A one-week course of antibiotics can remove up to 1/3 of your gut bacteria – and that damage can’t be undone by just taking a probiotic, so you need to be absolutely certain that you really need that antibiotic. In today’s episode, I’m going to share 10 critical questions to ask your health care provider if you’ve been prescribed an antibiotic that can help you limit the damage to your gut microbiome.
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A one-week course of antibiotics can remove up to 1/3 of your gut bacteria – and that damage can’t be undone by just taking a probiotic, so you need to be absolutely certain that you really need that antibiotic. I’m going to tell you how to do that.
In today’s episode, I’m going to share some critical questions to ask your health care provider if you’ve been prescribed an antibiotic. The medical community is finally beginning to embrace the importance of the microbiome and the role it plays in keeping us healthy, but not all practitioners are equally knowledgeable about the risks of antibiotics. Long-term antibiotic use has been linked to higher rates of heart disease and stroke and aging of the brain. Antibiotics can increase the risk of many chronic diseases, including allergies, autoimmune diseases, metabolic conditions like obesity and diabetes, an increased risk of psychiatric diseases and colon cancer. Frequent antibiotic use in childhood has been linked to the development of serious autoimmune diseases like juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease, and because of the negative impact on brain development, it can affect cognitive and emotional function and increase the risk of anxiety and depression.
If you want to learn more about the role of the microbiome and how antibiotics can really disrupt that – and also what to do about it, I highly recommend my second book, The Microbiome Solution. But let me give you just one statistic that I think puts it in perspective: a five to seven day course of a broad spectrum antibiotic, like the kind you might be prescribed for a sinus infection or a urinary tract infection can remove up to 1/3 of your gut bacteria. And be clear that those gut bacteria cannot be replaced by just taking a probiotic. That’s not how it works.
Now, there are some situations that definitely require antibiotic treatment, but you’d be surprised at how often the need for antibiotics is actually a gray zone. A study published in the journal Pediatrics found that pediatricians prescribed antibiotics 62 percent of the time when they perceived that parents expected them to be prescribed, and only 7 percent of the time when they thought parents didn’t. So that tells us that an absolute need for antibiotics is not that common – and more often than not, an antibiotic is optional. And it’s not just children who are being over-treated – two out of every three adults who see a health practitioner for cold or flu symptoms are prescribed antibiotics, which 80 percent of the time don’t meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for antibiotic therapy. So knowing that doctors are more likely to prescribe an antibiotic when they think that you’re interested in taking one, and that there’s generally a lot of leeway in whether antibiotic treatment is really needed – how do you use that information to avoid antibiotics when that is a reasonable option? In other words, when not taking an antibiotic is not going to lead to a bad health outcome, and in fact may lead to a better health outcome.
When we come back – the 1st and most important question you absolutely must ask your healthcare provider if you’ve been prescribed an antibiotic.
Before we dive into the 10 questions, I want to be very clear about something because while I love sharing actionable gut health information on this podcast – and that’s really the goal of the podcast – I want to remind you that I am not in a position to give you medical advice because you are not under my care. And I always want you to have the best care possible, and that means an actual relationship with somebody who knows you and is involved in your medical care. The other thing I want to point out is that I’m not suggesting that you stop taking antibiotics or delay seeking advice from a health professional when you’re sick. But I am suggesting that you analyze and query medical advice and engage your doctor in a dialogue that may include some pointed questions.
The first question on this list is the most important, and while it may not be necessary to go through all ten questions with your doctor, this list can help frame your conversation.
1. Is the antibiotic prescribed for me absolutely necessary?
2. Is the antibiotic prescribed being used to treat an actual infection, or to prevent one?
3. Do you have the results of the culture, swab, or biopsy back yet that demonstrate an infection, or are you treating me presumptively because you think the results will be positive?
4. What other options are there for me to feel better besides an antibiotic?
5. What would be the natural course of my illness if I didn’t take an antibiotic?
OK so that’s it for the first five questions; we’ve gone through the top half of the list. When we come back: the second half of the list. What are the other five questions that you should be asking your healthcare provider if you have been prescribed an antibiotic.
6. How long should it take for me to start feeling better if I don’t take an antibiotic?
7. If I do have to take an antibiotic, what’s the shortest amount of time I can take it for?
8. Is there a more narrow-spectrum antibiotic such as penicillin that would still be effective for my condition?
9. If I decide not to take an antibiotic, what are the signs to watch for that might suggest that my condition is worsening and I might need to start an antibiotic?
10. What’s the worst thing that could happen if I don’t take the antibiotic?
I want to leave you with 3 takeaways about questions to ask if you’ve been prescribed an antibiotic:
1. Antibiotics are overprescribed: just because one has been recommended to you by a health care professional doesn’t mean you actually need it
2. Asking whether the antibiotic you’ve been prescribed is absolutely necessary is the first and most important question and I’ve given you plenty of follow up questions to ask after that one.
3. Remember that the damage done to your microbiome by antibiotics can’t be undone by just taking a probiotic so you need to make sure you really need that antibiotic and that the benefits outweigh the risks to your health.
So that’s it for this week’s episode of the Gutbliss Podcast on 10 questions to ask your health care practitioner if you’ve been prescribed an antibiotic.
Coming up next week: 10 things to do to restore your gut health after taking antibiotics. You’ve asked all the questions and you’ve been told that an antibiotic is absolutely necessary. Now what? How can you restore your gut health after a course of antibiotics? Join me next week.
