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Spending long hours reading research on LAB amid a particularly disheartening breakout, I became fixated on the idea that the key to clearer skin lay in the strategic inclusion of beneficial bacteria through probiotics rather than the indiscriminate eradication of bacteria through broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Look for broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher; it should be worn daily and reapplied every couple of hours.

The widespread use of broad-spectrum antibiotics - they target many bacteria types but can kill good bacteria, cause side-effects and increase antibiotic resistance - fuels drug resistance by encouraging the emergence of drug resistant bacterial mutants.

One traditional method of determining antibiotic efficacy against it is by looking for signs of Burkholderia growth with the unaided eye or through a simple assay, and then treating it with a broad-spectrum antibiotic that kills everything in its path: antibiotic as blunt instrument.

"Virtually all antibiotics are A-bombs. They are broad-spectrum and we use them in such high doses that they eradicate nearly everything in and around them, notably bacteria that protect us. That's a problem," said Mohammad Seyedsayamdost, professor of chemistry.