Probiotics and Antibiotics

Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms which exert health benefits to the host. There have been many high-quality systematic reviews, meta analyses, and randomized controlled trials to investigate the effectiveness of probiotics in the treatment of IBS. However, the results of them were somewhat inconsistent. These discrepancies in results may be attributable to methodological differences among trials, such as the type pf probiotic used, duration of treatment, and endpoint. Overall, probiotics are considered beneficial for IBS and recommended to use because of their relatively low cost and safety. There are a few studies investigating the utility of prebiotics or synbiotics, a combination of probiotics and prebiotics, in the treatment of IBS. Some nonabsorbable antibiotics such as rifaximin and neomycin are recommended as a treatment for IBS based on moderate evidence. The potential for prebiotics, synbiotics, and antibiotics are worth further exploration.