London, Dec 18 : After a recent landmark millionaire divorce case judgment, couples in UK would soon be making "post-nuptial" agreements about how to divide their wealth instead of pre-nuptial ones.

Senior judges have ruled that deals drawn up during the course of a marriage can be legally binding.

The Macleod case involves an adulterous wife who was trying to claim 5.6million pounds in a divorce settlement with her businessman husband.

But, during the course of the judgment, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council came close to declaring that pre-nups should have the full force of the law behind them, and claimed that was an issue for the Government.

According to legal experts, the ruling will see many couples deciding how to settle their financial affairs after getting married, through a postnup, as it appears to be fairer than working it out before the wedding in a Hollywood-style pre-nup.

"The Privy Council has deferred the issue of pre-nuptial agreements to Parliament because they felt they had to, but has opened the door to post-nuptial agreements," The Telegraph quoted Sandra Davis, the head of family law at Mishcon de Reya, the leading firm of solicitors that represented Diana, Princess of Wales and Heather Mills in their divorces, as saying.

She added: "During their marriage, couples are now able to agree what they think is fair if they should split up rather than have the courts impose its version of fairness upon them. An agreement made during a marriage will now have the force of law, allowing married couples to regulate their financial affairs for the first time.

"Hopefully this will put an end to long, acrimonious and costly litigation. Agreements reached at the best of times will now be binding at the worst of times."

The case decided on by the Privy Council, the highest appeals court for UK overseas territories, involved Roderick MacLeod, 64, who has made an estimated 14m pounds fortune from cable television, and his wife Marcia, who is 22 years his junior.

Baroness Hale, who gave her judgement on the Macleod case, said that pre-nups should be legally binding.

She added that this was a matter for the Government to consider.

On the other hand, she put greater weight on post-nups saying that they can be more fair because one party cannot refuse to marry if they do not get what they want, as can happen in pre-nups. (ANI)Washington, Dec 18 : Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found credible evidence to prove that probiotics are effective in avoiding diarrhea resulting from antibiotic use or from gastrointestinal viral or bacterial infections.

At least one in five people on antibiotics stop taking their full course of antibiotic therapy due to diarrhea, and according to the study, Physicians could help patients avoid this problem by prescribing probiotics.

Antibiotics target "bad" bacteria but may also kill the "good" bacteria in the large intestine, leading to diarrhea. Diarrhea can also result from bacterial and viral infections.

Probiotics, Ycultures of "good" microorganisms similar to those normally found in the gut ,Y have been promoted as restoring the microbial balance disrupted by antibiotics and infections. Probiotic bacterial strains are added to certain yogurts and brands of miso and other fermented foods, and are also available as powders and pills sold in health food stores.

In the study, the researchers reviewed the medical literature and found seven, high-quality studies in which probiotics were administered to people.

And they concluded that the studies support the use of probiotics for avoiding diarrhea resulting from antibiotic use or from gastrointestinal viral or bacterial infections. Also, the probiotics used in these studies were found to rarely cause adverse effects, even in children.

"With the level of evidence that probiotics work and the large safety margins for them, we see no good reason not to prescribe probiotics when prescribing antibiotics. The only drawback is that probiotics are not covered by health insurance," said Dr. Benjamin Kligler, a co-author of the study and associate professor of clinical family and social medicine at Einstein.

Kligler indicated that the effects of probiotics doses are short-lived, so they should be taken throughout a course of antibiotic therapy. Also, he added that probiotics would not diminish the effectiveness of antibiotics.

The Einstein paper specifies several commercial probiotic preparations of sufficient strength to offer health benefits. Generally, probiotic doses of more than 5 billion colony-forming units per day for children and more than 10 billion colony-forming units per day for adults were associated with the best outcomes.

According to Kligler, physicians should be aware of specific brands so they can recommend only those known to be of quality.

He suggested visiting www. consumerlab. com and www. usprobiotics. org to find complete listings of beneficial probiotic preparations.

"In our residency program, we''ve worked hard to train our physicians to consider probiotics as an option. Now they are pretty good at regularly prescribing probiotics when they put a patient on antibiotics. But the average doctor is not doing this, and patients often know more about probiotics than their physicians do," said Kligler.

The paper, "Probiotics," was published in the latest issue of American Family Physician. (ANI)