Genuine Health Probiotics – a Review

My last review was a thumbs down for a poorly presented probiotic. In this review I want to show what a well presented probiotic looks like. I cam across this one from a demo at my local food co-op and was delighted to read the label. Their direct web-site is here

Let us look at some of the labels on 5 of their products:

Genuine Health Gut Health Probiotic, 15 Billion by Genuine Health

Genuine Health Gut Health Probiotic, Women’s Mood

The Sweet one!

Genuine Health Women’s Advanced Gut Health Proboitic UTI By Genuine Health

Why do I say “sweet” — because it has some very rare species to see in any probiotic:

Lactobacillus Jensenii
Lactobacillus Fermentum

Origin – Animal, human or environment?

That’s why we use coded strains in advanced gut health probiotic. The strains that we use are 100% human strains, are non-GMO, and do not come from animals.
GenuineHealth site

Likely the same source as NovaProbiotics

While looking for information on these strains, I found this page with many of the same strains listed. this site states:

Each bacterial strain part of our collection was isolated, identified and purified after one-time collection either from meconium, placenta or a healthy human subject. The strains were obtained two decades ago and have been naturally replicating in the laboratory ever since, periodically undergoing numerous tests to assure the bacteria are healthy and maintain their positive characteristics.
NovaProbiotics.com

Nova Probiotics appears to be a Canadian firm based in Quebec.

What do we have for actual published research?

It is always a good win when you see all of the species and their relative amounts listed. The icing on the cake would be research for these specific strains… At the moment, I have not found such — I have emailed Nova Probiotics asking if any studies are available.

Bottom Line

For a probiotic mixture, I would give this one a big thumbs up — for the following reasons:

All of the probiotics are human sourced
All of the strains listed
The amount of each strain is listed
There appears to have been actual studies, as shown on this page.
The issue may be one of the studies not being published formally.

MaximilianKohler 4:35 pm on March 1, 2019

Thanks for another good probiotic review.

Couple things stood out to me:

They say “The strains were obtained two decades ago from meconium, placenta or a healthy human subject”. This is a highly questionable statement given that only in recent years have there been significant evidence that the meconium and placenta aren’t sterile. And it’s still hotly contested. See: https://old.reddit.com/r/HumanMicrobiome/wiki/origins
On the page where they list scientific evidence https://novaprobiotics.com/usa-en/14-probiotic-strains/ they are making broad generalizations based on “this species has been shown to have various benefits” rather than their specific strain. I think it’s unlikely that their strains have actually individually been tested in studies, and thus generalizations like this seem to be the norm. There are also no citations on the evidence page, only broad claims. Which is a bad sign.
- lassesen 5:22 pm on March 1, 2019
  
  It is less than desirable. I will give the canadian supplier until EOD of monday for possible papers….
Niteen 8:16 pm on March 1, 2019

Multi strain probiotics are not the way to go. they can really mess you up. less is more. this line of thinking is now outdated as new research is emerging in the microbiome field
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