Probiotics are a HUGH profit margin. The cost to produce is pretty constant. The difference per BCFU from the cheapest to the most expensive is 650x (i.e. 65,000% difference). You can cut your supplement costs greatly with some careful shopping around and computing the cost per BCFU.
Below are some buying options. I will use Lactobacillus reuteri to illustrate the price issues
BioGaia Gastrus
30 x 0.2 BCFU = 6 BCFU for $30.00 or 0.2 BCFU per dollar
Super Smart
60 x 5 BCFU = 300 BFU for $20 or 15 BCFU per dollar
Toniiq
They appear to have only one single strain probiotic for sale.
50 BCFU x 60 = 3000 BCFU for $22. or 136 BCFU per dollar
Custom Probiotics
They use a researched strain (different from the above). They are probiotics ONLY, no filler.
50/.8 * 60 BCFU = 3650 BCFU for $100 = 36.5 BCFU per dollar
Maple Life Sciences
50 grams at 20 BCFU/gram = 1000 BFCU for $15.00 = 66 BCFU per dollar
They are probiotics with fructooligosaccharides only, no other fillers. Certified Organic
Two quick questions:
1. I noticed you haven’t talked a lot about live cultures of probiotics ( e.g. https://drdavisinfinitehealth.com/2019/07/how-to-make-l-reuteri-yogurt-step-by-step/ ) – maybe that’s another way to keep things cheaper? I also came across a paper ( i.e. Figure 2 of https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA552351.pdf ) that shows live cultures of L. reuteri have higher gut colonization rates.
2. Are all of these L. reuteri strains more or less equal? I read your earlier blog post about how the specific strain matters and how the ideal strain would produce less histamine. I think I’ve read Gastrus’s 17938 strain doesn’t produce histamine but I don’t know about the other. These other vendors I think also aren’t in the microbiomeprescription.com “Research Probiotics Strain Available Retail Option”.
I’ve also been researching L. reuteri quite a bit because your site thinks it might help my microbiome. 😛
I know many L.Reuteri produces histamines, so I would assume a not specified strain is likely a histamine producing strain,
See diagram on this page: https://blog.microbiomeprescription.com/2021/05/04/strains-strain-our-knowledge-of-probiotics/
As for live culture, I always favor that. “heat-killed” or “inactivated” probiotics are often called post-biotics and do help, but in transit only. There are many studies showing benefits.
I tend not to dwell on this point because I know that there are strong opinions out there… and I prefer a quiet life
Thank you for the reply! I really appreciate the L. reuteri info, your position on live culture, and learning about post-biotics.
On a different note, is there a way to get notified when there are blog post replies? I know I’ve put comments on other posts in the past but only saw you replied to this one because I manually checked it.