Probiotics have become a popular and effective remedy for all sorts of ailments over the years. Adding in doses of beneficial bacteria to your daily routine can offer relief from common digestive complaints, cognitive dysfunction, hormonal imbalances, and much more. Some medical practitioners advocate that the gut makes up 80% or more of our immune system’s function… so naturally a healthy gut makes a healthy life. More excitingly, probiotics have a special place in the treatment of inflammatory diseases (especially IBD) and may even alleviate other autoimmune symptoms over time. For these reasons I am embarking on another experiment for greater wellness… introducing BumBiotics!
BumBiotics is a California based company that offers clean coconut based probiotic products free from dairy, lactose, wheat, gluten, soy, corn, eggs, yeast, artificial flavors, preservatives or GMO! And for those of you who are interested, they are also environmentally aware and use recycled paper and vegan dyes for printing. BumBiotics’ website boasts some impressive testimonials for their probiotics and needless to say I was very intrigued after reading some of the reviews. So why isn’t everyone on the BumBiotics bandwagon? Because traditional probiotics go in your mouth, but BumBiotics have one hold up… that’s right… as the name implies it, they go in your bum.
Let’s make one thing clear really quick, I didn’t stumble onto a company that offers a booty pill online out of the blue. My integrative doctor recommended that I check them out and see if I like the results. Based on what I read online, the testimonies and reviews speak for themselves (in addition to my doctor’s recommendations). So I made the decision went all in and ordered a 30 day supply. Now…. let’s get into the parameters of the experiment and see if this product is a bust or a must.
Like most of my experiments we are going to give the product a 30 day trial while keeping my diet and lifestyle as close to normal as possible, to avoid any major variables. But first, a quick update on my current symptoms and supplements…. I think I am finally out of a very long UC flare which lasted through most of my experiment with L-glutamine (read about my L-glutamine experiment here). Recently, I have had more formed BMs (maybe because of the additional fiber in my diet), but I have been making somewhat frequent bathroom trips with pain and intermittent constipation (which is better than the alternative in my opinion). Intestinal bleeding seems to be minimal… but I am also seeing my doctor once a week for iron IV infusions due to low ferritin levels (from consistent bleeding over the past year). My sleep has been less than ideal with consistent night waking and some restlessness as well. On the supplement side of things, I am still taking a multivitamin, as well as vitamin d3, vitamin K, resveratrol, biotin, fish oil, a digestive enzyme with larger meals, two different peptides, and finally L-glutamine (continued from my previous experiment). I am hoping that during the 30 day use of this product I will have fewer restroom trips, less gas, bloating, pain, and maybe even better sleep. There is a CBD infused variant of the product but I decided to go with the standard version for the first pass.
So let’s get right to it. Day 1 of the experiment and I had no idea what to expect. I ordered my 30 day supply on a Tuesday and was expecting the product to arrive two days later. Seeing as the product needs refrigeration and eventually must be frozen, I was increasingly concerned as day 3, 4 and 5 passed.
However, I emailed customer service and they were very helpful and responsive to my concerns, reassuring me that the product quality would be fine over an extended period of time. Finally, by day 6 my order made it. The packaging was a little bit messy with some slight leakage of the product, thus making the instructions waterlogged and difficult to handle. But…. the supplements were still slightly cold after spending 5 – 6 days in the mail (which was impressive) and came tightly packed in a Styrofoam container with a decently sized ice pack covering them.
The supplements need to be fully frozen so into the freezer they went. Fast forward to 11pm and it’s time to administer the first dose. I nervously peeled apart the now dried instructions and laid them out on the table. One thing important to keep in mind is that each dose has to be administered within 1 minute of being removed from the freezer. Acting quickly I did the best first attempt I could muster. However, nothing turns out right on the first try… instead of going into excruciating detail I’ll just say this, it’s not as simple as it sounds and the suppository is basically an ice cube. Keeping this in mind I’ll be sure to write some tips down for you guys if you choose to try some yourself (because it wasn’t terribly comfortable).
Skipping forward to the end of the week… I ended up lapsing back into a flare at the start of day 3, with frequent and urgent restroom trips for the entire day (which I don’t think was BumBiotics). However, in about 24 hours I bounced back to my “normal” baseline which was a relief since most flares for me last quite some time. Also, I have noticed that I am having greater time periods in between bathroom trips (makes going out in public a little easier). In fact, me and my family went to a local science center and were able to stay out for 3.5 hours with no bathroom breaks! The most noticeable difference this week is that I have less gas in general. I am looking forward to the potential results next week as well as picking up a few more tips to make the process easier for myself. Since the first week was a little uneventful I’ll share some of my tips for the product below:
– Make sure to order BumBiotics early in the week to avoid shipping delays over the weekend.
– Before your first dose make sure the product has been in your freezer long enough to be completely solid.
– Have everything ready for set up prior to taking the supplement out of the freezer since you will only have a minute or two before the suppository starts to melt.
– Recommended use is at night time, so get your bed set up too and have your nightly routine complete (brushing, flossing, washing, etc.) and jump right into bed.
– Once administered I would get in your bed and lay flat on your stomach for a while.
– The product is cold… it won’t be the most comfortable thing to do so make sure you are as comfy as possible. You can use coconut oil or another lubricant if it’s not easy for you to administer.
– The cold feeling will dissipate shortly, just lay down and relax.
– Sleeping on your side or stomach after administered is best.
EDIT: Normally I would take this kind of review and extrapolate it out over the course of the month, however… I am going to summarize the next 3 weeks into a couple of statements since the rest of the experiment wasn’t all that exciting (but stick around for the end because there is a surprise twist!).
Weeks 2, 3, 4, were a lot of the same. Less and less gas and bloat with little improvement to bathroom habits in general, but I stayed the course and finished out the entire monthly supply. Once I started running low on my last week supply I started thinking about the CBD option that Bumbiotics offers and I thought to myself “would I really be doing the experiment justice if I just ended it here?” no way! I did some reading on their website and saw the clean ingredients and certificate of analysis provided on the CBD. So I got out the wallet and order a month supply of CBD probiotic suppositories. To my pleasant surprise, these arrived much faster and in wayyyyy better condition. The suppositories themselves were in perfect shape with no damaged packaging and still cold on arrival, which I was glad for since the CBD version is a bit more pricey. Due to the increased structural integrity of the product, it was much easier to administer and with a month of experience under my belt it was no longer uncomfortable or odd to fit in my nightly dose.
On the first night of the new protocol something interesting happened… My occasional insomnia that had been plaguing me for some time just seemed to slip away. It was about 20 – 30 minutes after my dose that a strange calming wave passed over me and let me gently fall asleep. I was amazed! I normally lay in bed with racing thoughts not knowing how or when I will fall asleep, but this was almost life changing. Although I did not notice a huge difference in my health from my first monthly pass through, it’s important to note that I have far more digestive issues and symptoms than the average person and probably have many pathogens that need to be addressed in my gut before this product can be completely effective. Also, the product does seem to consistently help with sleep but there are still some nights that I struggle to fall asleep.
To sum things up, I am about half way through my CBD supply and I have been pretty satisfied with it. I am not sure that I will continue to use the product while addressing some of my digestive concerns, but I will probably revisit this product in the future. In my experience, Bumbiotics are not necessarily a magic bullet or a fix all, but (based on customer reviews) they have helped a lot of people get moderate to high results in healing different issues. I would say give it a shot if you are interested, since there are limited to no downsides and very clean ingredients. Happy healing and let me know if you decided to use it in the comments below and if you had any amazing results!
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