My recent antibiotic experience

I recently had an experience in which I had to take an antibiotic. Those of you who have been following my Defiant Health podcast discussions, or have been reading my thousands of blog posts on DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com, or my books, especially my latest Super Gut book, know that I advocate for absolutely minimizing our reliance on antibiotics, as they are extremely destructive to the microbiome. Antibiotics disrupt microbial composition of the gastrointestinal tract, the airway, the sinuses, reproductive organs, urinary tract, and other body parts with serious potential long-term consequences. 

Well, I had a failed root canal and crown put in more than 30 years ago. It recently failed and I had the tooth extracted, following by insertion of an implant. Because the periodontist had to drill into the jawbone and insert an anchor for the implant, he prescribed an antibiotic to prevent osteomyelitis, or infection of the jawbone that can be catastrophic. I therefore spent weeks dreading this process as, in past, I’ve had some nasty experiences with antibiotics: GI distress, abdominal discomfort, skin rashes. But I was especially dreading the awful insomnia that I feared I’d experience with loss of the L. reuteri that I had been supplementing for several years that converted me from a severe chronic insomniac to a deep sleeper. 

To my great surprise, I experienced none of these effects and I wanted to share with you why and how I believe I, and my listeners who have engaged similar strategies, avoided these effects from antibiotics. It’s my n of one experience, along with some of my listeners, so it’s proof of nothing. But, because these concepts are evolving rapidly with very little formal evidence, it’s worth at least being aware and even trying some of these strategies.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

I recently had a personal experience in which I had to take an antibiotic. Those of you who have been following my Defiant Health podcast discussions or have been reading my thousands of blog posts on drdavisinfinethelkcom or, of course, my books, especially my latest super gut book, know that I advocate for absolutely minimizing our reliance on antibiotics, as they are extremely destructive to the microbiome. Antibiotics disrupt microbial composition of the gastrointestinal tract, the airway, sinuses, reproductive organs, urinary tract and other body parts, with serious long term potential consequences. Well, I had a failed root canal and crown that had been put in more than 30 years ago. It failed and I had the tooth extracted, followed by insertion of an implant. Because the periodontist had to drill into the jawbone and insert an anchor for the implant, he prescribed an antibiotic to prevent osteomyelitis or infection of the jawbone. That can be catastrophic, often requiring prolonged courses of intravenous antibiotics and even surgical resection of the jawbone. I therefore spent weeks dreading this process. As in past, I've had some nasty experiences with antibiotics gastrointestinal distress, abdominal discomfort, skin rashes but I was especially dreading the awful insomnia that I feared I'd experience again with loss of the lactobacillus rhodii that I'd been supplementing for several years. That converted me from a severe, chronic insomnia to a deep sleep. Recall that lactobacillus rhodii is very susceptible to common antibiotics, in this case to amoxicillin I was taking. To my great surprise, I experienced none of these effects, and I wanted to share with you why and how. I believe that I and some of my listeners who have engaged similar strategies avoided these effects from antibiotics. It's my end of one experience, along with some of my listeners, so it's proof of nothing. But because these concepts are evolving rapidly with very little formal evidence, it's worth at least being aware and even trying some of these benign but potentially very helpful strategies. I'd like to also tell you about Defiant Health's sponsors Paleo Valley and Biodiquest. Paleo Valley is our preferred source for many excellent foods, such as fermented beef, pork and chicken sticks sourced from organic pastured animals, bone broth, protein and delicious low carb superfood bars. Biodiquest is my preferred source of quality probiotics crafted by academic microbiologist Dr Raul Keno, probiotics created with attention to collaborative metabolic effects among microbes, the only probiotics available with this built in feature.

Speaker 1: 3:03

So, as I mentioned in the opening comments, I dreaded having to take an antibiotic, in this case a Moxicillin. I dreaded it for weeks ahead of time because I remember what it felt like in past to take an antibiotic Gastrointestinal distress, loose bowels, abdominal pain but the thing I feared most was a return of the insomnia that is, I was a chronic insomniac, always struggling to fall asleep, always struggling to stay asleep, often resorting to such things as melatonin or tryptophan or other age to try to just get a little bit of solid sleep. With the addition of lactobacillus rotarii as the yogurt, recall that we use extended fermentation in the presence of prebiotic fibers and by flow cytometry we count a number of microbes in a half cup serving and we get about 300 billion per half cup serving. And that packs a wallop of health benefits, such as smoother skin, a restoration of youthful muscle, increased libido, deeper sleep, all oxytocin effects that include increased generosity, reduction in social anxiety, accepting other people's opinions, etc. So spectacular effects. But for me, the one clearly perceived effect that I experienced was deep sleep, typically eight hours or so of solid, uninterrupted sleep.

