According to a meta-analysis and review of prior studies, supplementation of a Probiotic was associated with a reduction in the risk of antibiotic-associated Diarrhea.
This meta-analysis, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that supplementing a Probiotic, friendly bacteria, while taking an antibiotic has been shown to reduce the risk of getting diarrhea. Getting diarrhea while taking antibiotics, is considered to be a common adverse effect of antibiotic use. It is believed that approximately 30% of patients taking antibiotics experience this adverse effect since antibiotics are known to disturb the gastrointestinal flora. Often time people do not take their full antibiotic treatment due to this uncomfortable adverse effect.
Evidence taken from over 60 clinical trials was pooled together. Over 11,000 people participated in these clinical trials. A 42% lower risk of developing diarrhea, while taking antibiotics, was seen in the participants supplementing with a Probiotic when compared to participants supplementing with a placebo. The Probiotics contained strains of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and various other Probiotic species; however the majority of the studies used Lactobacillus based interventions alone.
Further studies are needed and additional emphasis needs to be placed on determining if certain Probiotic strains or combination of Probiotic strains are more effective than others or work best with certain specific antibiotics.
Probiotics, like Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria are “friendly bacteria”. This means that these strains of bacteria occur in the human gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts and are important in their role of promoting good health. They are called “friendly” because they are used therapeutically for re-colonizing areas of the body which may be lacking Probiotics for one reason or another. This is important since our bodies rely on these “friendly bacteria” for many functions like the absorption of nutrients, preventing undesirable bacteria from colonization and for metabolizing foods.
ASK US. WE KNOW. NOBODY KNOWS NUTRITION LIKE WE DO. NOBODY!
