I've been in deep research after reading that comment. Thought it was interesting this story popped up today. Coincidence or astroturf? Been dealing with gastro issues for 4+ years now. I'll report back after I take the stuff for a month.

Hi OP of the comment here. I linked a bunch of studies as well as providing my own anecdotal evidence that this stuff worked well enough that I had IBS symptoms reversed by taking this probiotic. My friends who I have introduced this to really like it, too.

I'm actually super interested in learning how to make yogurt with it now to help people I know who may be suffering out some. I hear that's a really easy way to make it even more bioavailable. Proper respects to the people who brought this up! [1]

It's not astroturf, I dunno why I'd spend like a year on this site mostly talking about tech stuff and then just drop that I've had the most horrible shits of my life cured, that's kind of a really personal thing I'm only sharing here because it was extremely helpful to me - and I only hope it works for others, but that hope is strong enough.

[1] https://www.luvele.com/blogs/recipe-blog/how-to-make-l-reute...

+1 on making the yogurt. I have been making L. reuteri yogurt (or fermented milk, technically) for a few months. I started with some BioGaia Gastrus tablets in batch 1 and now just use a tablespoon or two of batch n - 1.

I recommend getting a sous vide device for precise temperature control. Initially, I used a the "Yogurt" function on an Instant Pot pressure cooker and about half of the batches failed, separating into whey and curds.

The article linked by parent says to use new BioGaia Gastrus tablets every 4-5 batches so as not to grow unwanted bacteria. Have you had any trouble reusing the same batch indefinitely?

The yogurt has the same taste and consistency as it did in the beginning, so I haven't had any trouble in that sense. However, it does seem prudent to restart periodically.

Would you mind sketching out your recipe?

I started with Dr. Davis' recipe. It's described in his book "Super Gut" and is also available on his website [1]. My current method is a bit simpler:

- I buy full fat milk in a glass bottle so that I can make the yogurt directly inside without having to sterilize another container. I have had more success with UHT milk than pasteurized milk.

- I add two tbsp. (~40g) of my previous batch to one liter of milk. Close lid and shake.

- Put bottle in a pot of water, submerging most of the milk bottle. I leave the lid on, but untightened so that gas can escape.

- I add a sous vide "wand" to the pot and leave it for 24 hours at 38°C (100°F)

I deviate from Dr. Davis' recipe by not adding inulin to the milk and fermenting for a shorter duration. This probably results in fewer bacteria present in the final product, but the above takes me less than 5 minutes to prepare.

[1] https://blog.undoctored.com/lreuteriyogurtstepbystep/

Interesting, I was looking into Lactobacillus gasseri as an aide for uric acid reduction, to help with my gout.

I have kidney disease, and cannot take the usual gout prophylactic medications.

I read that in Japan there is a 'gout yoghurt ', called Meiji (I think) and bought some l. gasseri to try making myself.

Appreciate your willingness to share.

Isn't the general advice to ingest a large variety of lactobacilli, as opposed to large quantities of just one bacillus? When I made kefir in my kitchen, I read that the cultures can contain up to 80 different genetics. Whenever I research lactobacilli, the term diversity comes up.

I gather that kefir grains are like big balls of mud, picking up lots of varieties of microbes. Over time, however, I’d guess that the number of strains might deteriorate due to more homogeneous growing medium and controlled kitchen environment.

I’ve had a lot of kefir grains from different sources over the years, and many that you order online seem to be weak and not thrive. By contrast, I’d gotten some big healthy grains from a friend of a friend who’d been culturing them in raw milk in rural MT for a lot of years, and those things were monsters that grew large and divided often. They led me on an on- again off-again quest to find such excellent grains.

I’ve heard of people introducing their grains to e.g. Icelandic skyr cultures, which results in the permanent colonization of the kefir grains by particular microbes. The skyrified kefir being qualitatively different. I could see getting a lab strain of reuteri and similarly training kefir grains to incorporate this as part of the colony.

Diversity does seem to be a good thing, but that said, some of the reported properties of this particular strain seem especially interesting.

I think taking a single strain is not something you'd want to do long term, I'd assume it's better just as a short course to try and improve your gut bacteria balance, if you're having problems or have just had antibiotics. With a good balanced diet (prebiotic fibre etc.) I don't think people should really need to constantly be taking probiotic tablets, but kefir and yoghurt seem good generally.

I am taking a wild guess that the OP here read the previous thread and found it interesting, and thought other HN users would find this link interesting. Happens all the time.

We're trying it too since there's just not a lot you can do for IBS.