COMBINING PROBIOTICS with ANTIBIOTICS for OPTIMAL HEALTH

Over the last fifty years, ANTIBIOTICS have been misused, overused and abused. That is why many health-oriented people do their best to avoid them completely. However, when you must have one for a stubborn infection, combining PROBIOTICS with ANTIBIOTICS for optimal health can help minimize damage to your GOOD GUT BACTERIA (Plus, probiotics have many other great health benefits, too).

The reluctance to take antibiotic stems from the fact that they contribute to GUT DYSBIOSIS (bacterial imbalance), ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE, and many other chronic health conditions resulting from GUT INFLAMMATION. That said, there are instances when antibiotics are extremely helpful and even life-saving.

There appears to be the incorrect notion that taking probiotics and antibiotics simultaneously cancels the effect of the probiotics since antibiotics do not discriminate between the bad bacteria and the good bacteria. In other words, there is an incorrect belief that the antibiotic will just kill the probiotics, too!

However, there is evidence that this is not necessarily so.

Taking Probiotics and Antibiotics Together is Beneficial

When you ABSOLUTELY MUST take antibiotics, then the addition of PROBIOTICS is a SIMPLE and COST-EFFECTIVE way to get better results. Probiotics not only improve an antibiotic’s effectiveness, but they can also significantly reduce the occurrence of UNWANTED DIRECT effects of antibiotics, most commonly diarrhea and gut dysbiosis.

In fact, ADDING A PROBIOTIC to your antibiotic regimen has been shown to significantly improve treatment outcomes for things like Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) and H. Pylori, a nasty gut infection responsible for many stomach ulcers.

Probiotics can also help to minimize or even eliminate some DIRECT, UNWANTED EFFECTS (mistakenly referred to as ‘side-effects’) of antibiotics, such as stubborn diarrhea. In this article, let’s discuss how taking BOTH probiotics and antibiotics together can be better than just taking antibiotics alone.

 

Probiotics solitaire spielen google Make Antibiotics More Effective – Helicobacter Pylori 

 

One particular study showing the benefits of taking probiotics along with antibiotics is a review of more than 20,000 patients with H. pylori infections.

Patients who took probiotics and antibiotics TOGETHER had better results than patients who only took antibiotics.

Another review of randomized clinical trials totaling roughly 6,000 patients with H. pylori infections showed that adding probiotics with antibiotics for H. pylori increased the success of the antibiotics by about 10%.

Probiotics and Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)

Taking probiotics with antibiotics for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) has been found to improve the effectiveness of treatment when compared to taking antibiotics alone:

• One study of 40 patients with SIBO showed those taking the combination had more than twice the success rate for eradicating SIBO when compared to those taking antibiotics by themselves.
• Another study showed that the combination proved more therapeutic for patients with both SIBO and Crohn’s disease.

Probiotics and the most serious infections – Clostridium Difficile 

Researchers also see encouraging results when probiotics are used with Clostridium difficile infections. C. difficile (or C. diff) is a bacterial infection that can be nearly impossible to stop.

1. diffinfections can lead to life-threatening diarrhea and COLON INFLAMMATION.

To summarize, clinical research proves that using probiotics and antibiotics together is a safer, more effective way to improve results. Plus, if you MUST be on an antibiotic, probiotics can improve or even prevent UNWANTED, ADVERSE EFFECTS of antibiotics.

Let’s take a closer look at these unwanted, direct effects. (‘Side-effects) of today’s ANTIBIOTICS.

 

Antibiotic Side Effects

People who have been on an antibiotic, especially for a longer length of time, often experience adverse side effects like DIARRHEA, a YEAST INFECTION, or gastrointestinal pain.

Antibiotics work by killing harmful bacteria that cause infections. After all, ‘anti’ means ‘against’ and ‘bio’ means ‘life’.

So, many of their UNWANTED, DIRECT EFFECTS (called ‘side effects’) end up involve killing other things as well, other types of bacteria.

While the targeted invaders (like pathogenic or the ‘bad’ bacteria) are being destroyed, your healthy gut flora, as innocent bystanders, are also getting killed.

Not good!

When beneficial (GOOD) bacteria are killed during antibiotic use, DYSBIOSIS or a disruption in the BALANCE of your microbiome (the sum total of ALL of your bacteria in your gut) can result.

Dysbiosis can lead to:

• Harmful infections from viruses, “bad bacteria”, and fungi
• Poor immune system function
• Inflammation

Antibiotic side effects can be long-lasting, especially with repeated antibiotic treatments. But probiotics can be very helpful for restoring the healthy balance of gut bacteria.

