How to take Travelan: the dose, the timing and what the label says

What Travelan actually is

A different category from a probiotic, which is the single most common misunderstanding about it. A probiotic is live micro-organisms. Travelan is bovine colostrum powder, the first milk produced by cows, from herds the maker describes as vaccinated under its own proprietary regime so that the colostrum carries particular antibodies.

The register records the formulation precisely: dosage form tablet, uncoated, route oral, active ingredient bovine colostrum powder 200 mg, with colloidal anhydrous silica, croscarmellose sodium, glucose monohydrate, magnesium stearate and microcrystalline cellulose as the other ingredients. It is supplied in a blister pack.

The longer version of the category difference, and why the two are not interchangeable, is on is Travelan a probiotic.

The dose and the timing

The maker's public instruction is that Travelan comes in an oral caplet to be taken before meals. Dose numbers vary by pack and by market, and the pack you are holding is the authority: we are not going to print a number that might not match your carton.

The two practical questions people search are answered by that one instruction. When to take it is before eating, which means the timing is tied to meals rather than to a clock. How many per day follows from how many meals you are covering, and the carton states it explicitly.

If the pack is missing, ask the pharmacist who sold it to you. If you are combining it with anything else, including a probiotic, that is also a pharmacist question and not one for a website that sells one of the two.

What it is permitted to claim

Travelan holds permitted indications on the ARTG. These are selected by the sponsor from the TGA's permitted list and are the claims the product is allowed to make. Among them, quoted from the register:

Helps reduce occurrence of symptoms of traveller's diarrhoea. Helps decrease/reduce/relieve symptoms of traveller's diarrhoea. Decrease/reduce/relieve diarrhoea.

The full entry runs longer and includes general wellbeing and digestive indications. Wander Gut holds none of these and claims none of them. We say our product is a daily probiotic for supporting healthy digestive function while your gut adjusts to new food, different water and a changed routine, and we stop there.

We are not going to tell you whether Travelan works. That question is settled by its listing, its evidence and a pharmacist, none of which is us. What we can tell you is exactly where to read the claims for yourself, which is the register entry linked at the foot of this page.

The warnings on the register

Three things recorded against the entry that are worth knowing before you buy, particularly for a family trip.

Products containing bovine colostrum powder contain lactose and cow's milk proteins. This product is not suitable for use in children under the age of 12 months except on professional health advice.

So it is a dairy product in tablet form. Anyone avoiding cow's milk protein or lactose, for allergy or any other reason, needs to know that before it goes in the chemist bag. For comparison as a label fact, Inner Health Travel Bug is described by its maker as free from dairy and lactose, and the detail is on that page.

The second is the required statement about persistent diarrhoea, which is on the label by condition of the listing:

Seek medical advice if diarrhoea persists for more than: 6 hours in infants under 6 months, 12 hours in children under 3 years, 24 hours in children aged 3 to 6 years or 48 hours in adults and children over 6 years.

Those age thresholds are a good general guide for when a holiday stomach stops being a holiday stomach, whatever you are or are not taking.

Where it is sold, and what it sits next to

Travelan is an over-the-counter pharmacy product in Australia and has been on the register since 2004. It is stocked by Chemist Warehouse, Priceline and most independents, and it is the product a pharmacist will usually reach for first when someone says they are going to Bali.

It sits on the shelf near two quite different things. Oral rehydration sachets, which are what Australian health services actually point to once someone is unwell, and which cost almost nothing. And single-strain and multi-strain probiotics, a different category again, of which Inner Health Travel Bug is the best known in pharmacy.

Wander Gut is not in that aisle. It is sold direct from this website only, ships within Australia, and posts free on two bottles or more.

Can you take it alongside a probiotic?

A pharmacist or GP question, and genuinely so rather than as a way of dodging it. We sell one of the two products in that sentence, which makes us the wrong people to answer it.

What we will say is what our own label says: if you take medication, are pregnant or nursing, are giving it to a young child, or manage a medical condition, check with a healthcare professional before adding anything. That advice holds whether you are combining products or taking one.

The honest framing for anyone standing in the chemist: these are two different categories with different labels and different permitted claims. Read both, and the person behind the counter is free.