Next, I quoted their studies, to give a sense of how meager their effects really are (though not strictly ‘lying).
Here I offer some interesting studies about probiotics that I think are real benefits. A great number of studies on L. reuteri are grouped on a nice page here.
In Mexico City, a place where diarrhea is just expected, they performed a randomized, placebo-controlled trial for 4 months of 250 infants and found that the ones drinking milk spiked with L. reuteri had significantly less episodes of community acquired diarrhea. (76% vs 64%).
Another tasty experiment involved giving women intravaginal and perineal L. casei strain GR 1 who had frequent UTI. Apparently, they had increased infection free periods, and they didn’t have to take antibiotics. Unfortunately, they couldn’t just drink it (if you know what I mean), but they didn’t suffer any yeast infections, which is a known side effect of antibiotics.
One of the more intriguing studies of probiotics is the possibility of reducing the incidence of atopic disease by exposing young children to the Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG strain. They fed it to mothers prenatally and to the infants 6 months postnatally, and there was a significant risk reduction (almost 50%) in the incidence of atopic eczema.
So why doesn’t Dannon mention these studies? Because their strain (L. casei DN 114001) isn’t proven to do any of these things. And you can buy any of the known products at a health food store.
The take home message is that the immune boost advertised on their commercial is extremely misleading (so what else is new) and even more disturbing is their lack of supporting data on their website. Before you decide to start pouring this down your kids’ throats for YEARS to shorten their diarrheal episodes by one or two days, check out this page. Their list of strains is more reliable. It's only 2.29 for a four pack, but check out this page for a quote you wont believe, that just proves my point:
The drink contains the active culture L. Casei, which is supposed to provide balance in your digestive tract and strengthen your immune system. That caught my attention, because my younger son had been battling a mild flu-like virus for several days and I felt his symptoms starting. I drank DanActive for four successive days. After the second day all my viral symptoms went away. My poor son had suffered for a week. I’m not sure if DanActive was responsible for my quick recovery, but it sure didn’t hurt.
Unreal!
38 comments:
I started drinking Danactive but after reading your review I don't know if I should continue. Can you tell me if it will be harmful to take it? I am a 67 yr old female with no health issues except for high cholesterol which is controled by meds. I am overweight as well. Thank you,
Thelma
I tried Dan Active for a short time
and my digestive system felt better
So,I'm not sure if I should use it
after reading your article.
I tried this new Danactive and it kept me in the bathroom for 4 days with diarrhea. OK-lets try it again just in case it wasn't the Danactive. Must be the Danactive because it happened again. Then I read some blogs and other people were having the same problem. Maybe they should tell you not everyone's system can handle this kind of "helpful" bacteria!!
Hello all,
I can get sick pretty quickly when I am out of my workout routine. As we all know, it's hard to stick to. So, I decided to start drinking this and a month after doing so, my right hip began to hurt. Not sure what that means. So I tesyed it out, restarted drinking it weeks later after the pain subsided and the pain did return. Needless to say, I stopped drinking it.
I decided to try Danactive this afternoon and I have been to the bathroom no less than 5 times already. My diarrhea is pretty bad. Hope I get some sleep tonight....!
I actually just started Dan Active. The taste is horrible, but it has kept me "regular" over this last week which is not a normal thing for me. I can't say that I will continue to use it, but for this reason alone I will consider it!
Honestly, I think your article is pretty misleading itself you spend so much time debunking the effects of DanActive and then turn around to say that you aren't trying to do that so much as speak against their advertising. First, if that was your purpose that intent should have been clearly stated at the beginning of the first article. But, I'm not here to criticize you so much as say that they advertise a boost for the immune system not a product that will make someone an iron wall against any illness and in reducing a period of diarrhea from 9 days to 7 days is pretty dramatic for the person who is pooping out their intestines. But as far as your articles go it seems that you also spend an unnecessary amount of time criticizing the nation and dialect of the place where the studies took place. If you are trying to prove a point it would be wise of you to be objective and present a fair argument to both sides which would then allow people to make their own educated decisions about what to believe as far as DanActive is concerned and anything less is you selling your ideas in very much the same manner as the company which you are criticizing. Overall, I think you have already considered the amount of influence that you have by bringing your title of doctor into play, however you should not abuse it to push your opinions about advertising into people's health. How about providing a caution and telling people to consult their own doctors about DanActive to make the finial decision as to whether DanActive will be effective for the reasons for which they are seeking to use it.
hi, i need your opinon. since u know a little bit more than i do about danactive.
this is what happend?:
i've take danactive before to hlep my immune system fight off bacteria and now get sick.
