Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

Why Some Infections Survive Antibiotics #shorts

7 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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This content was created by Aaron Hartman, MD. This content was uploaded by Aaron Hartman, MD. This is a YouTube short titled "Why Some Infections Survive Antibiotics #shorts" (created 2026-04-07). It contains a brief English conversation between Aaron Hartman, MD and another speaker about bacterial biofilms — Aaron uses a dishrag analogy — and the role and timing of biofilm disruptors and antimicrobials when treating infections (mentions H. pylori and Lyme).

Chapters

So the analogy I give people, it's kind of that dishrag you leave on your countertop, your sink for like a week and gets kind of slimy. That's what biofilms are. And those dishrags, when they get like that, you can't just rinse them off. You have to like stick them in the washing machine and hot water and soap to break it down. You can't just rinse them off.
H. pylori does create a biofilm, which my metaphor was having like a force field, right? Like it's a bacterial or a microbial force field. So if the antibiotics that you're taking to treat an infection can't actually come into contact with the target, then it's not gonna work. So one of the things that we add is a biofilm disruptor. Usually we're careful about the timing of that because if we disrupt a bunch of biofilm and release a bunch of Lyme, a person can feel much sicker. So it's good to have some antimicrobial treatment on board and have a little bit of coverage before you start breaking up the biofilm.