The Valued Use of Probiotics

At a time when antibiotic resistance to bacterium is as prevalent as it is today there is a need to stand back and look at prevention rather than cure. If we don't we run the risk of leaving our children and future generations a legacy that our grandparents faced when there were no antibiotics to rely on.

Antibiotics should be used efficaciously, that is as a last resort when all efforts to prevent an infection occuring have failed. Technologies, both natural and man-made are proven to work in the fight to reduce the risk of acquiring an infection in the healthcare setting, not least the human body's own defence mechanism.

It is widely reported that immune suppressed patients are more susceptable to healthcare infections, although we know from bitter experience young, fit healthy people have contracted infections which have killed and maimed. I believe that if we are to give everyone a chance of making a good recovery from any surgical procedure then we should look at the armoury we have to protect ourselves from the risks of infection. A lot of people are regularly taking probiotics in their diets as they have looked at the research, and this has been backed up recently in the BMJ, and they are safeguarding themselves for whatever eventually they may have to face in terms of staying healthy. Taking probiotics regularly can help to shore up the system to help you fight infection naturally. If you do succumb to an infection during a surgical procedure and antibiotics are given then the probiotics can help with balancing your own immune system.

Research has shown that even when probiotics are capable of establishing a colony of beneficial bacteria of the large gut it has to be regularly topped up with fresh beneficial bacteria - if it is to retain the foothold it has established. This may mean taking the probiotics at least daily and in some cases a twice daily regime is recommended.

The advantages are that once the beneficial bacteria are established from the probiotic the gut is likely to work better, nutrients will be more easily absorbed, vitamin production will be unaltered and, unwelcome gut symptoms such as irritable bowel syndrome will be lessened in many cases, ultimately resulting in the patient's immune system and defence against infections being enhanced.

Probiotics may have a special role when antibiotics have been prescribed. They reduce the chance of other infections settling in the gut after the antibiotic has upset the patient's usual gut flora. Implanting beneficial bacteria may prevent these antibiotic induced gut changes leading to serious disease. Some hospitals are now giving probiotics to patients to bolster the gut's normal flora. They've also been used to manage recurrent infection with C.Diff. The probiotics most frequently used to treat C.Diff include Lactobacillus GG, which is a concentrate that can be added to skimmed milk and Lactobacillus acidophilus, found in yogurt.

I believe that in the battle against ever prevalent healthcare infections we should be relying on our bodies natural defenses to antimicrobial resistance more and more, and making the best use of natural technology to help this process.