Dietary Probiotics and antibiotics

[Clarinetta]

I’m currently in the middle of a week long course of flucloxacillin. Plus also on low fodmap elimination phase to help with IBS stuff.

Ideally I’d like to support my gut with dietary probiotics rather than taking tablets (as I hate taking them usually) and wondered if any members with experience could advise which ones are ok while I’m on the low fodmap elimination diet (have done this myself as no access to a dietitian any time soon so took things into my own hands)

any advice would be appreciated thank you!

[xjrs]

Saccharomyces Boulardii, which is a beneficial yeast that has been proven to prevent antibiotic associated diarrhoea, is the best thing to take whilst on antibiotics. The reason it is so effective is that since it is a yeast and doesn’t consist of bacteria, antibiotics won’t affect it, so it can do its job. Take 2 Saccharomyces Boulardii capsules after a couple of mouthfuls of food at breakfast and at dinner whilst taking antibiotics and for 2 weeks to a month afterwards. If you start to become constipated on Saccharomyces Boulardii, this suggests that it has or is doing its job and it might be possible to come off of them.

See link here (UK):

revital.co.uk/products/alle...

It is also possible to take probiotics in addition. These need to be taken at least two hours away from both previous and next antibiotic doses to reduce the amount of probiotic die off caused by the antibiotics. Probiotics can pass through your system helping to protect the good bacteria and defend against any bad bacteria starting to dominate. The next antibiotic dose will still affect the microbiome, but some of the good bugs will survive helping the rebalancing effect when the course of antibiotics ends. Again it is a good idea to continue taking these for at least 1 month after the antibiotic course. I swear by Alflorex probiotic, which has been scientifically studied for IBS.

See links here (UK):

Alflorex - manufacturer is Precision Biotics:

precisionbiotics.co.uk/alfl...

precisionbiotics.co.uk/alfl...

[Clarinetta in reply to xjrs]

thank you so much for a great reply! I appreciate the specificity of the info you’ve given here. In my mind I need to understand why things do what they do so this is perfect thank you

[MatthewU]

I take a Pre/Probiotic complex mix with added vitamin B12 from the UK company Better Vits (available from Amazon). The capsules are small and easy to swallow and haven't had any downsides since taking it, just one a day to get the correct dose. I've also tried Alflorex which didn't suit me, it made me very bloated and uncomfortable, it's also pretty expensive which in itself isn't a problem for me if it works well, unfortunately it didn't.

[Clarinetta in reply to MatthewU]

thank you Matthew! I’ve not taken any pre/pro biotics before so all info is much appreciated