If someone takes antibiotics for several weeks, and also takes a probiotic, do the antibiotics just kill the probiotic bacteria before they can do any good?
In: Chemistry
First, the probiotic prescription is also “take at regular intervals”, so the probiotic bacteria are replenished by you taking another pill when the previous ones have died.
And then, antibiotics do kill bacteria, including the probiotic ones, but the antibiotic is not like lysol, instant death. It’s more like a toxin for bacteria, it does take a few hours, during which the probiotic bacteria CAN multiply in your intestines and do some of the digestion for you.
It’s actually a matter of doses; you get enough antibiotic “strength” to kill whatever infection you have, and you get enough probiotic bacteria so that they can multiply enough even WITH the effects of the antibiotic killing some of them in the few hours that it takes to do so.
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