well (ALL of it, and strangely my balance as well). The JDO stops the diarrhea mostly, but the brain problems are still present.
A few years ago, before I got on the Jarro-Dophilus original, I was on jarrow’s S. boulardii, and my gastroenterologist told me the jdo was the winner, not the s. Boulardii, and he was right.
Why does one work significantly better than the other? Whaylt would you recommend i do? I’ve been trying supplements (alpha gpc, cdp choline, gingko Biloba, dmae bitartrate, I have MindLab Pro coming in, performance labs men’s multi vitamin, l-theanine, acetyl L cartinine, b vitamins, jarro omega fatty acid fish oil, and soon magnesium l threonate), and nothing has been the fix yet. I suspect gut health is the issue.
I would like to add that I think the diarrhea was caused by intense antibiotic use. Years ago I took antibiotics for acne (terrible idea), and then years after that I got a severe pneumonia case and didn’t realize it for a week. It manifested as severe chest pain, I thought it was from something else. Got two rounds of antibiotics because the first round didn’t seem to kill it, which may or may not have been right.
I never had severe histamine intolerance until I supplemented high dose of S. Boulardii for around 3 or 4 months. Now I react to everything I eat. Can someone give me some advice on how to get rid of this please??
Thanks
I ordered the Fix Your Gut Book and will look into the advanced candida protocol and yeast herx protocol as soon as I get it. How likely is it that this could fix my problem?
Can you say anything about florastor vs other s boulardii strains (for example those in jarrow) ? Ever experimented or noticed any difference? I saw some testimonials that florastor works better, especially against candida. Don’t know if it’s true.
Florastor uses the more studied strain Saccharomyces boulardii lyo and since they removed the additive titanium dioxide I recommend it now.
Thanks for the amazing information.
It’s a jungle out there, and knowing which products to trust is difficult for the average joe.
Would you say that ‘Saccharomyces boulardii’ is ok for a Candida / bacteria overgrowth patient, along side a liquid based milk bacteria such as this: Water, Rudis saccharo molasses, L Plantarium, L Casei, L Bulugaricus, L Fermentum, Enzymer Saccharmomyces Cervevisiae.
Why don’t people who eat mangosteen on a daily basis and therefore have s.boulardi in the gut, why don’t they have yeast infections?
You mean pick mangosteen or lychee off of trees and eating them directly? There are no studies of that or native populations. The fruit that you would get in stores are probably cleaned or you clean them at home.
Yikes – I’ve been on it for a couple years. I will wean off now. LMK if it’s better to go cold turkey?
Why would you stop taking something that is improving your health because some guy tells you that you should?
Great read!!! Very informative and helpful.
I especially appreciated the medical literature references provided.
yes yeast infection is very real. Not immune compromised. But still get yeast infection after a year of use. Before that, worked fine.
thank you
this was really helpful info
God bless