Can Probiotics Help Your COVID-19 Vaccine be More Effective?

With nearly 50% of all Americans fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, there have been many questions that have popped up. Including this one about probiotics and how they may help the vaccine be more effective. Tanya Manoni explains what she’s learned along the way. And if you need any probiotics visit her at the pharmacy and check out all her top recommendations!

Probiotics can help vaccines be more effective. Could probiotics specifically help your COVID-19 vaccine be more effective? I think, yes. And why not try it because probiotics are so great for many other things.

Seventy percent of your immunity lies in your GI system. There was a systematic review in the Journal Vaccine in 2018 and they reviewed different strains of probiotics. It showed that if you use probiotics before having a vaccine, they contributed to higher, antibody titers. They looked at it for 17 different vaccines, so much of the common ones such as MMR, tetanus, and flu.

It's strain specific though. So you can't just go to the pharmacy and get any random probiotic over the counter. I curated the exact strains they used in that systematic review and we have those at a nice price point.

Strain does matter when you talk about probiotics. You may recognize or remember seeing on a bottle of probiotics the genus and species like lactobacillus (the genus) and acidophilus (the species). But then after that, sometimes you'll see a GG or a set of numbers. That's the strain and the strain actually matters. So you need to have the correct strain, not just the correct genus and species. And I have all that for you. So come see me!

TANYA MANONI is a Chattanooga-native but earned her BS in chemistry and PharmD at the University of Utah. She brings with her years of experience in compounding and pharmacy corporate management. Tanya's professional interests include not only BHRT, women’s health, and dermatology, but also nutrition and fitness, in which she became interested while playing NCAA Division I college soccer. While living in Utah, Tanya earned her level 1 certification in avalanche search and rescue, and she continues to enjoy snowboarding, hiking, and mountain biking. She lives in Chattanooga with her husband and two kids, so you will find her running between soccer fields and dance studios in her free time.

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