Maintaining a healthy and balanced gut flora is important for several of our bodily functions. But the balance in the gut flora can easily be upset by other external factors. One of these is taking antibiotic medicines, which can cause problems both during and after the treatment. In this article, we’ll find out what effects antibiotics have on our gut flora and how we can take care of the bacteria in our gut in relation to a course of antibiotics.
In normal cases, an adult’s gut flora stays relatively stable throughout their life, but there are several factors in western lifestyles that can cause both temporary and long-term problems in the gut flora. Some examples of these are an unhealthy diet (too much processed food and too little fibre), longer periods of heightened stress, as well as antibiotic treatments.
Antibiotics are usually given for different types of infections, where the job of the antibiotics is to kill off the bad bacteria that caused the infection. At the same time as the antibiotics are killing the bad bacteria, a large proportion of the good bacteria that occur naturally in the gut are also hit. This causes an imbalance in the gut flora, which in turn makes it possible for bad bacteria, microfungi, and other damaging organisms to get into the gut.
A normal course of penicillin can wipe out as much as 90 percent of your gut flora and it can, in the worst case, take several months, possibly even years, to recover. Common issues are diarrhoea, urinary infections, fungal infections and general over-sensitivity towards both infections and different types of food.
How much the gut flora is affected depends on the type of antibiotics used. Antibiotics with a small spectrum are targeted towards a specific bacteria, meaning they have a milder effect on gut bacteria. Antibiotics with a broad spectrum, however, are effective against several types of bacteria and therefore have a more powerful effect on your gut flora.
A standard recommendation with a treatment of antibiotics is to supplement good bacteria to compensate for the negative effect on the gut flora. It’s also important to supplement fibre (prebiotics), as it functions as food for the good bacteria. This can be done to some degree by adjusting your diet but also with synbiotic supplements that combine good bacteria and fibre.
Good bacteria can be added to your diet before, during and after a course of antibiotics. With an ongoing treatment, however, it’s important to wait until at least two hours after you’ve taken your antibiotics before taking good bacteria to ensure the effect isn’t cancelled out.
Eating a diet rich in plant fibre is great for your gut flora. First and foremost, soluble fibre acts as prebiotics, this means it acts as food for the gut bacteria. This fibre is found in different types of plant foods such as asparagus, root vegetables, onions, fruits, and berries, for example. Non-soluble fibres, however, are mostly found in different cereals and can be harder for the body to handle in relation to antibiotics courses when the stomach is extra-sensitive.
If you’ve previously been used to eating food that’s low in fibre, the stomach can sometimes react if you increase the amount of fibre, regardless of whether it comes in the form of food or supplements. Therefore, it can be good to increase the intake of fibre gradually and ideally you should begin a little bit beforehand if you know a course of antibiotics is on the way in the near future, for example with a planned surgery.
References:
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