Questions & Answers

Five Steps To Regaining Gut Health After Antibiotic Use

If you had a course of antibiotics, it’s essential to do what you can to restore your gut health.

1. Firstly, if at all possible, avoid doing another round. One course of antibiotics is bad enough, taking another round is like going back into the ring with the world heavyweight boxing champion. I’ve had clients who have been on antibiotics almost continuously for six months, and it destroys their gut. I look at it as the medical equivalent of napalming your garden time and time again.

2. Next, it’s crucial that you focus on eating the kinds of foods that will help build your but back up again. If you’ve just finished a week of ciprofloxacin, now is not the time to be feasting on take-out pizza while drinking a liter of pop. You’re better off cooking yourself some bok choy and brown rice at home. If you jump into eating high-sugar food right after finishing antibiotics, there is a very good chance that the yeast population in your gut is going to increase significantly. If you have a burning desire to eat sweets after using antibiotics, it’s a sure-fire sign that you’ve developed SIBO or a yeast problem.

Further readings:

3. Make sure that you take a probiotic long enough to make a difference. Some people think that seven to ten days of probiotics is enough to reverse all the damage that has been done by antibiotic treatment. Not true. I recommend staying on the probiotic until your gut function is excellent again. Even then, if you stop the probiotics and your gut problems resurface, you need to go back on the probiotic.

4. Make sure you get adequate rest and avoid living a high-stress lifestyle. Some people who get sick, unfortunately, stay sick because they live an unhealthy lifestyle. It may be their relationship, it may be their job, or it could be the family dynamics. Something needs to change because if the person continues to expose themselves to significant stress, their gut isn’t going to bounce back and recover.

5. Please don’t take too many dietary supplements in the hopes that it will speed up your return to gut health. I’ve seen people take 30 or more pills a day. When your gut is recovering from antibiotics, I strongly recommend keeping things simple. Eat a basic, healthy diet and reduce your life stress. Now is not the time to pepper your digestive system with B vitamins, magnesium supplements, zinc supplements, and so on. Try and back off a lot of these supplements and give your gut some space to recover.

Sources: