Prescribed Antibiotics on Day 25

[chezjulie]

Hi all,

 

I have just been diagnosed with bronchitis and prescribed a 7-day course of antibiotics. I'm unhappy about throwing a bomb at my gut bacteria after working hard to improve the balance, but I really don't want lingering bronchitis!

 

For background, I am on Day 25 of eating Whole30 style. (I don't say "doing a Whole30" because I had some accidental slip-ups and chose to keep going). I will finish the course of antibiotics on Day 31.

 

I was really looking forward to reintroducing some foods. Will this totally ruin my plans for reintroduction? I am going to be taking a drugstore probiotic and having kombucha or sauerkraut every day. The timing would not be good for me to start another Whole30 from scratch right now.

 

I would welcome advice on how to proceed, although my capacity for absorbing stern tough love is a little low today.

 

Thanks,

ChezJulie

[ladyshanny]

Aw, there's no tough love in this case.  You're sick.  That sucks.  You have to take the medication to get better.  Whole30 is still an elimination diet so provided that the antibiotics (and the probiotics for that matter) don't have non compliant ingredients, you still get to test foods when you're feeling better.

 

The kombucha and sauerkraut are a great idea and will help keep your gut populated as well!

[MrsStick]

One note - remember to eat your probiotic foods and/or take your probiotic supplements at a different time than your antibiotic. I was on a 2 week course about two months ago...learned that lesson the hard way. I found that kombucha (I make my own, not sure how it compares to the storebought) helped my guts way more than the probiotic capsule, even if I doubled the capsule dose. Even with my capsule I was still having the die-off digestive effects, but days where I managed to have kombucha too I didn't have that same effect.

[chezjulie]

Thank you both for the kind and helpful responses. I felt so much better when I read them. When I was doing a search for antibiotics on the forum, I found a mod saying that the person wouldn't have good results so I got worried that I was going to have to start over for the program to work. Looking back, I think that person's situation was different in that they were taking antibiotics and not eating much.

 

I did read a quote from the forthcoming book Gut by Giulia Enders that says "The gut can also become porous for a short time after a course of antibiotics... Sensitivity to gluten resulting from these temporary causes can sometimes look the same as the symptoms of true gluten intolerance." And "Antibiotics, high stress levels, or gastrointestinal infections, for example, can all trigger temporary sensitivities to certain foods. When the body has returned to healthy equilibrium, even a sensitive gut can usually sort itself out." This makes me think that I might have to take the reintroduction results with a grain of salt, knowing that some food sensitivity may be temporary. 

[Loulabelle]

Would it be an option for you to delay introductions for a week or however long it will take you to get rid of the antibiotic effects? From what you have written above it sounds like that would be a good idea so you know really what foods cause you bother. 

[ladyshanny]

I would recommend waiting a decent amount of time following your antibiotics before reintro also.  Otherwise you have muddied results.

[chezjulie]

Thanks, Loulabelle and ladyshanny, for your thoughtful resplies. I think I will delay reintroduction for a week after I finish the meds even though it's a real bummer.   Not only are the antibiotics possibly going to give me confusing results, but I feel crappy in general which is probably not the best foundation for testing my responses.