The wrong way is to take lactobacillus probiotics!! Why? Lactobacillus probiotics in general kill off E.Coli which CFS patients are very low in (if they have any), and most lactobacillus are also D-Lactic acid producers (which most CFS patients are very high in! see this post).

The amount of information on interactions is actually quite thin, and often come from veterinary studies.

• “All tested Lactobacillus strains presented inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella Typhimurium, Salmonella Enteritidis, Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli,” [2016]
• “Associants (E. coli and Enterococcus faecium) were “friend” species, in which bifidobacteria exometabolites did not change growth properties and stimulated anti-lysozyme activity(by 17,5–32%) and formation of biofilms (by 25 – 39%).” [2011]
• ” After the introduction of probiotic enterococci, the quantity of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria in the intestines of rats increased, and the content of Klebsiella spp. and Escherichia coli decreased in comparison with the control group 1 and the group fed lactobacilli.” [2013]
• “Enterococcus faecium L5 led to the rapid disappearance of dysbiosis symptoms, normalisation of the microbiota, increase in expression of IL-10 and decrease in IL-8 expression.” [2010]
• “probiotic E. faecium on enterococci was strain specific and the growth of certain Lactobacillus spp. was enhanced by the probiotic,” [2015]
• “E. faecium had lower (P < 0.05) concentrations of E. coli on d 14 and 28, less (P < 0.05) Clostridium perfringens on d 28, greater Lactobacillus counts on d 14 and 21, and greater (P < 0.05) Bifidobacterium in their cecal contents on d 21″ [2013]
• “In general, probiotic bacteria proved to be more inhibitory towards lactic acid bacteria than vice versa since the latter did not exert any effect on the growth of the former, with some exceptions” [2001]
• “using a synbiotic comprising Bifidobacterium bifidum BB-02 and Bifidobacterium lactis BL-01 (probiotics) …. Counting of viable organisms showed significantly higher total numbers of fecal bifidobacteria, total numbers of lactobacilli, and numbers of B. bifidum during synbiotic feeding.”[2005]

Bottom Line

I read that the following three “play well with each other” and will raise lactobacillus in a balance style. Taking lactobacillus probiotics will destroy the balance and lactobacillus will dominate, resulting in the low populations staying low (or non-existent) of the families that CFS patients are abnormally low in.

• Enterococcus faecium – Symbioflor-1 and others
• E. Coli (mutaflor, Symbioflor-2)
• Bifidobacteria