Probiotics labelled 'quite useless'

Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by sschueller on Thursday September 06, 2018 @01:36PM (#17927863)

Isn't the idea to give probiotics to people who do not have a healthy gut? Such as someone who had been taking antibiotic for a prolonged period of time? So why did they give the probiotic to 25 healthy individuals?

Also 25 seems like a very small sample.

Edit: it appears they also did a study on 46 people after taking antibiotics but that I still find to be a small sample size.

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by NikolaNovak on Thursday September 06, 2018 @01:39PM (#17927890)

In Canada at least,probiotics are largely bought of the shelf by healthy people.

Last week I accidentally bought a bottle of water from seven eleven,which turned out to have probiotics added. Cost the same as regular water too...

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by WalterSear on Thursday September 06, 2018 @03:23PM (#17928847)

IME, most things in 7-11 have probiotics added.

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by genomer on Thursday September 06, 2018 @02:15PM (#17928183)

I was surprised by a probiotic addition the other day as well. It was added to a vegan protein powder I bought off the shelf.

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by bena on Thursday September 06, 2018 @03:01PM (#17928673)

Do you think it's really an addition or something that was in there already they could market as a probiotic?

Like how a lot of things became "gluten free" despite not containing gluten to begin with.

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by joshuagross on Thursday September 06, 2018 @03:44PM (#17929015)

Gluten free also refers to processing. If something is made in the same facility / alongside a product with gluten it’s a serious problem with people with Celiac.

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by travisjungroth on Thursday September 06, 2018 @02:07PM (#17928107)

25 and 46 are plenty large sample sizes for something that should have a large effect. I agree that I've always thought of probiotics only for recovery after antibiotics or stomach illness.

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by guelo on Thursday September 06, 2018 @02:57PM (#17928634)

In the article it mentions that they studied using probiotics after antibiotics and it actually did more harm than good.

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[dead]

Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by olooney on Thursday September 06, 2018 @01:52PM (#17927983)

This type of comment is explicitly mentioned in the Hacker News Guidelines:

> Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by genomer on Thursday September 06, 2018 @02:01PM (#17928042)

How else do we dissuade people who don't read an article from jumping to ignorant conclusions and filling the message board with tripe?

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by pvg on Thursday September 06, 2018 @02:03PM (#17928050)

Also described right in the comment you are replying to.

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by genomer on Thursday September 06, 2018 @02:10PM (#17928144)

Are you insinuating that I didn't read the comment? I take such offense to this.

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Re:Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' by ghostbrainalpha on Thursday September 06, 2018 @02:31PM (#17928355)

The comment you are referencing is in accordance with this section of the guidelines.

>>Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."

It is ok to point out facts from the article. We just try not to go overboard with it. I know it might seem pedantic, but over time it really does result in a better community.

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