Primal Defense - the real deal?
Primal Defense is a probiotic from Garden of Life. Its main selling point is that it contains some very hardy bacteria which don't need to be refrigerated and can survive the stomach acid on the way to the bowels.
Its been receiving rave reviews on curezone, and I can personally atest to its efficacy. But is it all its cracked up to be?
On closer inspection, PD contains a couple of soil based and a couple of animal bowel bacteria. Although the soil based bacteria quickly become established and outcompete bad bacteria and yeasts, they are essentially transient species which themselves are outcompeted by normal bowel flora.
Also some question the wisdom of including animal based species in such a formulation (Gastroenterology Journal). The long term impact of humans consuming such species of bacteria is not known.
Whilst the short term effects of PD are not in any doubt (very hardy species which survive room temperature, and the GI tract), it is doubtful that PD is anything other than a short term stop-gap. Primal Defense is not cheap, and the bottom line is that it is largely composed of non-native bowel flora.
In a sense Garden of Life have created the perfect product - it works agressively and quickly and you need to keep on using it indefinitely because as soon as you stop the original underlying problem will return.
PD can be part of a healing plan. But only if you are doing other things to allieviate your underlying problems and merely using PD for symptomatic relief.