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Reply to "Surely just let me die"

Poucho is correct that Dr. Shen holds the view that probiotics is useless to treat pouchitis. I was treated by Dr. Oikonnomou, a Shen protege who studied under Shen when both were at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. O was at Yale 2009 to 2015 and treated me during that period and actually frequently discussed my case with Shen. He told me that probiotics were "an expensive placebo" and fecal implants were nothing but a "wildly expensive probiotic." The views they hold are probably true for most Pouch patients, but we have had reports from some posters like Scott F and Dee that probiotics worked for them. My own experience with VSL#3 when I cold turkeyed off antibiotics onto VSL#3 was that it was an unmitigated disaster, and resulted in brutal and savage pouchitis causing me to sink to depths of struggle that were very harsh low points in my 30 year battle against pouchitis.

My suggestion to the OP would be to try it- but don't place high expectations on it working alone and not in tandem with other treatments. In your current situation you do not want to waste too much time with treatments that do not work.

Last edited by CTBarrister
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