Although antibiotics are useful, even necessary to eliminate certain conditions, they can strip the body of essential and useful bacteria, thereby leaving room for certain infectious bacteria to grow. Bacterial Vaginosis is one such bacterial intrusion that often manifests in the wake of antibiotic treatment. New study now indicates that oral use of an easy to take probiotic blend of Lactobacilli may not only cure this condition, but also make recurrences of the condition far less likely. This study is not the first to make use of this probiotic in this way. However, prior studies also made use of smaller subject groups and used significantly shorter time periods for their trials. Some prior studies also incorporated antibiotics along with the probiotic blend. Regardless of variants in the probiotic blend, all the trials showed positive benefits. These included elimination, or lessening in perceived symptoms, improvement in the vaginal environment and an overall lessening in BV incidence. Currently, traditional BV treatment is with antibiotics, although protocols show no overall consensus as to recurrence or prevention. The current drug of choice, Metronidazole, has an astonishing 58 recurrence rate to its discredit. Moreover, about 40 percent of these recurrences usually occur within less than a half a year.
Key Takeaways:
- A probiotic blend may be a promising treatment for a bacterial infection of the vaginal canal.
- The normal treatment is an antiobiotic that leads to a high reocurrence rate.
- However, there is no evidence about the long-term effects of this probiotic treatment on the vaginal bacteria.
“Supplementation of a probiotic blend of Lactobacilli strains appear to reduce the reoccurrence of Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) in women recently treated with antibiotics”
