Homemade Yogurt Resolves Irritable Bowel Symptoms in Most Patients

Thank you for the interesting and helpful story. Question: Can all forms of milk (low-fat, 1%, 2%, whole milk, lactose-free) be used to make the home made yogurt?

It is a good article - except IBS does not exist - it is not an illness - it is a category explained by, "we have no @#$%& idea what you have so let's just say you have IBS. For what its worth, IBS is most often anything from SIBO to Celiac or mild UC to a candida overgrowth/gut dysbiosis basically one of the many hundreds of autoimmune syndromes that exist or have yet to be discovered. IBS is just a convenient "container" for the medical industry. So yes, Yogurt and Kefir is right up there for all you people diagnosed with Voldemort syndrome!

Very interesting! I will try this and share this info with other people I know that suffer from IBS. However, I would like to know if it has to be Dannon, or can it be ANY plain yogurt? Was Dannon used in the study? Thank you and greetings from Munich

Is using homemade yogurt necessary? Why not just buy and eat plain yogurt?

It is a good article - except IBS does not exist - it is not an illness - it is a category explained by, "we have no @#$%& idea what you have so let's just say you have IBS. For what its worth, IBS is most often anything from SIBO to Celiac or mild UC to a candida overgrowth/gut dysbiosis basically one of the many hundreds of autoimmune syndromes that exist or have yet to be discovered. IBS is just a convenient "container" for the medical industry. So yes, Yogurt and Kefir is right up there for all you people diagnosed with Voldemort syndrome!

The fact that you can cite varied causes shows diagnosis is improving. And the uncontrolled study did not screen for IBS-SIBO or IBS-candida and so it is possible that the group was a mixed batch. Still most participants benefited. Which for these sufferers is likely more more important than knowing the underlying mechanism. Hopefully in the next decade or two the various IBS conditions will be sorted but until then treatment will have to be based empirically.

Is using homemade yogurt necessary? Why not just buy and eat plain yogurt?

Good question. The study focused on home made yogurt using Danon as a starter. Plain yogurt could be fine, but the data doesn't currently support that idea.

Very interesting! I will try this and share this info with other people I know that suffer from IBS. However, I would like to know if it has to be Dannon, or can it be ANY plain yogurt? Was Dannon used in the study? Thank you and greetings from Munich

Yes, the study focused on home made yogurt using Danon as a starter. Any plain yogurt might be fine, but the data for this study pertain to Danon as a starter. Good luck!

The reason that homemade yogurt is used is because the long incubation period results in far, far greater numbers of the lactobacillus than found in commercial yogurts.

This 'treatment' is similar to that advocated by the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Fage yogurt, which has a slightly different mix of lactobacillus than many other commerical yogurts, was one of the brands recommended by Elaine Gottschall. 

Wikipedia notes, "Specific carbohydrate diet is a restrictive diet first described by Dr. Sidney V. Haas in 1924 to treat celiac disease, and further refined in his 1951 medical text The Management of Celiac Disease. It was later re-popularized in 1987 by Elaine Gottschall, the mother of one of Haas's patients." The idea behind the SCD is that eating very specific foods over time remodels the population of flora and fauna in the gut, and Haas felt that celiac disease could actually be cured in this way. He was the undisputed worldwide expert on celiac sprue, until after his death, when competing scientists displaced his theories with their own.

On 1/30/2018 at 2:19 AM, Guest Patrick Pigott said:

Thank you for the interesting and helpful story. Question: Can all forms of milk (low-fat, 1%, 2%, whole milk, lactose-free) be used to make the home made yogurt?

I have been making my own yogurt for years, and I have found all forms of dairy milk to work, with the exception of lactose-free, which I haven’t tried. I have never tried lactose-free, because most of the lactose is removed during the fermenting process, according to Elaine Gottschall. I always allow my yogurt to “brew” for about 24 hours. I also stir a packet of unflavored gelatin into the milk before I boil it, which gives the yogurt a nice, firm texture. I use my yogurt for any recipe calling for yogurt, but I also use it to make “overnight oatmeal,” using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oats. I usually purchase Yogourmet (or another brand) yogurt starter either on Amazon or at my local health food store to use as my starter, but I have used many different plain yogurts, such as Dannon or Chobani, as well. 
Making my own yogurt seemed like a complicated process when I first decided to try it, but after you’ve made it a time or two, you will find it to be incredibly easy. I could do it in my sleep at this point. 😉 Eating homemade yogurt has definitely helped my gut to heal—and eating it has become a healthy habit that I never plan to break!
GOOD LUCK!

On 1/30/2018 at 4:19 PM, Guest Patrick Pigott said:

Thank you for the interesting and helpful story. Question: Can all forms of milk (low-fat, 1%, 2%, whole milk, lactose-free) be used to make the home made yogurt?

Yes, you can make it using coconut milk for example. I think it's better if it's not too low fat. Maybe 2%. I don't use skim. If you are concerned about the lactose, ferment it for 24 to 30 hours. People who have issues with IBS should ideally ferment for at least 24 hours. 

Also if you sinus issues associated with your IBS, then avoid fermented foods. You could though buy no histamine probiotics to make your yogurt by opening the capsules and mixing in the powder probiotics after the milk you boiled has become warm. Store yogurt contains strains that could make those with sinus, headache issues worse if connected to their IBS. So use something like probiota histaminx brand or lifted mood's blue  version of their probiotics. Many people aren't aware that many IBS people are producing a huge amount of histamine in their body. Tell tail hints are itching, poor sleep, nightmares, muscle aches, sinuses, migrainenes. If they sound familiar avoid kefir and yogurt unless you make a low histamine yogurt as I mentioned. And ferment for at least 24 hours up to say 36 hours. 

3 hours ago, Guest Basil said:

Also if you sinus issues associated with your IBS, then avoid fermented foods. You could though buy no histamine probiotics to make your yogurt by opening the capsules and mixing in the powder probiotics after the milk you boiled has become warm. Store yogurt contains strains that could make those with sinus, headache issues worse if connected to their IBS. So use something like probiota histaminx brand or lifted mood's blue  version of their probiotics. Many people aren't aware that many IBS people are producing a huge amount of histamine in their body. Tell tail hints are itching, poor sleep, nightmares, muscle aches, sinuses, migrainenes. If they sound familiar avoid kefir and yogurt unless you make a low histamine yogurt as I mentioned. And ferment for at least 24 hours up to say 36 hours. 

People with MCAS/histamine intolerance should avoid fermented food products as they are high in histamine.