The Healthy Antidote to Antibiotic Side Effects

By Dr. Ray Sahelian

When I was a resident working in hospitals I routinely saw patients suffer from diarrhea after being placed on antibiotics. These drugs, while useful, also caused so much misery. Yet there's a simple remedy for this, one recently confirmed by an important new study. You can counteract the harmful digestive effects of antibiotics with their counterparts, probiotics.

Some background: An antibiotic kills the bad bacteria causing an infection, but it often also kills the good bacteria in your gut and other places in your body. By killing the good bacteria in the gut, harmful germs can get a foothold and cause diarrhea.

British researchers wanted to find out whether a probiotic drink containing lactobacillus could help reduce the incidence of diarrhea associated with antibiotic use. Older hospital patients taking antibiotics drank 100 grams of a probiotic preparation twice a day during a course of antibiotics and for one week after the course finished. The placebo group received a sterile milkshake.

The results showed that 12 percent of the probiotic group developed diarrhea, compared with 34 percent in the placebo group. The researchers conclude, "Consumption of a probiotic drink containing Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and S thermophilus can reduce the incidence of antibiotic-associated diarrhea. This has the potential to decrease morbidity, healthcare costs and mortality if used routinely in patients aged over 50."

I hope doctors and hospitals begin to add a probiotic supplement or drink to the regimen of patients placed on antibiotics. In the meantime, if you are prescribed antibiotics, you can find probiotic formulations at your local health food store.