Regarding ordering heat-sensitive probiotics, do you know of any research regarding how long these organisms can be left out of the refrigerator before they are adversely affected? The overnight shipping fees are often really high, and I’m wondering if, at least in the winter months, they may be avoided by using two-day or even standard shipping.

Laura Schoenfeld:  When I have talked to the people at … it was HealthWave, and now I think Fullscript is the new name of the company, they said to me that the way they pack it, especially with the cold packs that they put in there, that it is designed to be able to be sent with standard shipping. What that means is that they’re assuming the viability of the probiotic is not lost if they do standard shipping and even if the ice packs get to room temperature. I don’t know if there’s any research about that because when we talk about research, we think about if they sent two different products, like one was sent overnight and one was sent standard shipping and then they retested the viability of the organisms. I don’t think we have any actual research on the topic, but I do know that the policy of HealthWave and the various supplement dispensary companies that I’ve worked with, that they say that standard shipping is fine for the product. It’s one of those things where you kind of have to pick your poison. If you don’t want to pay for overnight, then you’re taking the risk that the probiotic could be less viable. I mean, I don’t think they’re all going to die, but they could lose some level of potency if they’re in the heat for a longer period of time.
If you’re ordering probiotics and you know you’re going to be using them for a while, maybe instead of ordering one bottle at a time, you get the overnight shipping with a couple of bottles and then keep them in the fridge as soon as you get them. That can save a little bit of money on shipping. But like I said, as far as what the company suggests, you should be OK with standard shipping. Again, no research, so I can’t say whether that’s 100 percent accurate or not, but that’s what HealthWave told me.