There is confusion concerning whether or not one can derive value from taking more than one probiotic at a time. Is it really a mistake to pack mutiple strains in one supplement?

Years ago, beginning in the early 1980’s as my memory recalls it, a horrendous piece of disinformation was fed into the natural products marketplace. Promotional literature appeared that put forth the concept that taking multiple probiotics simultaneously was bad, because the different probiotics would compete against each other, and kill each other off.

The concept is bogus. It is untrue. It is false. In fact, multiple stains of probiotics colonize, survive and prosper in every person’s intestinal tract. Each person’s ratio and strains are unique to them, based on the environment in which they grew up and the diet they ate. The broad array of multiple strains in a person’s G.I. tract could not sustain itself if competition among the strains were fierce. The ability of different strains to live side by side in the gut also means that combinations of different probiotics in a single supplement will have efficacy. In fact, probiotic bacteria that survive passage through the stomach, and reach the small intestine, will double in
number every 15 minutes.

The greatest risk to survival of the probiotics is not WHETHER they are paired in a supplement with other strains, but WHEN the supplement is taken. Probiotics should be ingested approximately 30 to 60 minutes after a meal. By that time, the food has diluted the stomach acid, raising pH from 1.5 or 2.0, to anywhere between 3.0 and 5.0. Even though 3.0 to 5,0 is still acidic, the acidity in the stomach is reduced enough to permit survival of the probiotics.

Modern advances in genetic typing of probiotic strains has identified strains more resistant to the rigors of the digestive tract than those strains commonly marketed just a few short years ago. Probiotics selected for use in Green Vibrance have been chosen on the basis of several criteria. One is their enhanced ability to survive stomach acidity, and another is their ability to resist degradation by bile.