Probiotics Ease Diarrhea From Antibiotics

Probiotics are beneficial microorganisms that live in the intestinal tract and help improve health. Unfortunately, if you take antibiotics for an infection, you kill these good bacteria as well as the infectious pathogens.

A growing body of research, however, has firmly established that you may be able to restore the good bugs by taking probiotic supplements or eating fermented foods (like sauerkraut) in between your doses of antibiotics. They’re particularly helpful for alleviating diarrhea caused by antibiotics.

“We found a clear beneficial effect of probiotics in preventing or treating antibiotic-associated diarrhea,” says Sydney J. Newberry, a nutritional scientist and a researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

In Newberry’s research, use of probiotics was associated with a 42 percent lower risk of developing diarrhea when taking antibiotics as compared to not using probiotics. Experts advise taking probiotics supplements a few hours after taking antibiotics so that the medicine doesn’t kill the helpful organisms in the supplements.