Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The story of how this probiotic helped me recover from a significant health issue is rather lengthy. So, for those who don't have the time or are not interested in the specifics... This is a great product that provides real benefits for digestive/immune health. Also, I would strongly encourage everybody to take this during/following a course of antibiotics. I have been taking Hyperbiotics PRO-15 daily for over a year and would recommend it to anyone without hesitation. Now here is the full story for the benefit of anyone who may be experiencing a similar problem or is just curious... A little over a year ago I was given a prescription for the antibiotic Azithromycin (Zithromax 5-day dose Z-Pak) to combat an upper respiratory infection. Although I had never taken Azithromycin, I have taken other antibiotics before without incident (primarily Doxycycline during my time deployed overseas in the military). Nonetheless, after taking the Azithromycin for a couple of days, I began to experience upset stomach and diarrhea. My doctor said these were normal side-effects and recommended completing the course of antibiotics if possible. Within the next 24-48 hours, I began to experience more severe stomach cramping, diarrhea, and blood in my stool. At this point, my doctor advised me to stop taking the Azithromycin, eat some yogurt, and let them know if the upper respiratory infection came back. Just like everybody else, I've had an upset stomach and diarrhea before and figured it would resolve itself in a day or two after I stopped taking the antibiotics... but it didn't.... in fact, it got worse. A week later I was having to make 10-20 urgent trips to the restroom throughout the day and night. The blood in my stool had increased to an alarming point and I was still experiencing intense stomach cramps. I felt weak and didn't have a normal appetite. Flash-forward to a month later, after seeing two different doctors and a visit to the emergency room, I am still experiencing the stomach cramps/diarrhea/blood in stool and have lost 20+ pounds. It was like living a bad dream and proved to be very disruptive to both my professional and family life. All of the medical labs/tests/scans came back negative for common causes of these symptoms, none of the doctors could provide a definitive diagnosis or solution, but suggested that it could be Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Ulcerative Colitis (UC), or Crohn's Disease. Out of desperation, looking for anything that might help, I tried several different brands of probiotics from the local grocery/pharmacy, tried taking aloe and flaxseed oil, adjusted my diet, and scoured the internet for other remedies... all to no avail... until one night I happened upon a blog written by a person in Australia who had been experiencing nearly identical symptoms after taking Azithromycin... and had managed to fix his problem with certain types of probiotics. Unfortunately, none of the probiotic brands he listed were available in the United States. Thankfully, however, he also listed the 12 specific probiotic strains and CFU count in each of the probiotics he had taken. So, I set out to find a probiotic available in the US that contained all of those beneficial bacteria strains. Everything I could find at the local grocery/pharmacy only had a few different types of probiotic bacteria. Then I found Hyperbiotics PRO-15 on Amazon and it contained every probiotic strain that he had listed. It almost seemed too simple and like a bit of a long shot, but I was hurting and had nothing to lose by trying these. I started taking 3 Hyperbiotics PRO-15 a day (breakfast/lunch/dinner) along with the "BRAT diet" (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast) that I had been attempting to subsist on up to that point. I started noticing a slight improvement in my symptoms after a couple days, a few less trips to the restroom and not quite as much blood in my stool. I was cautiously optimistic and continued the regimen. Things continued getting progressively better and after 2 weeks of the Hyperbiotics PRO-15 I was down to 3 bowel movements a day and no longer had any visible blood in my stool. Within a month of taking the Hyperbiotics I was totally back to normal. I tapered down to one PRO-15 a day and resumed eating a regular diet. It is now a year later and I still take one PRO-15 a day for general digestive/immune health. In addition to improving/maintaining my digestive health, I have noticed a real difference in my immune system. Even though I've been exposed to people with cold/flu, I haven't actually contracted the flu or a cold in the last 12 months that I've been taking Hyperbiotics. Compared to previous years that is unusual for me, I can't actually remember the last year that I didn't at least get a cold. Probiotics weren't really on my radar prior to all of this happening, but I'm completely sold on their effectiveness and necessity. It's not something I had given much thought to previously, but the need for probiotics became apparent to me the more I thought about it. Taking antibiotics kills all the bacteria in your gut (good and bad)... it's like spraying Roundup all over your lawn, it kills the weeds and grass. If you don't plant grass seed after killing your lawn, it will become overrun with weeds. On the other hand, if your lawn and is full of perfectly healthy grass, it will be difficult for any undesirable weeds to take hold. Maybe that's an over-simplified analogy, but bad things start to happen without the right beneficial probiotic bacteria in your system. Not only does the right bacteria help to digest food, it's holding the space and helping prevent other harmful bacteria from having a place to setup shop and make you sick. I hope that nobody out there has to experience what I went through, but I wanted to pass along my experience in the hopes that it may help somebody else. Even if you're not experiencing what I described, taking Hyperbiotics PRO-15 (or some other comparable product) regularly will probably prevent it from ever happening in the first place. None of the doctors I went to prescribed a probiotic, but I probably could have avoided this entire episode if they had. Bottom line, this is the real deal... it works and I would recommend it to anyone without hesitation!!!