How to restore the intestines after antibiotics
The human microflora is constantly under the excessive influence of antibiotics. This is not only due to their use for the purpose of treatment, but also because of their widespread use in the cultivation of farm animals and plants. Therefore, often people are faced with the question of what drugs can restore the intestines after antibiotics.
How does antibiotics affect the intestines?
Antibiotics act not only on bad bacteria in the body, they also harm the amount and diversity of useful microflora. This is quite a serious problem, since a healthy balance of intestinal bacteria is very important for the functioning of the human immune system.
There is a large amount of scientific evidence that an inadequate variety of beneficial bacteria is associated with allergic diseases, intestinal disorders, inflammatory diseases, asthma, obesity, depression, autoimmune diseases. The worst thing is that even one course of antibiotic therapy can cause permanent damage to the intestinal microflora and increase the risk of reproduction of dangerous bacteria that cause disease.
Although antibiotics are often the only effective treatment for certain diseases, the prevalence of resistant microorganisms is observed around the world. As a result, doctors sometimes use two, three or even four different antibacterial drugs of a wide spectrum. These funds destroy not only pathological microorganisms, but also useful intestinal bacteria. Scientific evidence shows that recovery of intestinal microflora after antibiotic treatment can take months or even years.
Disturbance of the amount and diversity of microflora is dangerous, above all, by increasing susceptibility to intestinal infections. In addition, the dysbacteriosis that has arisen after taking antibiotics can adversely affect the immune system, which contributes to the development of inflammatory, allergic and autoimmune diseases. Especially this relationship is traced when prescribing antibiotics in early childhood.
The intestinal microflora also plays an important role in the regulation of human metabolism. There is evidence of a connection between dysbacteriosis and obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus.
Another danger of widespread and unreasonable use of antibiotics, which is recognized by all scientists and doctors, without exception, is that the intestinal microflora becomes a reservoir of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms.
The role of intestinal microflora in the body
The modern development of medicine does not allow us to fully appreciate the role of intestinal microflora. An unbelievably large number of microorganisms live in the digestive tract. For example, with one bowel movement, about 40 trillion bacteria are released from the intestine, while the entire human body consists of 30 trillion cells.
The majority of microflora is represented by 30-40 species of bacteria, but only up to 1000 in the intestine.
According to scientific evidence, the intestinal microflora plays an important role in the process of digestion, in the functioning of the human immune system, in the regulation of metabolism in the body.
Intestinal bacteria help the body :
- assimilate certain foods that the digestive tract can not digest independently;
- produce some vitamins( eg, B vitamins and vitamin K);
- to combat the aggression of pathological microorganisms, maintaining the integrity of the intestinal mucosa;
- also play an important role in immunity, acting as a barrier.
A healthy and balanced intestinal microflora is the key to the proper functioning of the digestive tract. Taking into account its huge role in the body, some scientists consider microflora as another organ that appears after the birth of a child and develops as it grows up.
How to restore intestinal microflora after taking antibiotics?
Many patients are interested in how to restore the microflora and intestinal function after taking antibiotics.
The issue of restoring the intestines after antibiotics is one of the most controversial in medicine. Some doctors persistently argue that there is no dysbacteriosis and no need to restore the microflora, while the latter insists that most of the problems of the digestive tract( and not only him) are associated with taking antibiotics, and treatment of dysbacteriosis is mandatory. Most likely, both are mistaken.
Unfortunately, the issues of the relationship between microflora and the human body have been studied very little. No one can say with accuracy how, positively or negatively, any interference in this finely balanced mechanism will affect. But to consider that only antibiotics interfere in these interrelations is wrong. After all, any drug designed to restore the intestinal microflora, also affects the composition of microorganisms.
The following tips help minimize the harm of antibiotics and restore the beneficial intestinal microflora. :
- Restriction of the use of sugars that contribute to the development of pathological microflora. To do this, you must abandon the sweet in any form. The basis of the diet should be vegetables, nuts, seeds, meat, eggs, fish, herbs. Such a diet helps to restore the intestinal microflora after antibiotics, and also provides the body and its immune system with the necessary nutrients, vitamins and minerals.
- Probiotics are medicines containing bacteria that are designed to reduce the side effects of antibiotics and restore the intestines after they are taken. Probiotics with lactobacilli, bifidobacteria and saccharomycetes are most effective. Many doctors advise to start taking probiotics immediately with the beginning of antibiotic treatment.
- Fermented products. The main problem after the treatment of antibiotics is not the restoration of the number of bacteria, but the renewal of their diversity. Fermented foods help restore a wide range of beneficial microorganisms in the intestines. These include sauerkraut, kefir, yoghurt, sour milk, a tea mushroom. These methods can be called folk remedies for dysbacteriosis, since their use for digestion was known long before the invention of antibiotics.
- Prebiotics are preparations consisting, as a rule, of an indigestible substance that stimulates the growth and activity of beneficial bacteria, improving the health of the human body. Prebiotics are resistant to the action of gastric juice, they are not broken down by enzymes of the intestine. However, intestinal bacteria can absorb this substance, because of which their growth and reproduction are activated. Prebiotics include fructose oligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides, lactulose.
Consequences of taking antibiotics
The use of antibiotics is dangerous because of a violation of the intestinal microflora, which increases the risk of developing infectious diseases, worsens immunity and negatively affects digestion.
In addition, the unreasonably widespread use of antibacterial agents in medicine, veterinary medicine and agriculture has led to an increase in the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which poses a threat to human life and health.
Antibiotics are drugs that, under certain diseases, can save the patient's health and life. However, they are often used in situations where this is not justified. Like all medicines, antibiotics have a negative effect on the body - in particular, they lead to dysbacteriosis.
Author: Taras Nevelichuk, doctor,
specially for Moizhivot.ru
