Antibiotics: The surprising truth about probiotics and what to do instead

Antibiotics are one of the greatest discoveries of the 21st century. Since their inception, they’ve saved countless lives, but these miracle drugs come at a cost. In some cases, they can seriously affect your health or can even be life-threatening.

In today’s episode, Jonathan puts himself under the microscope. After an injury forced him to take antibiotics, he shows you the effect they had on his own gut bacteria.

Jonathan’s joined by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz and Prof. Tim Spector, who explore the impact of different types of antibiotics, how they affect your bacteria in the short and long term, and how we can reverse the unwanted effect of these drugs. 

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Timecodes:

00:00 Intro

00:15 Jonathan’s Intro

00:50 Quickfire round

01:40 Jonathan’s accident 

04:00 Unpacking clindamycin

11:40 Antibiotic-associated diarrhea 

14:45 Side effects prevention advice

22:20 Jonathan’s gut at 7 days 

27:50 Fermented foods

27:00 Tips for building your gut back up

41:30 Benefits vs. risks

48:00 Summary 

51:20 Outro

Mentioned in today’s episode:

Post-antibiotic gut mucosal microbiome reconstitution is impaired by probiotics and improved by autologous FMT from Cell

Saccharomyces boulardii: What makes it tick as successful probiotic? From the Journal of Fungi

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Episode transcripts are available here.

Is there a nutrition topic you’d like us to explore? Email us at podcast@joinzoe.com and we’ll do our best to cover it.