Speaker 1: 4:21

I was fearful that when I took the antibiotic because lactobacillus rotarii is very susceptible to common antibiotics, including moxacillin I was fearful that I'd spend a couple of weeks not being able to sleep and becoming miserable again. Well, none of that happened. I did not have any GI distress, no bloating, no insomnia. I slept straight through every day and it struck me I continued all the strategies I had been engaged in, including continuing to consume the lactobacillus rotarii yogurt. Now it struck me that this was consistent with the original study evidence that came from MIT, massachusetts Institute of Technology, where they actually took lactobacillus rotarii and killed it. They used mechanical blender at high speed that disrupts the cells of this microbe and then administer it to mice and all the effects that they saw with live microbes live intact microbes were preserved with the dead microbes, including the provocation of oxytocin. So even though a moxacillin was likely killing off the rotarii in my gut, I was still experiencing what is presumptively an oxytocin effect, that is, deep sleep, as well as the other effects. So it was the first time ever that I took an antibiotic and experienced no adverse effects whatsoever. Now many of my followers have done the same and they likewise experienced no symptoms or minimal symptoms. So what are we doing that presumptively may be protecting us from the massive disruptions that ordinarily occur when you take an antibiotic?

Speaker 1: 5:54

Well, all of us are consuming fermented foods. That is, we ferment vegetables in our kitchen counters, like cucumbers or tomatoes or onions and garlic that yield delicious mixtures of fermented vegetables. Some of us also rely on commercial fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, fermented sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir and other things other foods. Well, these fermented foods are sources of microbes such as leuconostoc mesenteroides and pediococcus pentasatius and lactobacillus plantarum. These are microbes that, for the most part, do not take up residence in the GI tract, but just pass through. There are some exceptions, like lactobacillus plantarum can indeed take up residence, but many of the other fermenting microbes don't are incapable of taking up residence. So how can they provide a benefit?

Speaker 1: 6:44

Well, these microbes are believed to feed other important microbes that are crucial for your microbiome. So the death of those fermenting microbes, or some metabolite they produce, nourish beneficial species. These are species like fecalobacterium or acromancia or other lactobacillus species, bifidobacteria species, and these are extremely important. Among their functions is to suppress the proliferation of pathogens such as clostridium difficile, which is a feared complication of an antibiotic. But having lots and lots of those beneficial microbes suppresses the over proliferation of clostridium difficile. That can be a very dangerous outcome, a very dangerous consequence of taking antibiotic. So having these beneficial microbes also allows them to produce a metabolite called butyrate or butyric acid, and butyric acid heals the intestinal lining and is also absorbed into your body and mediates all sorts of wonderful beneficial effects that include such things as reduced blood sugar, reduced insulin resistance, reduced triglycerides, reduced fatty liver, deeper sleep, vivid dreams, etc. So by getting those fermented foods, you are cultivating microbial diversity of beneficial microbes and beneficial metabolites such as butyric acid or butyrate.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Now I was also fermenting yogurts using the microbes lactobacillus rhodii and for me the sleep was the telltale cyanide I was getting it and lactobacillus gasari. Those two are very important keystone species, that is, they're foundational. If you have those two organisms which you were supposed to have from birth, given to you by your mom by passage of the birth canal or breastfeeding or contact with her, well, maybe your mom received antibiotics or maybe you received antibiotics over the years that wiped out both of those very important microbes. Restoration of those two microbes completely alters the composition of your gastrointestinal microbiome because of a number of reasons, but one of the most important reasons is both of those species lactobacillus rhodii, lactobacillus gasari colonize the small intestine where they produce bacteria. Bacterias are natural antibiotics effective against fecal microbes, or what we call gram negative enterics. Why is that important? Well, at least 50 percent at least 50 percent of the US population has allowed over proliferation of fecal microbes, gram negative enterics, in the colon that have then ascended into the small intestine.

