Pros and cons of probiotics

In the 1980s, CJ Rapp created super-caffeinated Jolt Cola to give the body a charge. But tastes have changed, and today he’s offering something to calm people down: beverages with a shot of live bacterial organisms that he says help soothe stressed nerves and keep you healthy.

Rapp says he’s constantly traveling to promote his probiotic products, and his high-pressure lifestyle makes him a good customer for them. “Like a lot of folks living a life on the road,” he says, “you don’t have the opportunity to get what you need.”

He runs Karma Culture, a five-year-old company outside Rochester, N.Y., that offers what it calls “wellness water” and now probiotic beverages. The probiotics have a cap on the lid containing BC30, a bacteria that you mix into the beverage when you’re ready to drink it.

The company asserts on its website that the mixture “bolsters the immune system, enhances digestive health, boosts metabolism, and aids in weight control.”

Rapp is more circumspect about what it does for him. “At the end of the day, it provides me with digestive health,” he said by telephone.

Rapp is riding the wave of a trend. Probiotics are a $32 billion industry that may hit $45 billion in sales by 2020, according to a recent market research report.

Consumers can find probiotic supplements with such brand names as “Nature’s Bounty,” “Healthy Origins” and “Garden of Life” on store shelves.

They claim to restore balance to the bacteria that normally live in the intestinal tract, thereby keeping your digestive system healthy and happy.

Skeptics say many probiotics disappear after entering the digestive system. They affect different people in different ways. They note that research about the products hasn’t been