We are talking about one of the most expensive probiotics on the market. It’s so expensive, I didn’t even buy it. So the question is
- Why is it so expensive?
- And is it worth it?
Many times as parents, we feel the need to try everything to give our children the best opportunities in life. But is a $165-a-month probiotic worth it?
What is Neuralli?
It’s a single-strain probiotic – Lactobacillus Plantarium (PS-128).
What makes it unique?
They brand themselves as, and I’m quoting their literature, “…the first gut-brain medical probiotic.” The probiotic could increase dopamine, serotonin, and a few other neurotransmitter levels in various parts of the brain.
What does the research show?
There have been three clinical trials done by three separate groups with Neuralli and those with Autism. That’s pretty significant.
They found improvements in anxiety, communication, social cognition, and personal autonomy. The most recent clinical trial was done in Italy with 131 children with autism. That’s a decent size for a clinical trial. And these children all had autism. And those researchers found significant improvements with very few side effects.
As a parent, that’s always important (the lack of side effects). And they also found the younger the child, the more positive the effects. They found significant effects lasting for six months.
The scientists did not report any funding from Neurally, the company that creates a probiotic. It’s always important to understand, all right, who funded this?
I’m not quite sure why they wanted to do this. It is expensive to do a clinical trial like this, but the clinical trial is done and the results are quite positive. And it’s always great that there’s some solid research in autism for this probiotic. I don’t think this probiotic is for everybody. I did not buy it.
This is not the probiotic that I would start with. If you’re starting to introduce probiotics, I would not start with this. And even using any probiotic is not necessarily the first step to take in optimizing gut health.
But this could be a really interesting option. Sometimes there might be resistance to starting a prescription medication for, let’s say, anxiety or some other reasons.
So if there’s resistance to medication, but yet a desire to improve anxiety, one logical option would be to try this probiotic. Since it does have clinical studies done, this would be a great topic to speak with your functional medicine doctor about. Now, this probiotic is not the only nonprescription option, but sometimes parents feel more comfortable using something that has clinical studies in autism done. But again, that’s a personal preference. How much research do you want to see into something that you try?
If anybody does go out and buy this probiotic Neurally, can you put it in the comments and let us know how things went for you? I was actually at a conference, and I stopped at their table and got this literature. I haven’t bought it. Maybe I’ll buy it in the future. I don’t know.
