How To Recover from Antibiotics
Video Transcript:
Hi everyone and welcome back to our blog. My name is Marcie Vaske and I'm a functional medicine nutritionist with Oswald Digestive Clinic specializing in gut health.
So I see a lot of individuals that come in with diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, and really that's just to name a few things. So if that sounds like you or maybe someone you know, you can easily make an initial appointment with us.
Or download our free guide, which is five ways to Improve Your Gut Health if you are the kind of person who likes to get things started and maybe even done on their own. So let's dig into our today's topic which is How To Recover from Antibiotics.
So it seems to be that time of year when infection rates go up and you might have to head into the doctor and be on an antibiotic.
What are antibiotics actually doing to your gut health?
For those who already have poor or bad gut health, it's going to worsen symptoms.
And if you have a gut made of steel, an antibiotic can very well put you on your way to poor gut health.
Antibiotics are amazing and they treat tons of infections.
With that being said they really they do wreak a lot of havoc on our body and especially our intestinal tract. Research has revealed that antibiotics can cut your gut flora down by 90%. So that's leaving you susceptible to all sorts of chaos in your gut.
So how do you get back on track? How do you recover from antibiotics?
Tip number one is eating fermented foods. Fermented foods like Kefir, yogurt, kimchi, and sauerkraut, are all great to build up a little bit of better bacteria in your gut.
Fun fact is that one tablespoon of sauerkraut actually contains up to a hundred billion good flora for your gut. So you can see that it doesn't even take that much of adding in fermented foods.
The next tip is get plenty of sleep and rest.
The body needs to sleep to help it heal, recover, and decrease stress levels.
If you frequently read the blog, you have probably read that stress has all sorts of negative effects on your body and especially our gut. So get make sure you get plenty of sleep.
Now of course, I need to talk about a little nutrition in here.
The next tip is about eating a whole foods diet. You want to make sure that you are nurturing and nourishing your body in a way to help it recover.
So, adding in healthy proteins and making sure you are eating enough protein at each meal, adding in healthy vegetables and fruits, which give you lots of antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins. And of course adding in healthy fats! Having this whole foods diet is going to help nourish yourself and nourish that gut microbiome in leading to better health.
Things that you want to keep out are processed and sugary foods. So anything in a package or things like cakes, cookies, chips, pretzels, those are only going to feed opportunistic bacteria.
We want to make sure that you're feeding it the proper foods to help heal and restore good flora in your gut.
Now the next tip is to drink plenty of fluids. As you heal and recover after taking an antibiotic, you want to make sure you're drinking plenty of water, even herbal teas. Sprinkling in some bone broth here and there as well. Those are all going to be great in the healing process.
Now of course, we want to stay hydrated no matter what. But, the gold standard is half your body weight in ounces if you need a place to start, and at least 64 ounces of water per day. That will keep you hydrated and keep your gut healthy
The last thing you want to look into when you're restoring good gut flora is probiotics. When you take a probiotic you're going to get quite a few more flora to help restore that healthy gut.
You'll want to look for strains like Bifidobacterium, lactobacillus, and even Saccharomyces Boulardii. Those are all wonderful in helping get a better microbiome up and running again.
There was a study that was done that showed participants who took probiotics starting two days into beginning an antibiotic and continued taking it for 14 days, the chance of having diarrhea associated with taking an antibiotic was greatly diminished.
So if you have to start taking an antibiotic, I would again recommend taking a probiotic along with it.
Check with your health practitioner to see how long they recommend you take it. Make sure that you're not taking too much too long and just the right amount.
To sum it up: adding in fermented foods, making sure you're eating a whole foods diet, removing sugary foods from your diet, making sure you're getting plenty of rest, decreasing your stress, taking a probiotic, and increasing hydration.
If you feel like your gut isn't healing properly from taking an antibiotic, or of you've had to take several rounds of antibiotics because of various reasons, you're welcome to make an initial appointment with our clinic. We are happy to help you heal your gut so that you can live a happy and healthy life.
If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic. We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.
Or you can start by just downloading our FREE GUIDE: 5 Ways to Improve Gut Health.
