Stephen Allen, PhD, a professor at Swansea University in the United Kingdom, has discovered that probiotics may not reduce antibiotic-associated diarrhea in elderly patients, according to a Nursing Times report.
Dr. Allen and his team of researchers looked at 3,000 people at five hospitals in south Wales and northeast England and found the supplements, which are routinely prescribed to the elderly when they go on an antibiotic regimen, made little difference. Diarrhea is a common and potentially life-threatening side effect of antibiotics in elderly patients.
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