antibiotics and probiotics

[badger]

whenever I took antibiotics in the past, I've always taken probiotics because I'd end up with an yeast infection.

My boyfriend is doing a course of antibiotics to treat a long standing skin condition and yesterday was complaining of feeling poor so I gave him some probiotics. Out of curiosity I googled "when to take probiotics when taking antibiotics" and apparently it's a bit contentious to actually take probiotics. One camp says it interferes with the antibiotic's efficacy, and the other says as long as it's taken sufficiently away from the time you consume the antibiotics there's no harm.

I've never thought that it would even be an issue to take probiotics while taking antibiotics, my doctor's always told me to take them to prevent GI disruption and yeast imbalance.

What are your thoughts?

[TsPoet]

well, it is sort of like filling up your pot of boiling water with ice as fast as it starts boiling, LOL.
But, antibiotics usually win out and the probiotics are generally meant for the GI tract specifically.
Are his antibiotics topical? If so, then I would think it would work fine. If they are oral, then take them a few hours apart so the antibiotics have a chance to absorb through the GI tract.
He could also try active yogurt instead of the probiotics, for many people that works well, too.

[badger]

they're oral, and he was actually eating half a tub of yogurt every morning for breakfast long before he started and it still affected his gut. He does have stomach issues, too, so I'm not surprised but he has to take the antibiotics for 30 days so it's going to be a very long month.

[indysteel]

I honestly didn't know until reading your thread that there was a question of interference. That said, there are some oral antibiotics that I simply cannot tolerate or tolerate for very long unless I take a probiotic at the same time. So, unless I was dealing with a resistant strain of something and had been on more than one round of antibiotic, I think I might be willing to just take that risk.

While I was in law school, I went through a period where I was in a ton of GI distress. I was bloated and gassy like nobody's business. It was awful. At the time, I thought that maybe I'd developed a lactose intolerance. I cut out dairy and eventually felt better. In retrospect, I tend to think that a round of antibiotics I took during an UR infection was the culprit. That didn't dawn on me until years later when I experienced similar distress after being treated for a sinus infection. I'm now pretty religious about taking probiotics while using most antibiotics.

[emily_in_nc]

Timely...my DH just started a course of antibiotics for a bacterial infection around one of his fingernails that just won't clear up on its own. We also bought him a bottle of probiotics, and after doing some googling, he determined that he should take the probiotic capsule in between anti-biotic doses. Kinda makes sense considering the names of both! We also got him some probiotic yogurt, which he'll only eat in between anti-biotic doses as well.

The antibiotic he's on, Clindamycin, sounds like it has a high potential to cause diarrhea, so hopefully this regimen will keep him from suffering.

[Raiza]

I'd hold off on any probiotic until the antibiotic course has been finished up. Many probiotics, i.e. ones that have a PROVEN benefit to health, carry antibiotic resistance genes that can be transferred to any other bacteria in the body. Other bacteria can carry these too. If Bacteria A can transfer the gene for resistance to Antibiotic 1, then when Antibiotic 1 is given there will be selection to favour all of those who have received the new gene. Those with the resistance gene to Antibiotic 1 will survive and you have a lot more antibiotic resistance in some new bugs you may never have wanted to keep around.

It's not just over-prescribing by antibiotics that's putting us in this big antibiotic resistance mess.

There is work in Europe and Canada by their respective authorities to clearly indicate what antibiotics should be avoided for certain probiotics. You may have to do some searching to figure out what they are.

In the US, anyone can call a product probiotic, even if there isn't any bacterial strain in the product to bring any benefit whatsoever. Caveat emptor.