and i was fine.
last night or 2 nights ago i took danactive and it gave me diarreah- or so i think
im also taking a acne antibiotic that goes on my face and to my blood which can also cause diareah.( spelling?).so now i dont know what to do
im not going to take the danactive crap anymore but do u think its danactive or my antibiotic?
and how come danactive deosnt list the side effects?
please! resond! i need and anwser fast!
please
thankss
L Casei products are actually extremely common in Asia and Europe. An example would be Yakult, a probiotic drink which was first sold in 1935 and is sold everywhere in the world now. (although its not popular in the us, yet.) Each bottle contains at least 100 billion L casei and a lot of people drink at least one a day (I used to drink at least 2 a day...sometimes a dozen...). I personally think that DanActive is a LOT milder than Yakult and psh... don't worry about the "side effects"... the Japanese has been drinking this since 1935 and last time I checked they are still the longest living people in the world...
just kidding... i meant "10 billion L casei" in each bottle of Yakult.
Regardless of anyone elses situation it works for me. I am a chronic pain patient for 10 yrs now. I suffer from chronic constipation due to my meds and all the store bought treatments left my bowels on a rollercoaster ride. By the second week of using Dan Active I have had normal bowel function and no more eye popping strain.
I drank it every day for 6 months and have been fine. I am hiv+ and my counts are better then ever. since i started drinking Danactive. just my imput
I just started drinking this but have had no side effects from it. I had the flua few weeks back which left my immune system vulnerable and I got a case of oral thrush from a medication I was on for asthma. I went to the doctor and got a medication to clear it up and the doctor recommended I drink a glass of orange juice a day and get some yogurt with active cultures in it to help restore the good bacteria. My doctor also recommend this DanActive stuff and I have to say I was skeptical when she said it could help speed my recovery time. But it has been two days and while I still have 3 days of treatments left for my medicine the thrush is well on its way to being gone. I don't know what people are talking about that say it tastes bad. Give it a good shake and I think it tastes really good. Even after I get over the thrush I plan on continuing to drink one every morning. Apparently my immune system can use the boost and any benefit from this no matter how small is still a benefit to my body. Everyone has a different body chemistry so just because it causes problems in one person doesn't mean it will cause problems for you. All you can do is buy some and give it a shot. If you have problems with it stop drinking it and if you don't it's relatively cheap and gives your body a few added benefits. Also remember some people need a few days for there bodies to adjust to something new so that could be the source of the problems some people are having. Just thought I'd share my experience with it.
As a "doctor", you should know the basics about research and citing research journal articles. Citing an article that is 10 years old as the basis for your argument would not hold in real academia. I highly doubt there aren't publications a little more recent. Perhaps they just don't fit your stance?
I have been having stomach issues and a mysterious discomfort in my lower left side for a while. My bowel movements are very regular, in part because I usually have a big bowl of Cracklin Oat Bran each morning.
I drank a bottle of the Danactive two nights ago and noticed and almost immediate easing of my two "issues" (which lasted for about 18 hrs) and a similar reaction the last night.
Is it my imagination...? Maybe, but I really don't think so.
No bad side-effects for me, and I actually think it's quite tasty.
I plan to keep on drinking it.
I sell food on the wholesale level and Dannon really bragged this up about 2 years ago. I was curious. I'm a heavy smoker and eat terribly and pretty much always feel run down.
I started doing the 4 pack within 2 days. then not for a week.
I might have felt generally better, but there was a result in good comfy BMs. I got really bad food poisoning in Canada about 1998 and think it messed me up a little and was having runny stools.
The Danactive makes me poop like a kid again. Could be mental, but who cares. It's got calcium and even if it's not proven I like having healthy stools again!
My husband just survived a kidney transplant (5 years) and four months ago needed an emergency femoral to femoral bypass during which he contracted MRSA. He has been taking massive doses of antibiotics which have also affected his rejection drugs and they have had to be increased by 600% to remain theraputic. Needless to say, he has had a terrible problem with explosive diahhrea and nausea. I have tried everything related to diet, yogurts and adding probiotic capsules. Nothing helped other than prescription anti-diahhrea drugs, until this week. He was so unstable with his rejection meds and the only thing that was not a constant was the probiotic capsules. I stopped them and kept him on Activia and added a DanActive in the middle of the afternoon, away from his antibiotics. Bingo! For the first time in four months the explosive diahhrea is gone! It has been one week on the DanActive and his labs have stabilized! His WBC is nearly normal along with his Hemoglobin, platelets and RBC which all returned to normal levels! Was it the DanActive? That was the only thing changed.
