A study recently published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology further explores the potential benefits of probiotics at maintaining intestinal health while ingesting antibiotics such as Augmentin.
The study concluded probiotics, particularly Bifidobacteria, may be helpful in returning to a pre-antibiotic baseline:
This study does identify a benefit of probiotics, in part through increasing Bifidobacterium that may limit the disruption of gut microbiota by antibiotics, stabilizing concentrations of Enterobactereaceae and Bacteroides in particular. While this does not represent a clinical end point in itself this study provides important insight into the nature of the disruption of gut microbiota by antibiotics and a possible mechanism whereby probiotics limit gastrointestinal adverse events associated with antibiotics.
Further studies are necessary to assess the clinical relevance of these observations.
Engelbrektson, Anna, et al. “Probiotics to minimize the disruption of feacal microbiotia in healthy subjects undergoing antibiotic therapy.” Journal of Medical Microbiology (2009), 58, 663-670.