Probiotic brand suggestions following strong antibiotics

[Sneedle]

Hello,

About two weeks ago I finished strong antibiotics Clindamycin and Medazol (not sure of other names).

While on them I did have diarrhoea and this has gone but my stools are not back to normal (normal being way too hard!).

I was going to try kefir but have read that it can encourage yeast in the candida-prone, and I'm definitely one.

I'm too exhausted to research more at the moment, so perhaps someone could recommend some friendly bacteria for me to buy in a pot and start pronto?

I'm pretty sure my ongoing abdomen bloat and soreness is due to the antibiotics worsening an already low level of stomach acid.

I'm having 25ml of apple cider vinegar with mother in water daily.

Thanks very much.

[BenHall1]

For an unrelated condition to yours I have had similar problems. I consulted and took the adviçe of a Nutritionist. Sorted. If you are in UK, consult the BANT web site and search for one near you.

[Sneedle in reply to BenHall1]

Thank you BenHall1 I have a nutritionist appointment booked (someone I see from time to time) but she can't see me for a few weeks. It's a good suggestion you make for anyone struggling and not knowing what's happening.

[seveneleven]

Symprove is good and has some clinical data to back it up. Expensive though, so doable for a month or two but not sustainable for most I think. S. Boulardii is another useful one to rebuild after antibiotics and seems to be better tolerated than others for people with IBS. Much cheaper, comes in capsules, and I've found it helpful.

[Regenallotment Ambassador]

I recommend S. Boulardii for post and during antibiotics , read about it in Isabella Wentz. Then after reading Supergut I started making probiotic coconut yogurt with L Reuteri. The tablets I use are from BioGaia and are called Gastrus. l Gasseri also recommend. TiggerMe found a nice website with probiotics.

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to Regenallotment]

Are you thinking Biomel?

biomel.life/?utm_campaign=C...

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to TiggerMe]

that’s the one ☝️

[Sneedle in reply to Regenallotment]

Thank you, are the BioGaia tablets you mention the ones you use to make the coconut yoghurt?Getting confused. Lots of lovely information coming at me!

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Sneedle]

yes they look like this

BioGaia

[PixieElv in reply to Regenallotment]

Where do you buy it please?

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to PixieElv]

there is a website for BioGaia they are Swedish but have a UK distributor so it comes quickly 🌱

[PixieElv in reply to Regenallotment]

sorry to be thick, but is it literally buying the BioGAia and adding it to plant milk? And wait?

[Sneedle in reply to PixieElv]

That's a good question! I think I read about sterilising the glass container or something, with boiling water. Sorry I don't know more.

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to PixieElv]

they come in tablet form so I crush them with a rolling pin. It also needs something to feed on so Superbug book Dr William Davis suggests raw potato starch (it’s gone by the time you eat it). I warm the coconut milk slightly and then put it in my homemade insulated bird food bucket with Jiffy bags around it. I don’t sterilise my jars but I do put them through the dishwasher. I make half the size batch he suggests so use 5 tablets and then save a tablespoon from the end of a batch I’m finishing to start the next one. Mine is ready (gloopy but a bit runny) in 36 hours in my kitchen temperature. I don’t know how long it lasts in the fridge because I get through it too quickly.

If you put this phrase into Google you get so many recipe videos .

youtube making coconut yoghurt l. reuteri

Have fun 🌱

[Sneedle in reply to Regenallotment]

Thanks very much for this I'm going to try it. How many cans of coconut milk do you use for your five tablets? Or do you use the cartons? Any brands you recommend? And is guar gum a thing to watch out for?!😀

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Sneedle]

So I started with any old thing, the alpro carton makes it very runny. The regular tins from supermarkets work well, full fat always. If you follow recipe with gelatin then its not an issue - it will set anyway. So up to you, its fun to experiment.

In Supergut the recipe is for 10 tablets, and 900ml of liquid, I use 5 tablets and 1 regular sized coconut milk tin. But haven't needed to use more tablets since as I save a tablespoon and use that to start the next one off. If it gets a bit weak (or a bit fizzy) I just crush 5 more tablets and set it off again.

I also tried tinned coconut cream, this was nice but a bit grainy in texture when refrigerated, it could work sieved, but who has time for that! (she says as she knits her own yoghurt - probably me!)

However, we then watched that panorama documentary on emulsifiers.... most supermarket canned ones even organic ones contain carboxymethylcellulose which is the one the documentary said was bad, the other one was polysorbate something, can't remember the number, maybe 80? Someone here will know.