I've tried Danactive 3 different times since Dec 2007 and each time had extremely bad cramps and diarhea within hours. My husband, on-the-other-hand, swears by the stuff. He has drunk the stuff 2x daily since Dec. and thinks it's kept him healthy during the flu season this year. I tried the other Dannon product, Activia, and it has helped me stay "regular" for about a month now. It too has a live bacteria but a different kind. Maybe the moral is that different people's systems need different pro-biotics.
I have been drinking DanActive (Vanilla flavor) for about 3 years on and off. Let me tell you, my husband has been sick with the stomach flu, sinus infections and other colds and i have been RARELY sick. I try to be as health concious and the next person with good hygene(hand washing) and all that stuff but i honestly swear by this stuff. And, i also give a bottle a day to my toddler, she rarely is sick herself with the exception of snotty noses and kids colds. I agree with other posters that state how everyone's body is different and will react differently to the things we put in it.
P.S. the vanilla flavor is good!
I'm a primary care doctor myself, and have suffered from constipation my whole life. In desperation, i pushed my academic skepticism aside and tried DanActive. Two days into using it i had a regular bowel movement and one week into it this trend has continued. I have not had to use any laxatives or even fiber supplements for the first time in over a year, and yet I am still having regular daily bowel movements. I am frankly startled that this product has worked this well in such a short period of time with no side effects. Since i work with a predominantly geriatric population with constipation being the most common complaint, I must say that i will be recommending this product to those patients. All that being said, every BODY does respond differently, so if you have side effects....stop taking the product!
I came here because I had very loose bowel movementts after drinking DanActive. What a nice surprise after suffering the horrors of chronic constipation as a side effect of the need to take a lot of codeine based chronic pain killers. I was getting worried that I might become impacted but no more...I only wish there wasw a way to make the process less extreme. I'm sitting here with a bottle in frontof mr wondering if I prefer diahrrhea or severe constipation...I trhink I am praying tthat I could have neither
I wonder, since you are a doctor, if you are upset of people taking probiotics because it will keep money out of your pocket. I am starting to put doctors in a category just above lawyers (which are the bottom dwellers of society). Although there are some good ethical doctors out there, there are some who just prescribe, prescribe, prescribe and couldn't care less about the effects it has on their patients. I've taken Dan-Active since it came to my area and find it works very well. I tried Mona Vie since friends were selling it, and gave it a good college try (for $45 a pop) it did nothing. I kept on with Dan-Active and have had great success. I agree that not every product, herb, root, etc. is right for everyone, but they should try it themselves and decide.
I just started up with DanActive and I admit, it was mostly due to marketing. I figured if DanActive didn't do well for me in a couple of weeks, I'd switch to Activia and give that a shot.
After taking the Danactive the first couple of days, I did seem to have diarrhea for my next bowel movement, I don't usually do dairy. But I also keep in mind that yogurt is a dairy product, so if you have difficulties with Lactose, yogurt isn't going to be any different than milk. People might want to keep that in mind. Keep some lactaid on hand if you have problems. People who don't do dairy very often will probably lack the necessary enzymes to digest milk, even if they don't usually have problems with Lactose.
I work for a non profit publication that reviews drugs, The Medical Letter, www.medicalletter.org, I take this stuff and it makes me feel better...period. read our article on Probiotcs, you will all learn something new. thank you!
I have been taking DanActive now for 4 days. Leading up to starting DanActive i had been on and off sick with Flu-like symptoms and a bout of walking pneumonia. I am HIV positive and at last check my immune system was very low. Since starting DanActive I feel like a "Spring Chicken". I have not felt this lively and energetic in years, i repeat YEARS...Too bad i am spending all my energy on the crapper!!! I have had severe diarhea, and I mean SEVERE. I thought I had an intestinal virus until I found this site, and I see that other people are having the same reaction...I think the product taste great(Blueberry, Strawberry) and the way I feel I haven't felt in a very long time. I really feel Healthy. I just need to know am I doing more damage to myself by crapping my guts out. I started taking anti-diarhea otc meds.,, Please help!! I dont know what I should do..It's like the old saying goes " 6 in one hand and 1/2 a dozen in the other". Should I stop? Is this unhealthy? Will the Diarhea stop?
I drink DanActive daily. I'm a teacher and my husband works at a local grocery store. I've found that DanActive keeps me more regular and it seems to fend off all the sicknesses my students and husband bring my way. I swear by the stuff.
That's funny, my doctor told me patients he knows that have been taking this have had excellent results.
