Supplement evidence

073 / 575Probiotic strain

Saccharomyces boulardii

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The short answer

A probiotic yeast with evidence in selected antibiotic-associated diarrhea settings.

Evidence and scope: Conditional or population-specific
This status does not grade the ingredient for every goal, outcome, or person.
Important limitation: Benefit depends on the population, formulation, baseline status, and objective; results should not be generalized.
Before deciding: Key concern: Never use with a central venous catheter or severe immunocompromise; antifungals inactivate it.

01 / PRACTICAL GUIDE

Dose, absorption, and combinations

These are indication-specific reference or studied ranges—not a personalized prescription. Start with the objective, then check the form, label, medicines, and health conditions.

Reference range by objective

Meal-specific digestion250–500 mg once or twice daily in many trials; product-specific CFU

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

More is not automatically better. A clinician or product label may specify a different amount.

Absorption / solubilityFat/water classification is not the key factor

Fat/water solubility is not the useful decision point; preparation, fluid, timing, or strain identity matters more.

How it is commonly taken

Do not mix with very hot liquids; follow product storage.

Do not combine casually

Never use with a central venous catheter or severe immunocompromise; antifungals inactivate it.

Dose and use source ↗

Dose and use links lead to primary or official source material. Search links are discovery tools, not proof that every returned paper applies.

02 / EVIDENCE

What the research says

We keep supportive, mixed, negative, safety, and contextual findings together. The headline never replaces the underlying papers.

2research papers in this ledger

22unique primary studies represented

5,257unique participants represented

These are audited counts for this JIVANA collection, not search-result totals. Participants are counted once when multiple papers use the same cohort; review papers are not added again to participant totals.

Open the research timelineResearch timeline

Entries are ordered by publication year. A study period appears only when the source reports it.

2016

Does not support the tested claimPMID 26973849 · NCT01143272

Saccharomyces boulardii to prevent antibiotic-associated diarrhea

The trial stopped early for futility: antibiotic-associated diarrhea occurred in 21 versus 19 participants (HR 1.02), and only four C. difficile-associated cases occurred. No serious adverse event was judged study-related.

Published: 2016Duration: During antibiotics through 7 days afterward, followed for 6 weeksn=477 participants

Study design and methods

Design: Multicenter, phase III, randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial
Population: 477 hospitalized adults receiving systemic antibiotics in 15 German hospitals
Intervention: S. boulardii 250 mg twice daily versus placebo
Outcome: Antibiotic-associated and C. difficile-associated diarrhea

Open research record ↗

2015

Supports a specific usePMID 26216624

Saccharomyces boulardii in the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea

S. boulardii reduced antibiotic-associated diarrhea from 18.7% to 8.5% overall (RR 0.47; estimated NNT 10). The C. difficile-associated diarrhea signal was significant in children but not adults, so that outcome should not be generalized across ages.

Published: 2015n=4,780 participants21 primary studies represented

Study design and methods

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 randomized trials
Population: 4,780 children and adults receiving antibiotics
Intervention: S. boulardii versus placebo or no treatment
Outcome: Antibiotic-associated and C. difficile-associated diarrhea

Open research record ↗

Unscreened discovery appendix—not evidence162 candidate publicationsSearch run: Aug 21, 2026

Complete for the displayed PubMed query at the search timestamp—not for all databases or every possible synonym. Candidates can be irrelevant, duplicate the same study, or report negative findings. They are never summed as evidence or participants until screened.

03 / SOURCES

Start with the source material

Official evidence overviewPubMed bounded human-evidence search Live PubMed discovery searchNational Library of Medicine

The live search is for discovery only. Search-result counts change and are not included in the audited totals above.

Recent PubMed discovery recordsDirect links to the first 12 records returned by the reproducible search. These are discovery candidates—not reviewed summaries or a count of supportive findings.

04 / EXPERT CONTEXT

Expert context—not evidence

Expert positions are dated context—not scientific evidence. They never raise the evidence status or become consensus by repetition.

No direct, source-verified endorsement is currently recorded. Research authorship or discussion alone is not treated as endorsement.