Antibiotics kill both beneficial bacteria and harmful bacteria, throwing off the healthy balance of bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract. You may experience diarrhea, bloating and nausea when antibiotics eliminate a large number of beneficial bacteria. Probiotics may help restore the balance of beneficial bacteria in your gut, reducing some antibiotic side effects and restoring your immune system. Consult your physician prior to self-treating with probiotics.
Probiotic Food Sources
Upon approval from your physician to use probiotics, your search for probiotic sources begins. Probiotics occur naturally in fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, cultured buttermilk, yogurt, miso, acidophilus milk, tempeh, sauerkraut and kim chi. Ensure the food label indicates that the food contains "live and active cultures," because some procedures used in food processing can render probiotics ineffective by killing off the probiotic bacteria, states Nicole Kuhl, director of nutrition and health coach at LifeSpan Medicine in Santa Monica, California. Use care taking a probiotic dietary supplement in a capsule, powder or tablet form, as these contain higher levels of probiotics and may pose a risk to people with impaired immune systems or those on medications such as steroids, chemotherapy or digestive disorder medications.
Probiotics with Antibiotics
A report published in the March 2006 issue of the "Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology" indicates that studies involving the use of probiotics during antibiotic treatment show a decreased prevalence of antibiotic-induced diarrhea. No study has shown that probiotics always decrease antibiotic-induced diarrhea, however. A report in the June 2006 issue of the "The Lancet Infectious Diseases" states that scientific evidence from 19 different studies showed probiotics reduced antibiotic-induced diarrhea by 52 percent. The regular use of probiotics may also reduce your incidence of diarrhea caused by the bacteria in food, because "70 percent of your defense against these organism comes from the healthy bacteria in your gut," says Dr. Natasha Iyer, director of Chronos Apollo in Calgary, Canada.
Dosage
A study published in the November 2008 of "American Family Physician" recommends that children consume between 5 and 10 million colony-forming units, or CFUs, of probiotics per day and adults consume between 10 and 20 billion CFUs of probiotics per day for protection against antibiotic-induced diarrhea. Foods vary in the number of CFUs they contain due to differences in processing. Probiotic supplements list the number of CFUs contained in the supplement. Look for a supplement that contains both resident and transient probiotic strands to increase the likelihood of effectiveness, advises Kuhl. Do not take probiotic supplements within two hours of taking an antibiotic to minimize the amount of probiotic bacteria killed by the antibiotic.
Considerations
Only certain strains of probiotics work to relieve antibiotic-induced diarrhea. A March 2009 article on CNN Health states that the strains proven to work on antibiotic-induced diarrhea include Bacillus coagulans GBI30, S. cerevisiae boulardii and Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Look for these particular strains of bacteria when selecting your probiotic.
References
- Nicole Kuhl, MS, CCN; LifeSpan Medicine; Santa Monica, California
- "Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology"; Recommendations for Probiotic Use; Martin H. Floch, et al.; March 2006
- "The Lancet Infectious Diseases"; Efficacy of Probiotics in Prevention of Acute Diarrhoea: A Meta-Analysis of Masked, Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Trials; S. Sazawal, et al.; June 2006
- Dr. Natasha Iyer; Chronos Apollo; Calgary, Canada
- "American Family Physician"; Probiotics; Benjamin Kligler, M.D., MPH, et al.; Nobember 2008
- CNN Health; Best Cure For Stomach Troubles-- Which Probiotics Work and Why; Jessica Snyder Sachs; March 2009