So, now after 3 years of ingesting this liquid I have not been sick once, not even a cold.
Can you explain that?
DAN-ACTIVE has been my "LIFELINE" to wellness! I can't do enough to spread the word about how amazing this product is. I was intially reluctant to take it due to it being pricy but I was looking for something to help "BOOST MY IMMUNE" so I decided to purchase it. I've been taking DanActive for two years and have NOT been sick one day since I've taken it. Prior to DanActive, I got sick at the end of Fall and was sick up until early Spring. I'm on Facebook and I notice all the sicknesses that everyone is getting and for once in my life it isn't me. The probiotic's in this SUPER DRINK (what I like to call it) must work miracles!!! I honestly am living a productive life. I don't miss work and I don't need to go to the doctors. I've saved money due to drinking DanActive in more ways than one, not to mention the positive health benefits! Thank you so very much for producing this product Dannon!
I believe that many people are helped by Dan Active, but I need to add that my daughter started using it because she was taking an antibiotic for a sinus infection. She appeared to be fine after she finished the antibiotic, she kept taking the Dan Active. She didn't take it everyday, but she started to have stomach pains and diarrhea. She did not make a connection between the Dan Active and the symptoms. Then because it was in the frig, I drank some also, not everyday, but two or three times. When I started having the same stomach pains and diarrhea, I told her Stop, Stop, Stop using the drink. Now we are both better and we are not taking it again to test it out.
Let me say that I started drinking Dan Active after watching the commericials. I thought well if most of your immune system as they say is in your stomach then I could use it in an effort to stay healthy and not get sick. I 1 everyday for 6 days. I have had severe stomach cramps and diarrhea for a week and a half. Right after I eat a meal here come the stomach cramps and pain. I wish I would have never bought this stuff. I was perfectly healthy before. My friend hypothesized that maybe I have too many of the goo bacteria in my stomach now that are playing havoc with my digestive system now.
Also my son who is 4 drank one and also had diarrhea for 3 days. SO I won't let him drink them either. Dan Active NEEDS TO PUT A WARNING LABEL ON THIS PRODUCT. Come on FDA get with it!
danactive really goes up and down for me, most of the time i believe it helps if i drink it after eating 'bad' foods(fast food, junk food) but i never use more than one a day (one time i forgot and drank two of them and had really bad diarrhea)but this is only during the winter times. i don't know if it has anything to do with the pollen or maybe the heat, but now (in summer) every time i drink one i feel like crap and sometimes it makes me REALLY sick to my stomach.
danactive doesn't seem to affect my regularity as far as BMs, but i do find that Monster energy drink DOES help(i only drink one serving per day). when i asked around, i found out it's most likely the Taurine in it (ox bile extract)though the B vitamins most likely help, but animal bile extract is supposedly really good for certain people with IBS or other milder stomach/intestinal problems, but does nothing for your immunity.
wow,i was shocked to hear all the complaints about danactive in here.ive been drinking one every morning for 2 months now, i love it and actually look forward to it,its the first thing i put in my stomach when i get up and i have no problem with it,what so ever. does it do wat its suppose to,i dont know but i love the pomagrante flavr ,wish i could buy just that flavor alone,or blueberry...in the 8 packs :)
lets look at it like this for those that are having to use the bathroom while using this product,maybe its cleaning out all the crap you have going on in your stomach,its a thought!!!
I tried danactive for a week and I felt like shit(ing) for a week!!!
I have to agree with Deborah. I have been "testing" Dan-Active for a week now and have not had a normal BM since starting--however, nothing severe as people are saying on here. I noticed lots of mucus in this morning's BM, which is making me believe that it may be removing the junk and yuks from my system. Not only that, but I am not a big dairy eater. I am going to continue to test it and see if things clear up.
I started drinking Actimel when I would travel through Paris while waiting for a flight. I haven't been able to find it here in the States only to find out that it goes by a different name. I did not start drinking it for the health benefits nor do I really care. My diet would probably make the Angry Doctor retire. I just liked the taste. Now that I know what it is in the States I'll go look for it. If it has some health benefit attached, well...I'll drink it anyway.
I have had numerous sinus infections over the last 30 years or so and had to be on antibiotics so many times I lost count. However, the last 3 times I started getting a sinus infection, I started drinking DanActive and increasing vitamin C and fluids and it knocked it out faster than any ZPack and shots. Sorry, but they have a believer in me.
I have started using Danactive last week to help boost my immune system. I had one bout of diarrhea,but now I don't notice any bad affects at all. I am going to keep taking it.
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