Someone emailed me and asked about taking antibiotics and whether or not it was a good idea to take antibiotics at all for a particular condition since she knows that they can harm the population of bacteria in the gut. If you go back and listen to episode 81 you will find some good information on probiotics.
If you have to take antibiotics for something, it’s okay. I don’t think they are always warranted but it isn’t my place to tell you whether or not you should take them. There will be changes in gut bacteria when you take antibiotics and you can take probiotics at the same time as you take antibiotics, just not together. The scientific research shows that taking the probiotics while on antibiotic treatment will decrease antibiotic-related side effects like diarrhea or other GI symptoms and will also reduce the associated damage that comes with antibiotic use to the gut microbiome. This means taking specific probiotics will help minimize the damage that probiotics can do to those good bugs.
Florastor which is available almost everywhere is a Saccharomyces cerevisiae variety boulardii (Biocodex strain). When you see saccharomyces boulardii listed on a supplement label- it is incorrect. It should be Saccharomyces cerevisiae with a strain name after it. So they are not all the same. The strain matters. Florastor has the rights to this strain I believe so it is a good thing you can get it anywhere.
Another probiotic you can take is called Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 or Lactobacillus rhamnosus R0011 which will provide similar support as Florastor. These two strains are found in Xymogen Probio Defence, Xymogen Lacidofil, Jarrow Jarro-Dophilus EPS & EPS higher potency, Jarrow ultra Jarrow-Dophilus and Natural Factors Relief Biotic. ORDER YOUR PROBIOTICS HERE
When taking antibiotics you want to take the probiotics 2-3 hours after the antibiotic so it can survive and taking them with a meal will help them survive digestion. In addition, make sure you are eating lots of fiber, always, because your gut bacteria feed off of insoluble fibers which keep their populations healthy and strong.
This is probably the shortest episode I’ve done. Remember your are not your diagnosis, you can live well with Hashimoto’s. Of any autoimmune disease, this one is the least debilitating and you can manage it well with diet, lifestyle, and proper medication dosing- so having a good doctor is helpful and I know that is the problem for many of you. I’m sorry for that. I wish there was something I could do to help with that.