9/7/10

Antibiotics vs Probiotics: Who Wins?

This may surprise you, but antibiotics are not necessarily unnatural. In fact, most antibiotics are natural compounds produced by bacteria or fungi. These microorganisms produce antibiotics to protect themselves. Their tiny immune systems produce an arsenal of antibiotic biochemicals enabling them to expand their colonies within a hostile environment threatened by other microorganisms.

Why Are Natural Health Advocates Opposed To Antibiotics?

Antibiotic use goes back to the late 1920s and Dr. Alexander Fleming, who was looking for ways to kill the bacteria that infect cuts and wounds. One day he noticed that a particular mold from the genus Penicillium notatum was especially effective in killing bacteria. He isolated that substance and called it penicillin.

Prior to this, several researchers, including microbiologists Dr. Louis Pasteur and Dr. Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, had come to understand that bacteria produced substances that killed other bacteria. In the early 1900s, Mechnikov focused on the bacteria species known as Lactobacillus bulgaricus. This bacterium had been cultured in dairy by the northern and eastern Europeans for centuries and seemed to promote health and prevent disease in those who drank the tangy fermented culture.

These bacteria came to be known as probiotics (pro = promoting, biotic = life).

In the decades following the discovery of penicillin, many other antibiotics were isolated from microorganisms and became the darlings of the then fledgling pharmaceutical industry. The ability of these antibiotics to knock out life-threatening infections was a blessing that the medical institution came to rely upon as its most effective treatment for many illnesses.

Probiotic research continued and slowly developed, but was neglected next to the excitement around antibiotics. However, probiotic research increasingly illustrated that the body's own microorganisms were responsible for much of the disease resistance and that various cultured foods had been effectively uses as medicines over thousands of years because of these probiotics.

So Why Are Probiotics Effective?

Probiotics secrete a variety of antibiotics that either repel or kill microorganisms that invade the body. In other words, the very antibiotics the pharmaceutical industry hype are simply the same types of secretions that our own body's probiotics produce.

Probiotic research has matured over the past 40 years, but has only recently become a mainstream focus. Many probiotic supplements and specially formulated foods are readily available.

Meanwhile, criticism around antibiotics has increased because over the years, they have been so widely used, that a number of bacteria species have become resistant to antibiotics. Bacteria are living creatures and can adapt and learn to survive in the face of adversity.

Probiotics, however, are also living creatures. As their opponents get used to one weapon, they will figure out a new weapon to launch against the invader.

Antibiotic Strategies

This is not to say that antibiotics are not great weapons against many infections when prescribed and used wisely. When our body's natural probiotics and immune system are not quite strong enough to take down a lethal bacterial infection, it only makes sense to launch an avalanche of microorganism produced antibiotics against the infective bacteria.

However, this strategy comes with complications. Antibiotics like penicillin will kill our body's probiotics as well. This is where trouble can start as it leaves us susceptible to other infections and unpleasant symptoms (like diarrhea).

Solution

We can take a good probiotic supplement, such as HealthPro Nutrient's Probiotic, between our antibiotic doses. A good probiotic will have a mixture of Lactobacillus and Bifodobacterium species. If we take the probiotic 2-3 hours before, and 2-3 hours after our antibiotic doses, the probiotics will provide the extra protection against opportunistic and antibiotic-resistant microorganisms.

Taking probiotics in between antibiotic doses has also shown to increase the effectiveness of the antibiotic. Because the probiotics secrete different types of antibiotics, this can "double up" the antibiotic effect of whatever type of infection we might have.

At the end of our antibiotic course, we should continue to take the probiotics for a period of at least 2-3 months to help stimulate a regrowth of our resident probiotic species. While supplements do not replace our resident strains, they promote an environment allowing our probiotics to slowly regrow in colony strength. After several months, our resident strains can hopefully stage a comeback to healthy levels. Periodic courses of probiotics are recommended to stimulate this process over time.

Health practitioners and naturopaths recommend 30-40 billion CFUs of probiotics per day for adults in these situations.

*Article written based on research by Naturopath, Casey Adams.

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