Homemade kefir.

I researched this pretty heavy and decided to use Enzymedica's Pro-Bio and Renew Life Ultimate Flora Crtical Care.

Both have no fillers, just the probiotic in veg capsule- this is hard to find in my experience. I like the Renew Life b/c it has a super high bacteria count- 50 billion. You can feel this stuff!

I like the Enzymedica b/c it contains bacillus subtilis- which is commonly only found in soil. I've always found this brand to be top quality. I used their Acid-Soothe every day pre-paleo when I had horrible stomach issues and it was the only thing that provided relief.

I highly recommend both of these. Good Luck!

Get the kind that is refrigerated. It allows more beasties to survive. Or, you could eat sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, or kefir.

I've kind of fallen off the probiotic wagon, but I usually would get Dr. Ohira's or Pearls from amazon.com. I felt better after starting them but that was around the same time I cut gluten. Both brands have good reviews and are not very pricey. I always took them first thing in the AM on an empty stomach. Good luck :)

I try to avoid probiotics that use phthalates, which seems to exclude most brands that advertise enteric coating. While the particular phthalates used aren't the ones that people are currently concerned about, that's just because the particular phthalates used in enteric coatings haven't been studied very much. Besides, I don't think swallowing plasticizers is very paleo.

I use megafood brand megaflora.

I'm a fan of PB8 at the cheaper end, and Syntol if you have destroyed your inner life with strong antibiotics. http://arthurandrew.com/syntol

I like that Syntol actually contains the needed strains forced into sporeulated form, so you stand a good chance of getting back to a stable flora level faster.

I'm going to give an answer outside the box. Have you had your thyroid function assessed properly? Hypothyroidism is a common cause of constipation - although you attribute it to IBS, you may also have a thyroid issue that hasn't been detected. Good luck with the probiotic route though!

Raw dairy - milk, yogurt, or kefir if you can tolerate The hubby and I started with 1/4 cup or raw milk and worked our way up to 1 cup a day over 1 week.

OR Refrigerated Probiotics - it costs more but how many do you think are alive in the non-refrigerated ones -you're wasting your money on those - I'm speaking from personal experience. Non-refrigerated ones (various brands for months) did nothing for my husband and I.

The refrigerated ones I've noticed can work (depending on the situation) in hours to weeks and can be quite potent!

MegaFood DailyFoods™ MegaFlora Description Optimal Potency Probiotic Formula MegaFlora® is a life-enhancing blend of 14 unique probiotics at an optimal daily potency of 20 billion.

Each probiotic strain in MegaFlora is gently filtered from the food growth medium and is tested to be free of gluten, dairy, corn, pesticides, herbicides and soy.

Megaflora by Megafood has 14 types of probiotics found in refrigerated section of Whole Foods. Take 2 capsules a day when feeling ill or any GI distress (diarrhea, constipation, etc.). You must keep refrigerated.

Probiotics and raw fermented foods must gently be increased with time - otherwise they will give you gas (all the bubbling and reproduction). :)

You can break 1 capsule and scoop out the light brown contents with a fork into any dairy like yogurt, kefir, milk (even almond/coconut milk) and the good bacteria will continue to multiply over days in the fridge in the food you insert it in. There may be some bubbling after several days - that is normal - the good bacteria are reproducing!

MegaFlora is a broad spectrum probiotic blend. Each vegetarian capsule of MegaFlora provides 20 billion Colony Forming Units (CFU) of 14 non-competing, life-enhancing probiotics, inherently found in a healthy intestinal tract.

Proprietary MegaFlora® Blend 20 billion
Bifidobacterium Longum
Lactobacillus Acidophilus
Bifidobacterium Infantis (HA-116) (B. Lactis)
Lactobacillus lactis
Lactobacillus Acidophilus DDS-1
Lactobacillus reuteri
Lactobacillus salivarius
Streptococcus Thermophilus
Lactobacillus plantarum
Lactobacillus brevis
Bifidobacterium Bifidum
Lactobacillus bulgaricus
Lactobacillus casei
Lactobacillus rhamnosus

I recommend Symprove.

The main things to be aware of are probiotcs are that

1. dairy-based probiotics trigger digestion, so the stomach acids kill the bacteria.
2. freeze-dried probiotics take ages to "wake up" so they're only effective in the lower half of the gut

This product is neither. It's water-based, diary-free, gluten-free and not-freeze dried. It's been getting some great press in the UK.

It contains: Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus planatarum Lactobacillus acidophilus Enterococcus faecium

I currently NFH Recovery SAP capsules, each of which contain 50 billion organisms: http://www.nfh.ca/en/product_info/Recovery%20SAP.pdf.

I've tried a few different kinds and I honestly can't tell how much they help.

I take Costco's brand capsules but I also eat raw sauerkraut. The pills are probably ridiculous to bother with but I like the idea of feeling like I'm boosting it.