Antibiotic Protocol What to do if you must use an antibiotic Have you ever had a stream of infections after taking antibiotics? Sure, the medication may have resolved your immediate issue, but somehow you re left with urinary tract infections, yeast infections, digestive bloating, all manner of things and they keep coming back. Antibiotics are designed to kill pathogenic bacteria that are making you sick, or might make you sick. Some have very specific uses and only kill a few kinds of bacteria, but the most commonly prescribed are broad spectrum antibiotics. As the name suggests, they don t just kill that nasty bug you have, they do a broad sweep and kill all sorts of friendly bacteria in your body too. In your body, you have about 30 trillion human cells, and 10 times that number in bacteria cells! Lets think about that for a moment, all these bacterial critters far outnumber us, we re essentially a colony of bacteria wrapped up in a little bit of human. These bacteria play an integral role in the way our bodies work, with different kinds of bacteria living in different locations, all serving specific purposes. We rely on them so much, that if we didn t have them, we d die. Our skin is covered in them, our nose, mouth, ears, vagina, esophagus, stomach, and especially the gut. They play a role in your immunity as well as your ability to fight the onset of disease. Our digestive system in particular, is full of different kinds of friendly bacteria (also known as probiotics, beneficial bacteria, or gut flora), each doing its job and filling its allotted space in our digestive tract. Think of if like a town; all the streets are lined by homes, and in each home lives a different family. Everyone has nice neighbors they get along with. One might do the law mowing for the guy next door, and in exchange the neighbor puts the lawn clippings in his compost. Everyone is happy with the arrangement, and their lawns, look beautiful and healthy. If one family gets evicted from their home by the bank however, then that home can fall into disrepair, and opportunistic squatters might move in.
This is what can happen in the digestive tract when you take antibiotics. Think of the neighbors as different kids of bacteria who have a mutually beneficial relationship; one does the mowing and the other discards of the clippings. The lawn and houses are the digestive tract, which is nurtured and kept healthy by the bacteria. The bank is the antibiotics that kill off the bacteria in one or more of the homes, and the squatters are opportunistic bacteria who swoop in and upset the balance in your digestive system, resulting in all sorts of symptoms. Health complaints connected to an imbalance in gut flora Digestive infections, including parasitic, bacterial and yeast overgrowths Repeated infections (both bacterial and viral), for example tooth infections, urinary tract infections, ear infections, colds, flus Asthma Obesity Depression Autism spectrum disorders Vaginal candidiasis or thrush Diarrhea Eczema Dermatitis Esophageal reflux Diabetes Autoimmune diseases Hay fever Food intolerances Children are particularly at risk, as are newborns born to mothers with depleted beneficial bacteria levels.
What can you do while taking antibiotics to reduce side effects? Sometimes antibiotics are unavoidable, but there are things you can do that prevent both short term and long term side effects. While taking antibiotics, follow these simple precautions: Take a daily probiotic comprised of Lactobacillus strains, with a minimum strength of 50 billion CFU (colony forming units) per day. To avoid dairy in your probiotics, look for ones that are human strain. Take them at a different time of day to your antibiotics, so if you take your prescription at breakfast and dinner, take your probiotic at lunch time. Take the supplement Saccharomyces boulardii. It s a friendly non-colonizing yeast that acts like a house sitter in your digestive system, filling in the empty houses the antibiotics leave behind. Antibiotics don t kill it, and the yeast doesn t interfere with the effectiveness of the antibiotic. Take as per your supplement instructions, in divided doses between meals. Consume fermented foods with every meal to allow you to inoculate your system with a wide range of different bacteria. Examples are sauerkraut, kombucha (to a lesser extent), kefir (dairy, water ad coconut water are my favorites here), kimchi, pickles, and preserved lemon. Only unpasteurized versions contain the active bacteria you need, which means you need to go straight to the fridge in the store to look for them.
What to do after taking antibiotics While antibiotics affect bacteria levels throughout the body, it s the digestive s y s te m t h at s u f f e r s t h e m o s t, s o i t s i m p o r t an t t o g i v e i t s o m e T L C. I f t h e b e n e f i c i a l b a c t e r i a a r e n t th e re t o d o h o u s e a n d l a w n m a i n t e n a n c e o n y o u r g u t, it c a n s t a r t getting run down, causing something called increased intestinal permeability, o t h e r w i s e k n o w n a s l e a k y g u t. T h e c o n n e c t io n b e tw e e n t h e c e l l s l o o s e n, l e a v i n g gaps that let all sorts of things pass through and into your blood stream. These are t h e k i n d of t h i n g s y o u r b o d y would never in a million yea r s c h o o s e t o l e t i n s i d e! When they get into the blood stream they up-regulate the immune system leading to inflammation, and all sorts of nasty symptoms. So here s what you need to do to heal your gut: Continue taking the probiotic for at least 2 months, although some people will need 6 months or more (even a year) depending on their health history and the kind of antibiotic prescribed. Consume healing bone broth on a daily basis, ideally a cup with every meal. Take L-glutamine powder between meals as it s a healing food supply for the damaged cells of the intestinal lining. Take zinc a supplement to help improve the integrity of the intestinal lining. Take a vitamin D supplement to make the spaces between those intestinal cells nice and tight again.
How can you avoid antibiotics in the first place? The most important thing you can do to minimize your need for antibiotics is to take care of the trillions of friendly bacteria in your body in the first place. If you keep them happy, they will take care of you and create an inhospitable environment for any pathogenic strains. This includes a daily intake of fermented foods, and fresh vegetables to ensure a continual inoculation of your system with bacteria and their food (known as prebiotics). A good sign of success is that you re no longer the first person in the office to succumb to the latest cold or flu! You can also keep natural antibacterial remedies at home to use at the first sign of infection. These include the frequent use of garlic in your cooking, unpasteurized Makuka Honey, oil of oregano, and colloidal silver. You also need to pay attention to hidden sources of antibiotics. Conventionally raised meat is a problematic source. The same goes for conventionally raised eggs, and farmed fish. In all these cases, antibiotics are used to prevent disease where animals are raised in cramped, and unnatural conditions that allow illness to travel fast. I also strongly advise staying away from anti-bacterial soaps, cleaners and detergents. Look for things like Triclosan, Triclocarban/Trichlorocarbamide and PCMX/Chloroxylenol on packaging, but really the term anti-bacterial tells you everything you need to know. Even if you don t buy these for your home, you ll often find them in public washrooms like in restaurants, and medical facilities. Once or twice won t kill you, but don t make it a daily habit. So I ve introduced you briefly to the long term consequences of antibiotic use, some strategies to minimize your risk of long term consequence if you must take some, as well as tips on how to ensure a complete recovery afterwards. Frequent antibiotic use features in the health history of every single one of my clients, so save and share this information because it can make a difference in your short term and long term health outcomes.
Common sense fine print Please remember that this information is for general use only, my role is of a nutritionist, not a doctor. When I work with clients I supervise their supplement usage very closely, which is why I have not given dosages here. Your health history will dictate how much, and how long you need to take supplements for, and working one-on-one with a nutritionist or naturopath will help you determine this.