Antibiotics have helped modern medicine best many forms of infectious disease.  They are life-saving and have helped millions of people recover from bacterial infections.  There is one problem, they are being applied improperly.  In this article I will explain how antibiotics can harm the health of your intestines and what you can do about it.

It happens, one of my patients falls ill to a sinus infection or strep throat and goes to get antibiotics.  Because of the many resistant strains out there, they are often prescribed a "broad-spectrum" antibiotic which kills many different kinds of bacteria not just the "gram-positive bacteria" that penicillin kills.  The broad spectrum antibiotics have the effect of killing nearly every kind of bacteria in the body.  Therein lies the problem.  We need bacteria to be healthy!

Our intestines house nearly 10 times more bacteria than we have cells in our bodies!  That means you probably have somewhere on the order of 10 trillion bacteria living inside you right now!  This is by design, our bodies have a symbiotic relationship with these bacteria.  We give them a house and food and they help us digest our food and protect our insides.

Research is increasingly showing that the amount of certain types of bacteria you have in your intestines is a indicator of bowel health.  Certain bacteria protect the gut and others attack it and make it inflamed.  Since 70% of our immune system sits right by our gut, if it is having trouble our immunity can suffer.  Also our bodies can get inflamed as white blood cells release inflammatory chemicals called "cytokines" into the blood.  This means when your gut is unhealthy you're more likely to get sick and more likely to get an inflammatory condition like asthma, allergies, joint pain, etc.

 
Harmful Bacteria 
Examples of bacteria that are harmful to the gut are Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, E. Coli, and H. Pylori.  These bacteria actively try to penetrate the gut lining and get into the body.  Their waste products are also irritating to the gut lining which may also produce Irritable Bowel symptoms.

These bacteria create microscopic tears in the gut that cause inflammation and allow undigested proteins to cross over.  This is a condition called Leaky Gut Syndrome, and often sparks multiple food sensitivities.  Undigested food proteins are perceived as threats by the body and it will often mount an immune response against them.  This immune response can spark a food allergy as the body becomes sensitized to certain food proteins.

Good Bacteria/Probiotics
Increasingly research is finding that certain bacteria species like Lactobacillus Rhamnosus (GG), Lactobacillus Plantarum, Lactobacillus Casei, Bifido Lactis all have a soothing effect on the gut.  They don't try to penetrate the gut.  Their waste products don't irritate the gut lining.  They take up space and make it difficult for harmful species to adhere to the intestinal wall.  The protect and sooth the gut.  There is also emerging data that shows probiotics bring about anti-inflammatory effects in the immune system.

Interestingly enough, in the latest research it is showing that Acidophilus, the most widely known probiotic, actually exerts very little protective benefit to the gut.  That means it doesn't work very well and other species like Lactobacillus Rhamnosus and Plantarum have a much more pronounced health effect. 

Enter Yeast
Once you take a broad-spectrum antibiotic, huge numbers of bacteria are killed off in the body.  This effect isn't limited to only bad bacteria.  Both bad bacteria and good bacteria are killed.  One thing isn't killed though, Candida Albicans, also known as yeast.  Yeast is a fungus therefore impervious to antibiotics.  Since all the bacteria lining the gut are being killed off, yeast quickly moves in to take their place and an internal yeast infection often occurs.  Yeast behaves very much like the bad bacteria, it tries to penetrate and destroy the gut and produces harmful waste products.  This causes inflammation and plenty of bowel dysfunction that may be mistaken as Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

What you notice is a stomach ache, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, fatigue and many other symptoms.  In addition to all the nastiness that occurs in the gut, yeast also produces over 70 different neurotoxins.  These are toxins that specifically effect the nervous system.  Because the Nervous System is the chief control system of the body this can lead to a great many symptoms.  Neurotoxins are known to produce memory loss, fatigue, anxiety, and depression.

 
The Major Side-Effect of Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Use
Secondary Candidiasis (A Yeast Infection)

 
Treating and Preventing
Before, during, and after taking a course of antibiotics you should take a quality probiotic containing Lactobacillus Rhamnosus, Lactobacillus Plantarum, Bifido Lactis, a healthy yeast called Sarchomyces.  These beneficial bacteria and yeast can help prevent the possibility of developing a secondary yeast infection.  The one we offer in the office is a "synbiotic" which contains the healthy bacteria and a sugar that we can't digest but the bacteria can. 

Our probiotic has Lactobacillus Rhamnosus, Lactobacillus Plantarum, Lactobacillus Casei, and Bifido Lactis all of which are outstanding probiotics.  For more information information about Probiotics and your health call our office or schedule a nutritional consult.

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