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.  Download our FREE guide — Top 10 Tips to Live Healthier: https://zoe.com/freeguide 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 Follow ZOE on Instagram. Episode transcripts are available here. Is there a nutrition topic you’d like us to explore? Email us at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to cover it.