Meet LYVECAP, A First-Of-Its-Kind Probiotics System That Goes Beyond Industry Standards

As a leading pediatric gastroenterologist and adjunct professor at Stanford University, Dr. Yinka Davies always knew her career would revolve around gastrointestinal and digestive issues. But not long after finishing medical school, while treating a patient whose gut flora was entirely and inexplicably out of control, she realized she was thinking about gut health in all the wrong ways. “We didn’t really know what we were dealing with at the time, and I tried every probiotic on the market, but it wasn’t until I used a medicinal formulation that we really saw an improvement,” Dr. Davies recalls. “So, that was really the first experience—and I think there have been countless others since—seeing how important a balanced gut really is and what a huge role it plays in wellness and overall health.” The gastroenterologist was also noticing an ongoing rise of unwellness in her practice and her clinical research and decided that a dramatic change was in order.

“I tell my patients all the time that as physicians and practitioners, we’re really good at treating disease, but what we need to get better at is keeping you well and understanding how we do that,” Dr. Davies says. “That’s what really drove my interest in shifting the paradigm and coming into this space, and I felt that we needed to go from reactive to proactive.” She spent the next two decades reframing her approach to gut health and the use of probiotics, working with Dr. Claudio De Simone, a pioneer in the field of intestinal microflora, and the lauded De Simone Formulation, a high-potency microbiotic mix of live bacteria that has been the subject of more than 70 clinical trials.

Dr. Davies was convinced of the myriad benefits of taking such a probiotic daily, but she kept encountering the same response among patients. “I’d hear from people, ‘Oh, I forgot to take it,’ or ‘I left it in the fridge,’” she explains. “But what I noticed was that everyone always had their water bottle—this was around the time that we first started seeing reusable bottles everywhere—so I thought, wouldn’t it be great if you could put your probiotic on your water bottle and just go?” And four years later, the gastroenterologist is launching just that.

LYVECAP is the culmination of Dr. Davies’ years of research and testing and offers the efficacy of the De Simone Formulation in an accessible and practical delivery system. The cutting-edge probiotic contains 200 billion CFUs, one of the highest potencies on the market, and comes in a patented cap system that allows users to add the probiotic to the contents of their water bottle with a simple pull and push.

The system is direct-to-consumer and sold through a subscription model that ships cold in a climate-controlled environment every 30 days, which Dr. Davies believes will take some of the hassle out of buying a probiotic. “Probiotics work best when you take them on a daily basis, and if you take it for 30 days then forget to order it again, you’re throwing your whole system off and have to build that flora back again,” she says. “So, we got into the subscription model because we want people to feel well, and we want people to notice a change, which won’t happen if they don’t take it consistently.”

While convenience is no doubt at the center of the brand and its technology, though, LYVECAP is also on a mission to break through the noise surrounding probiotics, which Dr. Davies believes is the biggest hurdle. “The word probiotic is so associated with wellness, but what I’m hoping people will understand is that you can’t just randomly put bacteria together and hope that magic happens. You have to bring the right bacteria together that then immunologically change the game,” she explains. “So, when people ask how this compares to other probiotics, the answer is that there’s zero comparison because there are very few probiotics on the market that have the actual science behind them.” The probiotic in LYVECAP, conversely, boasts an impressive potency and has consistently demonstrated efficacy.

LYVECAP’s first product, STRONG, is designed to improve recovery time, boost performance, strengthen immunity, and enhance cognitive ability—all affects that seemingly anyone would benefit from, yet it was developed specifically with athletes in mind. “It was nice to come out in sort of a smaller niche of people who know their bodies well and to really try to control that first before we bring out the next product,” Dr. Davies notes. Among those who have used STRONG are Olympic hopefuls, professional tennis players, and MLS players, but so too are Dr. Davies’s sons and a long list of others who are active but far from elite athletes. “We’ve put it into a space of people who just take care of themselves, and we’ve seen just as great of a response,” the founder says. “I think the only difference is that athletes are trained to notice these changes because they’re constantly pushing their bodies.” LYVECAP’s next product, BALANCED, however, will cater to a wider demographic with 112.5 billion CFUs and a lower price tag. “It’s for people who maybe aren’t an elite athlete but still want to make sure that their gut flora can withstand a cold or a flu or a virus.”

At $150 a month, LYVECAP STRONG comes at a higher cost than most probiotics, but Dr. Davies believes it’s well worth it. “Without even looking at the science or the strains behind the product, but just looking apples-to-apples at the CFUs and comparing the bacteria, we’re actually less,” she says. “What you see a lot is a product that has 10 billion or 100 million CFUs, so it might cost less, but it’s also not going to do much. It really does require the amount of bacteria we have, that many CFUs, to make a difference in the gut.”