are probiotics a scam, and, relatedly, why is it trendy to put mushroom powder in everything now (especially cordyceps, does nobody remember where the zombies in the walking dead came from 😭)
Probiotics as an overarching concept are not a scam. If you have recently taken antibiotics or are on other meds or anything else that can lead to gut dysbiosis then taking some probiotics could be a great idea.
Personally I only trust the kind that come in the refrigerated bottles that you get from a pharmacy (they are OTC in the US, you don't need a prescription or anything.) Probiotics are temperature sensitive so I am skeptical about how effective the fad diet probiotic sodas are and do not have any experience with those.
If you have no reason to suspect a disruption to the ratios of your gut flora then there's no reason to take probiotics and taking probiotics when you don't need them can cause gut dysbiosis. Having too much of the good critters is also bad.
We need the right amount and the right kind of critters in our guts. Commercial probiotics usually contain varying ratios of strains that are bell curved to hopefully encompass the widest consumer base. Even if you could benefit from probiotics, it's not a guarantee that you will benefit from the specific blends available.
As an autistic person with Crohn's my guts are, clinically speaking, weird as hell, and I personally never seem to fall within that bell curve and as a result had a Bad Time experimenting with probiotics. Please note that my experience does not mean that probiotics are bad.
It's just everyone is different. Lots of folks who could benefit from probiotics will benefit from the commercial blends typically available in pharmacies. But I can't stress enough that it just comes down to if there's even an issue with the ratios of your gut flora to begin with, and if the strains in the probiotic you're taking are the right ones to address that imbalance.
To your other question: there's some research to suggest that there are benefits to various mushrooms like cordyceps, lions mane, turkeytail, etc. but we really need more research to make any conclusive statements about their effectiveness. And even if they are effective, not everyone needs them, but they may be beneficial for some folks and they are not likely to start the zombie apocalypse because they're usually consumed in a dried form. And you would need fresh mushrooms, capable of sporulation to risk some kind of fungi-initiated catastrophe. I would think 🤔🤷🏻♀️😂
