Within the digestive system, there are about 100 trillion bacteria, both good and harmful, which are referred to as the gut microbiota (Harvard Health Publishing). Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a type of harmful bacteria that can cause anything from diarrhea to life-threatening colon inflammation. Jane became among the unlucky who developed this disease. C. difficile infection can cause a variety of symptoms, ranging from asymptomatic colonization to fulminant pseudomembranous colitis if not timely treated (Mills et al. 2). Thus, Jane was prescribed antibiotics for recovering from the infection.
Antibiotic therapy is the current standard of care for CDI, which may cause significant distress to the digestive system. Antibiotics are successful at killing pathogens, but they may also damage the healthy bacteria in your gut by upsetting the microbiome’s balance, possibly contributing to a rise in harmful bacteria. However, research shows that probiotics can curb digestion problems and reduce incident CDI in high-risk populations (Mills et al. 8). Thus, health providers and patients would benefit from prescribing probiotics in addition to the course of antibiotics to reduce the damaging impact on the bacterial flora.
Even though the research does not provide enough sufficient data on the use of probiotics in Clostridium difficile infection, the usage of this medicine plays a protective role for the body (Mills et al. 8). Healthcare providers do not prevalently incorporate probiotics into treatment plans for CDI because of a wide variety of heterogeneous items and contradictory personal study findings. Nevertheless, with specifically specified probiotic mixtures, integrating them into treatment is necessary.
Works Cited
Harvard Health Publishing. “Can Gut Bacteria Improve Your Health? – Harvard Health.” , Harvard Health, 2016, Web.
Mills, John P., et al. “Probiotics for Prevention of Clostridium Difficile Infection.” Current Opinion in Gastroenterology, vol. 34, no. 1, 2018.