Antibiotics and your gut bacteria

Cipro to me is the I have had many antibiotic induced flares because of this med.

Repeated sinus and ear infections and thus antibiotics almost every month for a full year is what did it for me... (working with preschoolers just kept me sick..)

My recent flare started after 5 days of Zithromax followed by 10 days of Bactrim plus Ciprodex antibiotic ear drops... that pretty much guaranteed my UC to rear its ugly head....

One of the theories on UC is that the gut mucus barrier is breached by your normal flora. But I suspect that the normal flora of today is not what it was in 1930 when UC and Crohn's started to increase. Probably a host of reasons,chlorination of water,refrigeration,toothpaste,mouthwash,antibiotics,food preservatives,general hygiene in people who have the wrong genetic makeup
Old Mike

Many countries are experiencing a rapid increase in IBD as they adopt western style medicine and diet. The common thread among all these increases in IBD has to be antibiotics and refined, sterile food. Of course, once you have the disease, you can't go back in time and not take the antibiotic... it's too late, but it should be a red flag for researchers trying to unravel this ugly disease.

It has been pretty well known that Cipro and other fluoroquinolones were being improperly used by doctors for years. They were meant as last ditch drugs for people that have tried everything else and are going to die if something is not done not to be handed out like candy for flu or given to patients for self administration before a foreign trip.

What I didn't know until recently is how bad and frequent some of the adverse reactions are and that they include death. I have a friend that was sick but was given cipro first. He got peripheral neuropathy from a single course of cipro and will never regain the use of his hands or wrists. He can't even hold a fork. about 6 months after it happened a black box warning was finally issued by the FDA about Cipro and it's severe side effects.

By the way probiotics do not recolonize your gut with beneficial bacteria. They simple displace pathogens and make your gut more friendly to beneficial bugs. If your friendly bugs get completely wiped out you need to get knew ones from your surrounding environment. That can be a long trial and error process.

This leads to Fecal Flora Infusion as the ultimate probiotic, perhaps a farmer is best,one that works far from a city,uses well water,no antibiotics in livestock,has not needed antibiotics,uses manure to fertilize crops.
Old Mike

PB4,
There is no question that probiotics are beneficial, even some doctors are finally coming to that conclusion. The question is whether probiotics recolonize in the gut, that is once you take them they form permanent colonies of beneficial bacteria that do not leave room for the malevolent bacterial to regain a foothold.

I hope that you are right that they do permanently recolonize in your intestines. But other posts on this forum showed research that indicated that probiotics only remain in your system for a few days or so. For those few days that good bacteria live in your gut they are beneficial and crowd out bad bacteria. But all those benefits gradually dissipate as they leave your system. So the solution is to take probiotics every day to keep out the bad guys.

But if you can stop taking daily probiotics, while avoiding antibiotics, without showing any symptoms, then you might have a good case that probiotics have permanently colonized in your gut. I hope that will be true, but that is not my experience. When I stop taking them I notice symptoms within a couple of days.

It has been suggested that fecal transplantation is one way to get beneficial bacterial to permanently colonize in your colon. Another way might be diet. I think that is what AZY was trying to say. A recent post showed research indicating that African children with their primitive diet had much healthier intestinal flora than European children brought up on a western diet.

Babeinthewoods, we don't live in a perfect world, so as I mentioned in the reply above, "taken daily and indefinitely" regarding a good quality probiotic...no different then ppl eating yogurt everyday 1) cuz they like it and 2) cuz it too contains live bacterial cultures (good bugs)..it's obvious that if you stop taking them, symptoms will re-appear, I personally have no issues with taking probiotics daily and indefinitely, been doing it for 5 or more yrs now and no regrets, worth every penny and i'm just not ready to dive into fecal transplantation, if you or anyone else is that's great, but it's not everyone's "cup of tea". I personally feel what my GI feels and that is, if beating your head against the wall 3X works, stick with it...probiotics help me, anyone that finds anything that helps them I encourage them to stick with it as well.

I'd guess that many moons ago even european children/ppl had a more primative diet than they do now adays, just like with Africans, where IBD is also becomming more prevalant.

Fecal transplantation is available today and it can put someone into remission immediately. I know, because it did for me when I was pred dependent. After doing fecal transplantation, I was able to taper off of prednisone so quickly that I got some bad side effects, yet the bleeding never came back. It wasn't long before I was having perfect poo. I hadn't had perfect poo in about 15 years, before I had seriously abused antibiotics.

Post Edited (subdued) : 9/15/2010 12:06:48 AM (GMT-6)

Heavy antibiotic use is really the cause of my gut woes, I swear. I seem to have a predisposition to sinus infections and despite the fact that those antibiotics helped lead to my first flare, I have also flared from antibiotics for prostate infection and twice from heavy use after bone surgery. What the alternatives would have been in those situations I do not know, but I never have normal gut function.

Antibiotics have saved millions of lives since they were first discovered and used in the treatment of infections. They have their place. Overuse is a big problem though, and you should only take them if absolutely necessary, also you should load up on probiotics when taking them to protect your guts.

Thanks for posting this topic update, Old Mike. I think that antibiotics do play a significant role in the onset of many IBDers' troubles. I myself fell ill with UC after rounds of antibiotics, including Keflex 500, for recurrent tonsillitis. Many, many members here have reported their UC appeared after antibiotic treatment for sinusitis over time, etc. Then there is the companion abuse of antibiotics in livestock feed that gets passed along in our food chain ... ugh! Clearly, they can be a blessing, but also a curse. It's high time for the medical profession to acknowledge the latter & make adjustments wherever possible. / Old Hat (30 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)