Antibiotics are essential in killing harmful bacteria, but they can cause collateral damage to the good bacteria in your gut. The result may be diarrhea for a couple of days and sometimes weeks after stopping to take medicine. However, how can you benefit from the antibiotics without having to deal with nasty stomach side effects? The solution you are looking for can be found in probiotics, either in pills or even powders containing live microorganisms that provide health benefits.
There are about 1000 different species of bacteria with approximately 100 trillion bacteria in your intestines. When 80% of the bacteria are good bacteria, the harmful ones are kept at bay. However, when you take antibiotics, you change the microbiome’s balance, which results in increasing numbers of harmful bacteria. The following are some of the reasons why you should take your probiotics with antibiotics;
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They help restore order in your gut
Antibiotics are quite crucial in the treatment of bacterial infections but are not gut-friendly. Thankfully, probiotics allow you to preserve and restore your microbiome for your whole-body health when taking antibiotics. They restore order in your gut by providing beneficial bacteria that balance the bacterial communities in your gut microbiome. Probiotics include foods and supplements which carry a live bacterium that is beneficial to human health. If you want to ensure good health within your home, you need to consider probiotics for kids and ensure your gut condition is in order.
Reduces side effects like diarrhea
When you take probiotics and antibiotics together, you reduce all the side-effects that may come along. They help in the restoration of healthy gut microbes that get lost through antibiotic therapy. Lactobacillus and Saccharomyces are beneficial yeast that helps mitigate antibiotic side effects. It is not uncommon for you to experience nausea, diarrhea, tummy upsets, bloating, and even vomiting when you take antibiotics. Taking a probiotic supplement at the same helps in dealing with digestive side effects.
It helps curb digestion problems
Probiotics can help if you are experiencing digestion problems after taking antibiotics. Research shows that probiotics reduce instances of antibiotic-associated diarrhea by approximately 52%. Doctors recommend that you use probiotics after a prescription of antibiotics. However, when taking them, you need to space out the interval between probiotics and antibiotics. The problem with taking them together is that the antibiotics can kill the good bacteria in the probiotic. When you wait for approximately two hours, the probiotics and antibiotic levels are significantly low in the intestines, so it does not make any difference.
To boost beneficial bacteria in your body
Even after taking antibiotics, it would help boost the good bacteria within your system, and there is no better way of doing so than using probiotics, foods and supplements. They are composed of microbes that ensure your gut environment helps regulate your microbiome, keeping any opportunistic pathogens at bay and the beneficial ones thriving.
Likewise, remember that bacteria need to eat. Like other beneficial bacteria, probiotic microbes need plant-based foods rich in prebiotic fiber for nourishment.
Antibiotics are quite helpful in fighting off bacterial infections. Still, they can come with undesired side effects such as long-term adverse changes in your gut microbiome composition because they cannot tell apart health-promoting microbes from those that cause illness. Probiotic supplements help mitigate against immediate side effects such as diarrhea and allow your gut microbiome to get back on track after some time.
One of the best solutions is incorporating foods rich in fiber and fermented foods containing live bacterial cultures that help supply your microbiome with good bacteria to get your ecosystem in a tip-top state. There is a high possibility that at some point, you’ll need antibiotics, especially after a doctor’s prescription. When you take them, it helps to know which foods and beverages you need to avoid. Stay away from alcohol, calcium-fortified and grapefruit to avoid having to deal with unnecessary harm from the medication.
If you have taken a course of antibiotics, getting the side effects is highly possible, and sometimes you may not have been recommended a friendly bacteria supplement. It is better late than ever. Whenever you take any antibiotics, you should, by all means, take probiotics to keep your body healthy and in good shape.
