We are fortunate to live in an age where many infectious diseases that would have formerly been life-threatening can now be treated simply and effectively with a round of antibiotics.
When you’re up against something stronger than the common cold —pneumonia, sinusitis, strep throat— your doctor may prescribe an extremely valuable course of antibiotics.
We are however commonly hearing more about the potential consequences of the inappropriate use of antibiotics. From antibiotic resistance to the damage of our own friendly gut bacteria.
Antibiotics tend not to discriminate. So, when they go to work effectively wiping out the “bad” bacteria causing problems in your body, they also take out the beneficial bacteria as well.
This means that the good bacterial colonies in our guts can suffer some extreme damage, if not wiped out entirely, with a course of antibiotics.