HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR SYSTEM IF YOU NEED TO TAKE ANTIBIOTICS

The best way to prevent damage from antibiotics is to avoid them entirely. So first, let’s have a look at how to decide whether or not take them at all.

Today, it’s very common practice to take antibiotics for any kind of infection (including viral!). Obviously, this isn’t a good idea.

But, say, you have a chronic sinus infection or a recurring UTI or you’re going in for dental work. Should you take them in that case? And if you do, then will taking a probiotics undo the harm?

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s that simple. Science has barely begun to scratch the surface on what’s even in the microbiome and what a healthy one looks like.

What we do know is that a healthy microbiome, which is a requirement to be a healthy human, is a diverse microbiome. And that antibiotics permanently reduce diversity.

So we want to think of ourselves as stewards of our internal landscape. There are certainly times when antibiotics are lifesaving or can prevent organ damage.

But, if we remember that each time we take them we are suffering permanent ecosystem loss, a bit like species extinction on earth, then the threshold for what warrants the use of antibiotics changes.

Of course the other side of the equation, the alternatives to antibiotics, becomes equally important. The fact is with the proper approaches, techniques and tools, taking antibiotics becomes completely unnecessary in most cases.

But sometimes it’s unavoidable and so here I provide some recommendations for how to support your system if you do decide to take them.