Whenever you take antibiotics, you should probably take probiotics as well, and continue them for some time after you are done with the course of treatment. There is also some reason to believe that regular use of probiotics can reduce your risk of developing infectious diarrhea while traveling through foreign countries, as well as help prevent childhood diarrhea. Although we believe that they are helpful and perhaps even necessary for human health, we don t have a daily requirement for probiotic bacteria. They are living creatures, not chemicals, so they can sustain themselves in your body unless something comes along to damage them, such as antibiotics. Cultured dairy products such as yogurt and kefir are good sources of acidophilus and other probiotic bacteria.
Supplements are widely available in powder, liquid, capsule, or tablet form.
Grocery stores and natural food stores both carry milk that contains live acidophilus. Therapeutic Dosages Dosages of acidophilus are expressed not in grams or milligrams, but in billions of organisms. A typical daily dose should supply about 3 to 5 billion live organisms. Because this is not a drug but a living organism that you are trying to transplant to your digestive tract, the precise dosage is not so important. But you should take it regularly.