I've been taking VSL#3 regularly for years and it seems to stem occurrence of pouchitis at times.
My doctor and pharmacy said the drug has been discontinued by the manufacturer?
Have you discovered this? Is there an alternative medication/probiotic that you find better?
thanks
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Your pharmacist is incorrect, but it is true that VSL #3 is temporarily unavailable while it’s being repackaged. There are several recent threads on this subject here, well worth your time to do a search. In my browser this site’s search function shows up as a magnifying glass icon near the top right of the window.
Just go to visbiome.com Visbiome is the original vsl3, if you need double strength you need a script. Read the other forum post if you want more info.
Hopefully someone can answer these two questions: 1) Is taking 2 capsules of Visbiome per day really that effective? It's gets pricey for me if I have to take more than that? I was taking VSL3 capsules until they stopped making it, but I haven't had problems with pouchitis. My longstanding, chronic (and irritating) issue is cuffitis (or colitis of the rectum, depending on who you ask). 2) How does Florastor compare to Visbiome? Thanks in advance to all who can answer these questions.
Hockadoo, you really shouldn't hijack someone else's thread. As for your questions, it all depends on you everyone is different. Capsules I believe are more expensive than the packets and have less active bacteria. It's mostly about how much active bacteria are in the products and the type, vsl3/Visbiome are created for us basically.
Two capsules of Visbiome is a pretty low dose. It might have a small effect on delaying or preventing pouchitis, but the dose does matter. If you have no problems with pouchitis it may be a waste of money. My dose is equivalent to 32 capsules per day, at least when VSL #3 is available, and it does seem to help me with pouchitis. There is no appreciable evidence (as far as I know) that it helps with cuffitis, though it does help some people with UC, which can be very similar. An adequate dose is hard to pay for without insurance support.
Florastor is said to help prevent C diff. I’m not aware of any effect on pouchitis, cuffitis, or UC. If you’ve never had C diff it’s probably a waste of money.
PouchLogic posted:Just go to visbiome.com Visbiome is the original vsl3, if you need double strength you need a script. Read the other forum post if you want more info.
so you're saying to try and get a double strength script of visbiome until VSL#3 comes back?
Nothing is clear in any of the forum posts or visbiome site about what to do......
Anyone with specific plans of how they are dealing with no VSL#3 right now is welcome.
I’m stretching out my stockpile of VSL #3 (by using a lower dose) and hoping it becomes available again before I run out. Visbiome is a perfectly good substitute in the meantime (and even for the long term), and may be even better than VSL #3, especially if VSL doesn’t have any insurance coverage advantages for you. Temoty, you didn’t say which VSL formulation you were using, but you can effectively substitute the equivalent formulation of Visbiome. So if you had a prescription for VSL #3 DS, get a prescription for Visbiome Extra Strength.
