Antibiotics can be effective pharmaceutical weapons that treat a myriad of infections. As of late, however, antibiotics have received a lot of attention from medical experts for all the wrong reasons.
A growing number of medical reports have concluded exposing your body to too many antibiotics may be more hazardous than helpful, triggering a greater number of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections that can be severe and even deadly.
C. diff infections cause nearly 14,000 deaths annually, with 90 percent involving people age 65 and older. Medical experts say patients who have taken antibiotics very recently are at the highest risk of contracting them.
Don’t take antibiotics for every health problem
Taking an antibiotic for one health problem like a sinus infection may destroy the balance of healthy bacteria in your gut, causing the bad bugs to proliferate and trigger new problems like diarrhea that can vary from mildly annoying to life-threatening.
What’s more, you don’t have to take a drug to be exposed to antibiotic-related health problems. The overuse of antibiotics on food animal production has grown significantly, to the degree that some of these drugs have been used to treat human diseases, creating the opportunity for antibiotic-resistant infections.
The problem with overusing antibiotics has gotten so out of hand that the FDA has implemented a plan to phase out the use of some antibiotics used on farm animals to enhance their growth or improve feed efficiency.
The good news: Taking a probiotic, especially when you’ve been prescribed an antibiotic, can make all the difference in protecting the ideal balance of bacteria in your gut and your health.
Take a probiotic to maintain your body’s healthy bacterial balance
Taking a probiotic with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria, like EndoMune, is the easiest and safest way to maintain a healthy balance of bacteria for good gut health.
The best time to take a probiotic: A two-hour delay between taking an antibiotic and probiotic will reduce the risk of the former depleting the live, beneficial bacteria that protect your gut health.
Also avoid antibacterial soaps and other products (cosmetics, body washes and toothpaste) containing triclosan, a broad-spectrum antimicrobial compound linked to bacterial-resistance problems in Midwestern streams and rivers.