Probiotics During or After Antibiotics

By Ross Pelton, RPh, PhD, CCN

As a pharmacist, I’m often asked, “Should I take a probiotic while still on the antibiotics or wait until I have completed the course of antibiotics?”

I believe EVERYONE should take a high-quality probiotic twice daily for 2 to 4 weeks after finishing a round of antibiotics. The question of whether a probiotic should be taken concurrently with an antibiotic is a little trickier to answer because it depends on how frequently it is being taken throughout the day.

When taking a probiotic concurrently with an antibiotic, the most important consideration is that the probiotic should not be ingested at the same time as the antibiotic. I recommend leaving about 3 to 4 hours between the antibiotic and the probiotic. If not taken a few hours after Antibiotics the probiotic bacteria will be killed, which means you won’t get any benefit as will have wasted your money.

The Microbiome Ecosystem

The microbiome ecosystem is NOT just bacteria. An essential part of the microbiome ecosystem is the full range of compounds that the bacteria produce when they ferment/digest the fiber-rich foods that are delivered to them. We refer to these compounds as postbiotic metabolites.

It is NOT the probiotic bacteria, but instead, the postbiotic metabolites that control and regulate a vast amount of human biology and health. Probiotic bacteria are necessary because they serve as chemical manufacturing factories that produce the health-regulating postbiotic metabolites.

Benefits of Postbiotic Metabolites

One of the most critical classes of postbiotic metabolites is named short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Essential SCFAs are acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid. Due to their acidic nature, they create a slightly acidic pH in the microbiome ecosystem, which is optimal for the growth and proliferation of friendly/probiotic bacteria but unfavorable for the growth of pathological bacteria. SCFAs also have an anti-inflammatory activity which helps convert an inflamed GI tract back to a healthy state. This is important because if an individual is taking an antibiotic to treat an intestinal problem, they likely have a highly inflamed intestinal tract.

The cells that line the GI tract have the fastest rate of turnover of all cells within the body. A recent meta-analysis of 17 studies reported that the average rate of renewal of cells in the human intestinal tract is about 3.5 days with slight variations in different regions throughout the GI tract.

The Dr. Ohhira Difference!

The manufacturing process for Dr. Ohhira’s probiotics makes it the BEST probiotic to use during antibiotic therapy. Let me explain why. Dr. Ohhira’s probiotics are produced in large fermentation vats in a process that takes from 3 to 5 years. During this lengthy fermentation process, the bacteria are manufacturing a wide range of compounds that probiotics generally produce in the human gastrointestinal tract.

The probiotic bacteria themselves are of secondary importance. The reason probiotic bacteria are essential is because of the compounds that they produce in the GI tract. These compounds include things like short-chain fatty acids, amino acids and a wide variety of other compounds that regulate digestion, control the immune system, send signals to the nervous system and communicate with other cells in many ways.

Dr. Ohhira’s probiotic capsules are really like taking two produces at once. In addition to the 12 synergistic strains of probiotic bacteria, each capsule of Dr. Ohhira’s contains a loading dose of all the beneficial compounds that other probiotic products attempt to produce once they are in the GI tract. Because Dr. Ohhira’s probiotic capsules contain a substantial dose of all the critical compounds, called postbiotic metabolites, that are usually only produced in the GI tract, Dr. Ohhira’s probiotics are the FASTEST way to repair the immune system and return the gastrointestinal environment to a healthy state after taking a course of antibiotics. Dr. Ohhira’s is the only probiotics that produce substantial benefits when taken concurrently during a course of antibiotics.