Probiotics Correct DYSBIOSIS Caused By Antibiotics

Dysbiosis can impair normal gut function and allow harmful bacteria to grow. If you’re concerned about an antibiotic disrupting the composition of your gut microbiome, probiotics and antibiotics together are a good way to preserve bacterial diversity and restore the composition of the GOOD BACTERIA.

Probiotics given to babies exposed to antibiotics during a cesarean section or during their first week of life helped to restore their microbes to nearly resemble the gut microbiomes of vaginally born babies

This is great news as we now know the extreme importance of the birth method and the first three years of life for establishing the adult gut microbiome.

 

Probiotics Resolve Antibiotic-Associated DIARRHEA

Antibiotic-associated DIARRHEA is one of the most common side effects of antibiotic therapy and is generally caused by dysbiosis. If you have to take antibiotics and want to avoid diarrhea, you should take probiotics at the SAME TIME.

Starting earlier may provide more benefit, but taking probiotics at any point during antibiotic treatment will help to restore gut microbiome balance.

HIGHER DOSES of probiotics were effective at preventing diarrhea or reducing the duration of diarrhea by one day in children who still got antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

Probiotics from all three MAIN STRAINS were used in these studies. These INCLUDE Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium blends, Saccharomyces boulardii, and soil-based Bacillus species

In other words, and there’s no need to be super specific about the type of probiotic you choose.

 

The Best Way to Use Probiotics and Antibiotics

 

How to get the most from your probiotic supplement when taking antibiotics:

1. No need to be STRAIN SPECIFIC. This is because all probiotics tend to have the same beneficial effects, such as balancing the gut MICROBIOME, balancing your IMMUNE SYSTEM, and reducing INFLAMMATION.

• Lactobacillus/Bifidobacterium blends and S. boulardii are the two categories of probiotics that are most often used in research. Soil-based probiotics are a third category that’s been used and also a great option.
• One very large meta-analysis compared results for over 50 different studies and found no statistically significant difference for antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Most of the research utilized a combination of these common probiotic strains.

2. Choose a quality probiotic formula.Quality assurance practices do matter. Probiotic manufacturing is not highly regulated, and some label claims do not stand up to scrutiny. If a company follows quality assurance practices, a probiotic supplement will meet its label claims and not contain potentially harmful organisms.
3. Take probiotics at a convenient time. Some would recommend taking probiotics at least TWO HOURS BEFORE or after antibiotics to reduce the potential for the antibiotic to kill the probiotic you just took. This is not critical though – you’re better off taking probiotics and antibiotics together than not at all.

 

While some people recommend waiting to take probiotics until after you’ve finished taking antibiotics, current research does not support this. You’ll probably get the best results when you start taking probiotics at the same time your antibiotic therapy starts.

 

At this point, you may be wondering if you can just eat PROBIOTIC FOODS and get the same benefits.  Let’s unpack why it’s best to take probiotic supplements when you’re taking antibiotics.

Probiotics Foods?

Another, often ignored (but effective and delicious) way to add probiotic bacteria to your gut is through FOOD. A number of FERMENTED FOODS, such as KEFIR, KIMCHI, RAW SAUERKRAUT and many types of unsweetened YOGURT are rich sources of GOOD bacteria.

However, it’s difficult to eat enough fermented foods to get a therapeutic dose. So, once your levels are restored and you do not have any major gut issues, such as INFLAMMATION, then the daily ingestion of fermented foods is highly recommended.

Therefore, if you must take antibiotics, I highly recommend PROBIOTIC SUPPLEMENTATION in order to get the NECESSARY THERAPEUTIC DOSE of probiotics. Afterwards, for maintenance, enjoy the benefits of fermented foods for both health AND taste.

 

SUMMARY

• Probiotics make antibiotics MORE EFFECTIVE.
• Probiotics RESTORE HEALTHY GUT MICROBIOME balance during and after antibiotic treatment.
• Probiotics can help to prevent or REDUCE DIRECT, UNWANTED EFFECTS like dysbiosis and diarrhea.
• START AS SOON AS you take antibiotic therapy.
• The MAJOR PROBIOTIC STRAINS are all effective.
• You can take probiotics and antibiotics at the SAME TIME OF DAY.
• PROBIOTIC don’t provide the same therapeutic levels of probiotics as supplements do.

 

Lastly, it’s important to work with an experienced practitioner who can recommend the right supplements designed to improve GUT HEALTH, especially when you are hitting a wall by yourself.

The good news is that there are doctors with specialized knowledge, those who embrace the NEW and EXCITING field of FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE, who are ready with a science-backed action plan to help.

Taking you from NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCY to NUTRITIONAL SUFFICIENCY and also from CELLULAR TOXICITY to CELLULAR PURITY, will allow you to get back to looking, feeling and functioning at your best.