A new study tries to answer the question of whether probiotics are beneficial to the body during courses of antibiotics.
– Milano
Some doctors, during courses of antibiotics, of take probiotics to restore bacterial flora. But is it really worth doing? What does science say about it?
A new study conducted by researchers from the School of Medical and Health Sciences del Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), the University of Texas and Texas Christian University (USA) confirms that this is a good practice: taking probiotics during antibiotic courses is helpful. I good bacteria probiotics protect the health of the intestine, reducing the risk of diarrhea and other side effects. But how does this mechanism work?
Doctors prescribe many varieties of antibiotics each year to treat infections. These are very effective drugs, but they can also damage the health of the intestine. The microbiome is made up of trillions of organisms that live within it, helping to prevent disease. Unfortunately, usually Antibiotics don’t just target the bacteria causing an infection, but they make a clean sweep of even the good ones. Hence the importance of call for reinforcements during courses of antibiotics.
Probiotics for the intestine during antibiotic cycles: the study
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“As in a human community, we need people with different professions because we don’t all know how to do every job. And so also with bacteria. We need many different gut bacteria that can do different things,” says Dr. Elisa Marroquin, of Texas Christian University. “Although we haven’t found a single definition of what a healthy gut microbiome is, one of the constant things we observe is that healthy people have a higher level of diversity and more variety of bacteria in the gut“.
The researchers compiled the results of 29 studies published over the past seven years, involving thousands of patients worldwide. The discovery was that various changes took place in the intestine of those taking antibiotics, due to the proliferation of some bacterial species compared to others. “But when the treatment was combined with probiotics, most of these changes were less pronounced and some changes didn’t happen,” explains Marroquin.
Probiotics: why are they so important?
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Previous research has shown that probiotics reduce the gastrointestinal side effects of antibiotics. However, for years the scientific community has been wondering whether taking them also preserves the diversity and composition of microbes in the intestine. Some doctors, for example, are reluctant to recommend them, for fear of further upsetting the delicate balance in a patient’s gut. The study published by Journal of Medical Microbiology is the first systematic review evaluating the effect of taking probiotics, making it the most comprehensive of its kind.
The researchers found that probiotics prevent or reduce antibiotic-induced changes in intestinal bacteria and protect their diversity. Among others, they restore populations of friendly bacteria such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, known for its ability to reduce inflammation and enhance the intestinal barrier. A “leaky gut” fuels pro-inflammatory cytokines, proteins that fuel disease by increasing blood flow around sites of infection. “That is why, considering the human data available to date, there doesn’t seem to be a reason to refuse a prescription for probiotics when antibiotics are prescribed“, concludes Dr. Marroquin.