[surferjoe2007]

how often should one consume probiotics? daily? weekly? how much and how often to be of any benefit?

Daily ideally. I don't know exactly how much. I know for prebiotics (food to farm your own probiotics in your gut) 2 oz. of sunchokes is good.

With seemingly impressive numbers in the billions of organisms and sensitivity to heat, I'm a bit scared to use a probiotic supplement myself. I have no idea if they actually put enough in there, or if they are still alive. I stick to kefir and sunchokes. I suppose with a bit of work I could figure out a good supplement.

I don't doubt what you've said surfer but I do have a question (and it's not rhetorical). How can any living organism survive our acidic stomach? It normally kills pathogens that are just like the probiotics so it doesn't seem logical to me that just because it's good and lives in our lower GI that it can get there through such a harsh environment.

Many of them do die, some make it through. Pretty much they are made to be symbiotic with humans and animals so they must find a way in somehow. And if you similarly ate a 4 oz lump of fully rotten food I bet you'd get sick, stomach acid or not. Probiotics are even in mother's milk and raw unpasteurized cow's milk. And "acidophilus" means acid-loving so I suppose that helps a little, even though the stomach is still too acidic for them.