How to restore health after taking antibiotics

Jan­u­ary 15, 2017, 14:48

Bron­chi­tis, pneu­mo­nia, ton­sil­li­tis, cys­ti­tis — there are a num­ber of dis­eases that can­not be treat­ed with­out antibi­otics. What to do if after a course of antibi­otics, you are faced with their side effects — a vio­la­tion of the intesti­nal microflo­ra and diar­rhea?

bur­da media

Antibi­otics are one of the major inven­tions of mod­ern med­i­cine. With their help, doc­tors have learned to defeat infec­tions from which our ances­tors died 100 years ago. For exam­ple, before peni­cillin appeared, pneu­mo­nia was fatal in 90% of cas­es! How­ev­er, in addi­tion to the unde­ni­able advan­tages of antibi­otics in the treat­ment of dis­eases caused by micro­bial infec­tions, their use is often accom­pa­nied by side effects. One of the most com­mon symp­toms is antibi­ot­ic-asso­ci­at­ed diar­rhea (AAD).

READ ALSO: Win­ter with­out colds: how to strength­en the immune sys­tem?

Microflora in danger

Shut­ter­stock

Antibi­otics have a depress­ing effect not only on path­o­gen­ic microor­gan­isms, but also on the nat­ur­al inhab­i­tants of the intes­tine, which are nec­es­sary for its nor­mal func­tion­ing. A change in the quan­ti­ta­tive and qual­i­ta­tive com­po­si­tion, as well as the prop­er­ties of the intesti­nal microflo­ra pro­vokes the occur­rence of dys­bac­te­rio­sis. “Bad” bac­te­ria begin to mul­ti­ply active­ly. This can man­i­fest itself as mild stool dis­or­ders, as well as severe repeat­ed diar­rhea with an admix­ture of blood and dehy­dra­tion. In such cas­es, you should imme­di­ate­ly con­sult a doc­tor, because severe diar­rhea caused by antibi­otics must be treat­ed under the strict super­vi­sion of a doc­tor.

The risk of devel­op­ing intesti­nal dys­bac­te­rio­sis and AAD increas­es with pro­longed antibi­ot­ic ther­a­py (more than 10 days), fre­quent use of antibi­otics, as well as the use of low-qual­i­ty drugs or the wrong mode of their use.

Antibi­ot­ic-asso­ci­at­ed diar­rhea (AAD) is char­ac­ter­ized by the fol­low­ing man­i­fes­ta­tions:

• liq­uid or mushy stools with a fre­quen­cy of more than 3 times a day;
• excess of the dai­ly amount of feces more than 200 g;
• AAD can devel­op from 2 hours after tak­ing an antibi­ot­ic to 8 weeks after stop­ping it.

How to treat diarrhea caused by taking antibiotics?

If the cause of diar­rhea is a change in the intesti­nal microflo­ra, pro­bi­ot­ic prepa­ra­tions are often pre­scribed. They con­tribute to the nor­mal­iza­tion of the bal­ance of intesti­nal microflo­ra, the elim­i­na­tion of diar­rhea and oth­er man­i­fes­ta­tions of dys­bac­te­rio­sis. In the treat­ment and pre­ven­tion of AAD, the effec­tive­ness of, for exam­ple, the drug Lak­tovit Forte. It con­tains spores of lac­to­bacil­lus bacil­lus coag­u­lans (B. coag­u­lans), folic acid (vit­a­min B9) and cyanocobal­amin (vit­a­min B12).

Bacil­lus coag­u­lans (B. coag­u­lans) spores in the acidic con­tents of the stom­ach are acti­vat­ed and enter the intes­tine, where they pro­duce the ben­e­fi­cial L(+) form of lac­tic acid and effec­tive­ly pre­vent the growth of path­o­gen­ic microor­gan­isms. Lac­tic acid pro­duced by B. coag­u­lans cre­ates an opti­mal acid­i­ty of the envi­ron­ment for the devel­op­ment of nor­mal intesti­nal microflo­ra, has an antibac­te­r­i­al effect. B. coag­u­lans bac­te­ria do not col­o­nize the intesti­nal mucosa and are grad­u­al­ly elim­i­nat­ed from the gas­troin­testi­nal tract, pro­vid­ing a long-term ther­a­peu­tic effect after the end of their intake.

Pho­to: Bur­da Media

Lak­tovit Forte, unlike many oth­er pro­bi­otics, con­tributes to the restora­tion and devel­op­ment of the native microflo­ra, unique to each per­son, and does not just pop­u­late the intestines with “for­eign”, unusu­al bac­te­ria.

B vit­a­mins₉ (folic acid) and B₁₂ (cyanocobal­amin), in turn, pro­mote the active growth and devel­op­ment of Bacil­lus coag­u­lans in the intes­tine, enhance the immunomod­u­la­to­ry effect and restore the intesti­nal mucosa. The drug can be used by preg­nant women and chil­dren from the first months of life.

Dos­es of B vit­a­mins₉ and B₁₂ in the prepa­ra­tion Lac­tovit Forte (1.5 mg and 15 mcg, respec­tive­ly) are safe for adults and chil­dren (sub­ject to the rec­om­mend­ed dosage indi­cat­ed in the instruc­tions).

READ MORE:
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Antibi­otics for angi­na: is it nec­es­sary to take

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