11-17-2012, 06:17 PM
You live in a complex and dynamic body that contains 10x as many foreign cells from naturally occurring co-habitant bacteria. Most of those friends are largely beneficial and generate a rich array of compounds you need to be happy and healthy.
Alas, when some of these internal flora or fauna are out of whack - or an outsider pathogen invades - you can be very unhealthy. Antibiotics are pretty non-specific, and they destroy both 'germs' as well as the local neighborhood.
The idea behind probiotics is to add back these healthy friends into your system. We have not yet found the best way to deliver such an inoculation via swallowing (some scientists ARE using fecal transplants with high success, but they are still considered experimental in nature). Some probiotics like Activia have shown clinical benefit - but only when taken 3 times a day for weeks.
I recently traveled to India and took pill-form probiotics to try to build up my system in case of foreign bugs and pathogens (I caught Shigella food poisoning my last trip). I came back and was only down for one day when I returned, so I will give this approach a cautious thumbs up.
For your daughter, I'd see if there is a form of yogurt like Activia she would like to eat and see if she will take it for 2 times a day (breakfast and dinner?) for a few weeks. All of the science suggests it would help her respond to the antibiotic treatment she just received.
Alas, when some of these internal flora or fauna are out of whack - or an outsider pathogen invades - you can be very unhealthy. Antibiotics are pretty non-specific, and they destroy both 'germs' as well as the local neighborhood.
The idea behind probiotics is to add back these healthy friends into your system. We have not yet found the best way to deliver such an inoculation via swallowing (some scientists ARE using fecal transplants with high success, but they are still considered experimental in nature). Some probiotics like Activia have shown clinical benefit - but only when taken 3 times a day for weeks.
I recently traveled to India and took pill-form probiotics to try to build up my system in case of foreign bugs and pathogens (I caught Shigella food poisoning my last trip). I came back and was only down for one day when I returned, so I will give this approach a cautious thumbs up.
For your daughter, I'd see if there is a form of yogurt like Activia she would like to eat and see if she will take it for 2 times a day (breakfast and dinner?) for a few weeks. All of the science suggests it would help her respond to the antibiotic treatment she just received.