Although I see my fair share of clients that are on or have been on antibiotics, I haven’t even thought about personally going on them for nearly a decade. And I hadn’t realized how resistant I had become to Western Medicine.
A little over three weeks ago when my husband basically dragged me to urgent care one Saturday after being sick for over 6 weeks.
Before you rebut with the typical, well you clearly didn’t try EVERYTHING first.
Nope.
I did.
First I tried all the food and hydration: so much bone broth, soup, filtered water, herbal teas, you name it! I tried all my herbs: echinacea, golden seal, Oregon grape, yerba mansa, turmeric, and so many more! I also tried all the vitamins and supplements: zinc, vitamin C, vitamin D, my go to combinations like Viracon or Immunoberry, you name it! Plus, I rested. Did I miss something there?
So when it came the time to talk about antibiotics I was ready. I just wanted, needed to feel better.
But let me tell you, it WRECKED my stomach. I basically couldn’t hold anything I ate in, it just flowed in one way and out another. TMI? Ehhh, it’s the truth. And I KNOW I am not alone here.
So, I knew when I finished them I would have to do some solid work on rebuilding my gut health, microbiome and stomach lining. So I thought I would share with you what I am doing myself, in hopes it can help you or someone get through this too.
MICROBIOME 101
A quick rundown of our microbiome and its ecology.
We have over 100 trillion (yup, trillion with a T) microorganisms throughout our entire body!
The DNA of those bacteria living on and in us out number our own DNA by 10 times. That means we quite literally are more “bugs” or bacteria then actual human DNA! Crazy!
If you put all the bugs together they would weight 2-6 pounds for a 200 pound person!
The microbiome help to regulate digestion, mood, hunger, our immune system and so much more!
Our microbiome can be thought of as an ecosystem – they are all over the body, some much more than others. For example, there’s around 1,000 bacterial species in the gut microbiota, the majority of which live in the large intestines.
It all starts before we are born – from our mothers’ gut, her medications, antibiotics, stress to how we were born allowed playing in the sand box, etc. The first 3 years of our life may in fact determine how our microbiome thrives or not as an adult.
There are many factors to how we can damage or destroy our gut microbiome. Anything from stress, inflammation, leaky gut, poor diet, medications, alcohol, sleep issues, and more! Today we are focusing on medications, specifically antibiotics.
ANTIBIOTICS 101
Good news: antibiotics kill the bad bacteria that’s making you feel yucky! Hooray!
Bad news: they also kill the good bacteria and make it hard for any bacteria to multiply! Wah Wah! Bummer right?!?! But you already new this right. That’s why you are here.
Please keep in mind, there’s so much research going on in this area right now. Which means a few things:
We have a lot of new and old information out there
All this information can be great and also confusing
There’s still so much we don’t know and need to discover
So simply giving a one-size fits all answer here is not the way to go, and is against all I believe with personalized nutrition and lifestyle wellness. Additionally, I do believe that nutrition can be a great part of a larger whole. But it’s just that: part of the whole. It would be close to impossible to fix your gut simply based on food and nutrition alone. Yup, I am a certified nutritionist saying that. That is how important it is to work on all areas listed below to rebuild your gut microbiome. However, there are still a great deal we can all do to help move the needle in the right direction:
Maximize gut microbial diversity
Naturally fermented foods – these are the ones you will find in the refrigerated section of your natural food store (the ones on the shelf have been pasteurized and therefore don’t contain any probiotics in them). And of course you can always make your own. It’s cheap and you get to experiment with what you really like. One of my faves that I make is juniper berry sauerkraut!
Quality probiotics – Key word here: QUALITY! I mean practitioner brand or something comparable. You are consuming bacteria here. So I usually never recommend anyone buy these from a store, yup even Whole Foods. You just don’t really know the quality and how long they have been there. So the ones I use and recommend: Klaire Labs, Enzymedica Pro-Bio, Xymogen or Thrive.*
Reduce your body’s inflammation through diet and lifestyle choices – Inflammation is not bad when it is acute and is actually meant to heal the body. However, chronic inflammation will throw your gut microbiome off, too many bad buys and not enough good ones.
a. Increase fresh vegetable and fruit intake
b. Stay hydrated with filtered water and herbal tea
c. Enjoy bone broths
d. Reduce/avoid processed and fake sugars, trans fats, additives, processed foods
e. Reduce/avoid GMOs, Glyphosate and other toxins
Reduce your stress – When our bodies and minds are stress, in the Sympathetic Nervous System, the “fight or flight” mode, we can’t digest well and absorb nutrients from our food. Moving into the Parasympathetic Nervous System, aka the “rest and digest” mode, we learn to reduce our chronic stress, that will contribute to lowering inflammation, having better digestion, improved mood, nutrient absorption, a healthy immune system and so much more!
a. Practice mindfulness
b. Meditate and/or breathing exercises
c. Self-care practices
Enjoy ALL your food choices and be social with meal times – Generally I like to follow an 80/20 rule. 80% of the time I enjoy foods that are whole, sustainable, and nourish my body. And 20% of the time I enjoy other foods and don’t worry about it. The key here is not to get to scientific, but to slow down, listen to your body, hungry levels and more and make your decisions.
Move your body – this has been shown time and time again to increase not only our gut microbiome, but our immune system, mood, brain and heart health, and so much more. Just don’t overdo it. And do what you enjoy.
Get quality sleep – this is when our body and mind not only get to literally rest, but also detox and take the trash out. Sleeping is so important, this alone can make or break our entire bodies and minds. This also happens to be the best time to reinoculated your gut with good bacteria. So if you can and it doesn’t bother you, right before bed is the best tie to take your probiotics. Otherwise, take right after mealtime.
Listen to how you feel and your emotional state - Don’t eat when you are sad, angry stress, etc. – you can’t absorb nutrients during these times anyhow. So instead, figure out a way to work through those emotions, journal, walk, phone a friend, whatever works. Then go eat something.
As you can see from this list, there’s a lot of overlap in many areas. Things that can help with nutrition can also help with inflammation can help with stress reduction and so on
You can also see that probiotics are only a small portion of one part of this process. There’s actually a study out there showing that taking probiotics does not help, in fact may hurt a person if taken after a course of antibiotics. And though I think the study itself is a bit flawed. I think it makes a great point that, in fact, what may matter more is the quality of the probiotics and ALL the OTHER things a person does nutritionally and in their daily life. So don’t get hung up on just the probiotics after a course of antibiotics. There’s plenty of additional things to work towards in rebuilding the gut microbiome. If you feel like you’ve tried it all and are in need of a more personalized approach, drop me a line and let’s chat! Here’s to a happy gut!
*This and none of my posts are ever sponsored. I see nothing wrong with sponsored posts, I am just not that big ;). I only recommend what I truly believe in, have done the research around and take myself. That being said the first two can be purchased on Wellevate with a 10% discount. Xymogen you can purchase here, with the code: NuDe.
REFERENCES
Mayer, Emeran MD, The Mind Gut Connection.
Bauman College, Nutritional Therapeutics Handbook, 2015.