Although antibiotics can damage the gut microbiota and increase the risk of some diseases, probiotics cannot solve this problem. This was explained to socialbites.ca by clinical pharmacologist Andrey Dekhnich, deputy director of research at the Smolensk State Medical University of the Ministry of Health Research Institute of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
“There is still no definitive and complete data on this at the moment, but in general, many publications point to the long-term risks of taking certain antibacterial drugs. Taking probiotics does not completely solve the problem – they contain a limited number of microorganisms. And even if they reach the gut, they will not restore the microbiota to its original state,” Dekhnich said.
Dehnich chose inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and depression as possible delayed side effects.
“However, it is difficult to predict how dangerous these changes will be for a single patient. So here you have to choose between two evils. If there is an infection that needs to be treated – of course, rejection of treatment will lead to worse consequences than changes in the microbiota,” explained Dekhnich.
Read more about the side effects of antibiotics and the global problem of resistant bacteria. material “socialbites.ca”.