But a new study shows there‘s a simple tool that can help you prevent antibiotic- related intestinal disturbances.

Why is C. difficile so difficult?

One common type of bacteria--called the C. difficile--causes most antibiotic-related GI infections. In fact, even the healthiest men and women have it in their guts. But when it‘s only a spore, C. difficile just hangs out and doesn‘t cause trouble.

The problem arises when you take an antibiotic, because these drugs kill all the "friendly" bacteria in your colon that supports your digestive system.

Additionally, it allows the harmless spore to transform into an active menacing bacterium. As a result, you suffer from watery stools and stomach pain. And if the infection progresses, you may even get a fever. At this point, most doctors will give you another antibiotic such as metronidazole and vancomycin to try to clear up the infection.

But in severe cases, antibiotic-related colitis damages the colon and surgery is required. Unfortunately, this is far too common. In fact, experts believe that the C. difficile bacteria causes between 15,000 and 30,000 deaths each year.

The good news is, there‘s a simple way to prevent painful antibiotic-related colitis. Just take a probiotic. (For new readers to the Guide to Good Health, a probiotic is a concentrated supplement that contains billions of "friendly" bacteria, similar to those normally found in your digestive tract.)

Probiotic blend reduces antibiotic misery

For the study, scientists recruited 225 men and women due to take an antibiotic during hospitalization. They randomly divided the patients into three groups. The first group received a placebo. The second group received a low-dose probiotic (50 billion units). And the third group received a high-dose probiotic (100 billion units).

Patients began taking their placebo or probiotic within 36 hours of starting an antibiotic. And they continued to take it for five days after completing the antibiotic. And boy, did it make a difference in how well they recovered.

About 25 percent of the patients taking the placebo got C-difficile-associated diarrhea (a one in four chance, just as I mentioned earlier). Just 10 percent of patients taking the low-dose probiotic got the infection. And only 1 percent of the high-dose probiotic group got the infection.

Plus, of the probiotic patients who did get diarrhea, their symptoms weren‘t as severe and didn‘t last as long as the placebo group.

Now, I must note that the probiotic used in this study was a proprietary blend. A proprietary blend is a unique recipe of "friendly" bacteria that a supplement company puts together and patents. So the company says you can‘t assume that all probiotics will work the same way as their proprietary blend.

But I heartily disagree.

I feel quite certain that there‘s no particular magic within the company‘s proprietary blend other than it contains a shotgun spray of different cultures, such as acidophilus and casei bacteria. But you can (and should) get billions of these cultures in just about any high-quality probiotic supplement.

Prepare and prevent all year long

To wrap up, just remember to take an antibiotic only when absolutely necessary. And if you must take one, be sure to load up on extra probiotics and after your course of antibiotics. This is especially important if you‘re over 65, staying in a hospital, or taking more than one antibiotic at a time. That way, your one in four chance of infection will drop virtually to zero!

For routine use, look for a probiotic that delivers billions of "colony-forming units" (CFUs) from several different strains of bacteria. But during any course of antibiotics, you may want to double your dose to contain at least 100 billion CFUs. That‘s how much the patients from the study took to prevent intestinal infections.