Having stomach upset is often an inconveniencing experience. One that can disrupt your mental state of mind and this can result from many factors. What you never knew is how antibiotics affect your stomach. When bad bacteria get into the body, they become health-threatening, during the process of taking antibiotics, it can disrupt the normal balance of healthy bacteria and this can irritate the stomach. So it is important to know ways you can heal your stomach after taking antibiotics and also to know how antibiotics react in the stomach.
What Are Antibiotics?
Antibiotics are a type of medication that fights against harmful bacterial infections in the stomach or body generally. Antibiotics are indeed powerful as they stop bacterial infections completely and prevent them from spreading causing further severe damage to the body. They are usually a powerful line of defense but they do cause severe side effects sometimes such as diarrhea, stomach upset, and liver damage.
There are usually various types of antibiotics. Some come as broad spectrum which means they act on a multiple range of disease-causing bacteria while others are produced to kill certain species of bacteria.
How Does Antibiotics Affect The Stomach?
Truly, when you have a bacterial infection, you will certainly need antibiotics to kill the bacteria. But sometimes, these antibiotics end up also killing good bacteria needed by the body thereby creating certain issues in the stomach such as antibiotic-associated nausea, diarrhea, and stomach upset. When the good bacteria are killed. It causes an imbalance in the intestinal ecosystem, leading to the overgrowth of harmful bacteria. This can increase stomach pressure and cause reflux of food and acid into the esophagus.
How To Heal Your Stomach After Antibiotics?
Rebuilding the good bacteria will be a perfect way to also heal your stomach because the major cause of stomach upset, diarrhea and nausea is because the antibiotics killed the good bacteria. Below are ways to rebuild good bacteria and promote stomach healing after taking antibiotics:
- Take Probiotics: this can help to reduce the risk of diarrhea and restore those good bacteria. Probiotics and antibiotics should be taken about 4 to 6 hours apart if you decide to take them simultaneously.
- Consume more fermented foods: there are some foods that can help restore the damage caused by antibiotics. Fermented foods are produced by microbes such as yogurt, cheese, kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut and many others. These foods contain healthy bacterial species like lactobacilli which can help restore the stomach into a healthy state after antibiotics.
- Eat food rich in high fiber: since fiber is digested by gut bacteria, not by the body. It can help stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria when eaten, these include whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. While taking antibiotics do not skip these nutrient-rich foods, time your time to a few hours before or after taking antibiotics.
- Eat prebiotic foods: probiotics are live microbes while prebiotics are food that feeds the good bacteria in your gut. A good example is red wine which contains antioxidants and polyphenols and they are not digested by human cells but by gut bacteria. Another prebiotic food is cocoa which also contains antioxidants and polyphenols. Eating these prebiotic foods after antibiotics can help in the growth of beneficial bacteria.
- Avoid processed foods: processed foods and sugary foods can join in risking the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Processed food is not beneficial generally and should be avoided during medical treatment.
- Take Probiotic supplements: these will help with the growth of beneficial bacteria.
- Take sufficient rest: resting and exercising can help restore balance in your stomach after taking antibiotics. Exercising reduces inflammation and increases the number of beneficial bacteria in your gut to help heal your stomach after taking antibiotics.
Conclusion
Healing your stomach after taking antibiotics is essential. When good bacteria are damaged by antibiotics. It can cause numerous stomach inconveniences. Going through diarrhea, stomach upset and lots more can be overwhelming and troubling. It is best to restore the beneficial bacteria for healthy living. Try to incorporate rest and exercise more often than required. Taking a probiotic supplement will ease the stress of searching for rich effective probiotics that will yield better results.
