Dr. Deborah Gordon

I routinely ask two questions pertaining to antibiotics: how many times have you taken them in the last ____ years, encouraging people to fill in the blank. My idea of “not very often” is 20 years ago: at that frequency, perhaps an individual has re-populated their normal gut flora, if they have a hope of ever restoring normal, which is an unanswered question. When people say, “Not often, maybe once a year," the second question becomes more important. How have you recovered from the antibiotics you’ve taken? [read more]