So guar gum... not a major criminal in the scheme of things apparently. We found one at Grapetree the nuts and seeds place that seemed to replace Julian Graves, It is called Puro. Here it is grapetree.co.uk/puro-organi...

Hope that helps 🌱

[Sneedle in reply to Regenallotment]

I want to knit my own yoghurt😂gotta be better than my knitting!Thanks this is brilliant, smacking my lips impatiently. I've found a tin (in date) of Pride coconut milk and have some probiotics, I will just try it. I'll probably eat it anyway (says my husband).

The potato starch has me confused though - is that powder? Can you use something else do you know?

Yoghurtty Yoghurtty yoghurtty😋

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Sneedle]

lol that gave me a giggle.😂

So I use a teaspoon of potato starch powder which I know some people don't do well with, it was my cheat because I couldn't be bothered to boil a potato and mash it and just put a teaspoon full in. It works for me.

Yeah - you now know as much as me - happy experimenting you fledgling yoghurt knitter you!🧶

Oh and if trying with random probiotics... S Boulardii is not a good one to use, its actually a yeast and makes the most bubbly horrificly fizzy concoction very quickly and probs not ideal,

If you try it with full dairy double cream its lovely but turns cheesy very quickly. My Mum has tried this a couple of times as she can have dairy but has decided she prefers coconut.

I did try a spoonful of Deliciously Ellas which has two strains of L. something, but again they multiplied a bit too fast for my liking.

Dr William Davies of Supergut fame says the L. Reuteri in gastrus made mice playful and youthful, with fluffy coats and they lived full lives up to old age, compared to mice that didn't have it that got ailments and were showing signs of old age.

Here is hoping 🌱

[PixieElv in reply to Regenallotment]

oh fab! Thank you so much 😊

i am looking forward to “being playful with a fluffy coat 😂”

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Sneedle]

Coconut yoghurt 😊 using organic coconut milk without carboxymethylcellulose emulsifier

Coconut yogurt

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Sneedle]

recipe is from the book Supergut by Dr William Davies. Heard him on a podcast with Dr Eric Balcavage a while back. Has really helped me. 🌱

[Sneedle in reply to Regenallotment]

Thanks very much, coconut yoghurt is one of my favourites I LOVE it!

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Sneedle]

yeah I was loving the deliciously Ella one but at £3 + a tub I’ve found making my own surprisingly easy and much cheaper. It’s not quite so nice a bit more tangy. But it does the job 🌱

[wellness1]

I agree with what others have said about S. Boulardii. I recently came across Ther-Biotic ABx Support from Klaire Labs. It's designed for use with antibiotics. Klaire Labs is a good brand, but you can probably get a good amount of helpful strains in other products. This link to their US page has more product info. It's available in the UK.

klaire.com/k-abx-abx-supportm

Hope you're feeling better soon.

[Sneedle in reply to wellness1]

This does sound like The Business, I just wish it was cheaper. I'll certainly bear it in mind for future 'antibiotic scenarios'. Thank you!

[Sneedle]

Thanks everybody that will put me on the right route quickly, and take the hassle out of the looking! I'm interested in the coconut reuteri wotsit for the future. When the bloat is history...😀Thanks again 👍

[Blissful in reply to Sneedle]

For any PRObiotic to be useful it is vital to use a PREbiotic. The prebiotic nourishes the environment for the probiotic strains to survive and flourish. A supplement prebiotic is FOS

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/201...

amymyersmd.com/article/preb...

[Sneedle in reply to Blissful]

Ah I was wondering what FOS on the bottles stood for thank you👍

[Blissful in reply to Sneedle]

You are welcome On a daily basis, try and incorporate as many prebiotic foods as possible.

Wishing you better.

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Sneedle]

I was wondering too... I googled and found this Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) are plant sugars that occur in many fruits and vegetables. They can also be made in a lab and are used as prebiotics. FOS do not get digested until they reach the colon. In the colon, they are digested by good bacteria.

So sounds like they are good for the good bacteria. 🌱

[France92]

@i would recommend Bio-kult probiotics I'm permanently on high dose antibiotics and these help. Also eat lots of live natural yogurt and resistant starch.

[Sneedle in reply to France92]

Thank you, are these the little bottles in fridge at supermarkets? Re yoghurt I've read some strains encourage candida growth (oh no that was kefir, actually I read that on Sarah Myhill's website).

Losing the plot!

I think what I'm realising is that I have to be sure whatever I use doesn't happen to encourage candida overgrowth as I already have a tendency to that. Eg. sugars are known for that.

