When Penicillin was released onto the market in the 1940’s, it was called a ‘wonder drug’. Since then we have seen antibiotics overused and over prescribed.

One unfortunate consequence of using antibiotics is the digestive disharmony resulting from the non-selective way antibiotics work. That is, they kill not only the detrimental bacteria causing the infection, but also many of the beneficial bacteria we need to maintain a healthy digestive tract and support a robust and responsive immune system.

70% of our immune activity occurs in our digestive tract, it is vital to maintain a positive balance of these good bacteria to help keep us on the road to positive health.

Beneficial bacteria imbalance (dysbiosis) may allow opportunistic and detrimental pathogens such as candida to become more aggressive, taking advantage of a change in the environment. This often results in other infections, candidiasis and various digestive complaints, which can simply be related back to a course of antibiotics.

Recent studies have shown the benefits of taking concentrated sources of beneficial bacteria – probiotics – in a supplemental form whilst you are still taking antibiotics. This can successfully offset many of the complications resulting from taking these drugs on their own.

Whilst many yoghurts are now promoted as containing probiotics, more often than not they are not human colonising strains or there are insufficient bacteria per serve to be therapeutically beneficial. A concentrated, broad spectrum, human colonising strain probiotic supplement is the only proven way to avoid the infection : antibiotic : thrush cycle.

One particular probiotic, Lactobacillus Reuteri, is unique amongst probiotics in that it is a strain of bacteria that has been shown to be fast colonising and resistant to most broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Ask for Nature’s Way® Primadophilus® Reuteri (Roy-ter-eye) by name.

(First published in Health & Herbal News Magazine Vol. 17 Issue 1)