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Something i didn't know about antibiotics

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Changing4Best

MyPTSD Pro
After feeling suicidal and depressed while on antibiotics, and then after that, when I went off them I felt some intense anger and then some happy feelings a few days later, I asked my psychiatrist's office if antibiotics can affect your moods. Guess what? They can! It is true. I felt such relief knowing this. So I thought I would share it with all of you, so that if you ever have to take them again, you will be aware of what can happen while you are on them, and what can happen afterwards too!

Oh, and as a side note, I got the runs too, but not while I was on them, afterwards! I think that may have happened because I took a bunch of probiotics, you know, to get my digestion back to "normal."
 
Thanks for sharing

I'm wondering if its coz antibiotics affect gut health, which affects mental health[/...
Probably. The microbiome was pretty recently linked to certain personality traits (simplified version), so this wouldn't surprise me. :)
 
I have heard of fecal transplants lowering anxiety. Sounds so gross, but the point is to introduce a certain microbiom from a healthy person into someones who is depleted.
 
I have heard of fecal transplants lowering anxiety. Sounds so gross, but the point is to introduce a c...
There is a less gross alternative (unless you are in absolutely urgent care). Some probiotics are in a love cultured in pills -- the ones with ten species or more are best, though if you eat them with the wrong things or they don't survive for some other reason (really not uncommon, especially with certain grocers who don't ship them properly, such as Walmarts) then they are useless. However, pretty much any fermented food will help with this! even dairy ones :)

Humans can't digest food in their own. Human guts are simple (sort of) and the gut cells mainly injest sugars and other things they can get attached to fats, for example. Bacteria in the gut break down food into these essentials for us -- with way more efficiency than humans ever could. Humans aren't specialized in the field of breaking down parts for creating building blocks/energy. These bacteria are amazing at it, and allow us to human all we want to :P

So, if they are killed off or start having a hard time, you immediately will have less energy. And then, you'll not feel as great.

Humans are cool
 
so which do you think is better:
during a course of antibiotics take a probiotic as well, or wait until the course of antibiotics has finished, THEN take the probiotics?
 
so which do you think is better:
during a course of antibiotics take a probiotic as well, or wait until t...
Interesting question... let me look it up! :D

Okay, I found several studies covering this, with methods ranging from computer imaging to patient interactions. Apparent loads to studies were done especially for people with bowel diseases -- especially diseases caused by overuse of antibiotics (such as in people who have needed antibiotics for long periods of time in order to function/get better instead of staying infected).

It looks like the consensus for preventing bowel disease in patients (it's very specific research for now, but is being applied in other fields) is to take probiotics while taking antibiotics. It replenishes good bacteria while the antibiotics can kill off the infecting bacteria. It helps keep patients healthier to take probiotics at the same time for general illness.

Probably, since there are also studies showing that link between mood and antibiotics (I found them, just to see what your doctor was talking about), it would be possible that taking probiotics with antibiotics would help keep the mood up -- assuming it is the gut bacteria and resulting digestion issues causing the problem. All that seems to be supported by modern evidence, so someone just needs to test this to see if it follows the rules we think are true!

Because otherwise, antibiotics are doing a lot more to us than we know. So, probably it's the gut bacteria thing -- but someone should study this! Maybe I'll make it my PhD thesis in grad school :P

But anyway, to answer your question shortly: looks like you should take probiotics WITH antibiotics! I would personally be tempted to take them for a couple weeks after antibiotics were out of my system, but I'd have to look around to see if any research was done on how long probiotics should be consumed/taken afterward. Probably doesn't hurt, though!

Sources:

Hope that's helpful!
 
Thanks Wiki! (;) @littleoc )

I didnt read all of it yet, just the first & last articles.
Good quote from the first: Effects of probiotics and antibiotics on the intestinal homeostasis in a computer controlled model of the large intestine
"The intestinal microbiota showed a decrease in several indigenous bacterial groups under antibiotic therapy, there was no significant recovery of these groups when the antibiotic therapy was followed by administration of probiotics. Simultaneous application of anti- and probiotics had a stabilizing effect on the intestinal microbiota with increased bifidobacteria and lactobacilli."

So yeah, it's currently best practice to have concurrent antibiotic/probiotic therapy.

I had always internally believed the anti's would destroy the pro's and therefore nullify the beneficial effect. I was wrong, and it's great to learn the truth of the matter!

Thanks for your thorough research. :tup:
 
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