Burbling on, but this thread is helping me sort stuff out in my head.🤯😃

[France92 in reply to Sneedle]

No Bio-kult are capsules. The little bottles are full of sugar. You want pure plain live natural yogurt . I have tried loads and lot make me worse but found the above ok.

[AnneEvo in reply to France92]

I presume Bio-kult would help anybody with bloating and loose stools? I do take probiotics and am looking to take digestive enzymes. I sprout seeds as they are prebiotic but need to find more prebiotic foods I think.

[France92 in reply to AnneEvo]

Green bananas oats peas cold pasta or rice all good prebiotics.

[AnneEvo in reply to France92]

Thanks.

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to AnneEvo]

bloating and loose stools can be lactose or casein allergy, can also be fodmaps foods, (onions and garlic do it to me), can also be low zinc.... I know, one test after another 🌱

[AnneEvo in reply to Regenallotment]

I'm vegetarian, I do still eat cheese but no other dairy - occasionally have dairy milk when out. I do take zinc. I started taking levo 7 years ago then suddenly about 4 years ago after eating lentil and chickpea daal, I got extremely bloated. After a while I cut out various foods; cauli, broccoli, pulses. I did introduce them into my diet again but try not to eat too much of those foods. I do occasionally get bloated but not like that first time. I've only fairly recently found out that onions and garlic can cause issues so I don't really eat them now. I know being hypo can lead to low stomach acid. I started taking digestive enzymes about 18 months ago, they really helped with the loose stools for a while but then stopped working. I am thinking of trying them again.

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to AnneEvo]

Sounds very similar to me, I am seeing the GP about it in a few weeks, if I learn anything useful I'll let you know. reducing my dose (I was over medicated on a recent test) seemed to help but then it gets set off again 🤷‍♀️

[AnneEvo in reply to Regenallotment]

Thanks for that. I should really go to see GP myself.

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to AnneEvo]

just a thought, I was taking zinc citrate with copper from Holland and Barret and realised that was giving me an upset stomach. Stopped it for a few weeks, tested and was right at the bottom of range. Was recommended here to try zinc picolinate instead. Only a week in. … will see 🌱

[RockyPath]

I live on the west coast of the U.S. and I get capsules containing 50 billion CFUs (megadose) of over 10 species of shelf-stable gut bugs.

vitaminshoppe.com/p/ultimat...

Variety of species is what I look for, as well as density of population. According to the naturopath I see, this capsule offers orders of magnitude more than you would ever get from any kind of food.

Too late for you now, but the strategy I was taught by the naturopath, and have used successfully through several series of antibiotics, is to take the probiotic capsules in between the doses of antibiotics. If the antibiotic is taken three times a day, wait four hours after taking it, and then have the probiotic capsule with food. The food is important because it feeds the new bugs.

This gives the antibiotic something else to kill besides your native gut flora, so your native bugs have half a chance of surviving the scorched earth treatment, and prospering afterwards.

Remember, the gut flora like to eat fiber, so you're a bacteria farmer, cultivating a recovering crop.

Good luck.

[Sneedle in reply to RockyPath]

This is really useful to know, I will definitely do this if I have to take them again.The nutritionist I see (also naturopathic) told me last time to up my fibre intake. It's interesting to me you say that the good guys like fibre. When I've tried in the past I've had bad bloating and burping, but I realise that's probably due to low stomach acid. I'm now taking apple cider vinegar with the mother for that, early days.

All good stuff, cheers from across the (enormous) pond👍

[Indigourchin]

Symprove has helped me, online

[HowNowWhatNow in reply to Indigourchin]

I know three people it has helped massively, including one whose IBS has now gone away.

Pity it’s so unbelievably expensive now, for what it is, but when needs must, if you can afford it you will buy it.

Really the NHS should look into putting it on prescription, given its efficacy.

[Indigourchin in reply to HowNowWhatNow]

I tend to take for 3 months at a time then have a break! But yes I agree

[HowNowWhatNow]

Is anyone here experiencing heavy bruising, simultaneous to their Candida or after their treatment of Candida with fluconazole and associated pessary? I have recently had a lot of heavy bruising and given that I have so recently had an iron infusion, can’t understand why.

And has anyone got a diet book / website they swear by? I have bought the sugary drinks in tiny bottles that claim to contain good bacteria, which I am regretting after seeing advice here.

Also - do you experience huge sugar cravings as you give up sugar? I feel the cravings more when I have candida than when I happen not to eat sugar but don’t experience Candida. Any advice on non sugary snacks?

thanks