Speaker 1: 9:21

And this is how microbes in the GI tract can be experienced body wide, because those effects are exported by their release, the microbial release, of something called endotoxin, and when it gets into the bloodstream it's called endotoxemia. So small intestine colonization, what we call small intestinal bacterial overgrowth with fecal microbes. Those microbes live and die, they release their endotoxin which then enters the bloodstream, the small intestines, very permeable by design because that's where you absorb nutrients like vitamins, minerals and amino acids and fatty acids. So the microbial breakdown products endotoxin enters the bloodstream, endotoxemia. And that's how microbes can be experienced as a brain effect, like dementia or depression or Parkinson's disease, or can be experienced in the skin as rosacea or psoriasis or eczema, or can be experienced in the heart as coronary disease or atrial fibrillation, or could be experienced in the joints and muscle as fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis. In other words, understanding this process, that small intestinal colonization with fecal microbes that shed their endotoxin that in turn enters the bloodstream and exports these effects all throughout the body, gives you a deeper understanding of disease. You can also appreciate that giving you something like aspirin or a pain medication for fibromyalgia or a blood sugar reducing medication for type 2 diabetes is not a solution. It's a band aid. What we're doing is getting at the root cause, and the root cause is disruption of the microbiome, but specifically overpopulation of the small intestine with fecal microbes. And restoration of two microbes that you likely lost because they're very susceptible to antibiotics Lactobacillus rhodii, lactobacillus gastri gives you control back over your small intestine and the species colonizing that segment of your gut.

Speaker 1: 11:19

Another strategy that I was following, as well as many of the listeners who follow my ideas, is I was making what I call saccharomyces bulardii sparkling juices, and all that means is we take commercial preparation. It's called a probiotic, but it's probably really a prebiotic, but nonetheless it's a commercial product called florastore, and I'll put these names in the show notes. You can buy this at Target, at Meyer, at Walgreens, wal-mart. It's pretty widely available. It's called florastore.

Speaker 1: 11:50

It is a fungus called saccharomyces bulardii. It's a very close relative of saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is the fungus used to make sourdough, bread, make bread, rice and also to make beer, the yeast. That said, the fungus itself is benign, doesn't share any of the effects of wheat, which is, of course, a terrible thing to have in your diet, but the fungus is very benign and it's been shown that it's probably the most important thing you can do to preserve your GI microbiome during a course of antibiotics. But as often happens when you buy commercial probiotics because it's very expensive to purchase microbes from a manufacturer most retailers put very small numbers of microbes in their probiotic products, and so what we do is we ferment them, sometimes as yogurt, in this case as a sparkling juice. I say sparkling because the saccharomyces species produces a lot of effervescence carbon dioxide.

Speaker 1: 12:47

So all you need to do get a capsule of florastore, empty it into, open the capsule, empty it into any volume of juice. The more pulpy the better. Just be sure there's no preservatives in it, no sodium benzoate, no potassium sorbate. All you want is juice. That's it. No added sugar, just juice, and give it about 60 hours. I keep my home at room temperature at 70 degrees and it takes about 60 hours sitting on my kitchen counter at room temperature for it to ferment and nearly all the sugar is gone.

Speaker 1: 13:20

You can measure it, of course, but it's just. You can just use your tongue and taste it. It should be minimally sweet or not sweet at all. You may have to alter the time. Some people get a good result as early as 48 hours. Some people have to add a few more hours beyond 60 hours. But give enough time. Taste it. You want to have minimal to no sweetness.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Now when you cap it, you want to agitate it very lightly at first but then loosen the cap. That's very important because you're going to see the thing bubbling at about 24 hours. That's the carbon dioxide being produced. You may even have to vent it occasionally because if you don't, the container can explode. You know what that'd happen if it'll make a mess. You can also go to a brewing store, a beer brewing store, and you can get vent caps Very expensive. These are one-way valves that release gas when it accumulates. But either way, you want to make sure you don't keep that gas under pressure. Let it vent by some means.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Give it 60 hours or so a little less if you have a warmer house or warmer environment in your part of the world and then drink a quarter to half cup several times a day when you're taking an antibiotic, maybe a quarter to half cup once or twice a day when you're not taking antibiotic. This has spectacular effects. You know what it's delicious. I made, for instance, most recently, cranberry sparkling juice. It tastes like cranberry soda If you use apple cider not apple juice apple cider, because the pulpier the better, you'll get apple soda. I often make a mango juice, sparkling juice, and it's delicious. So, juice floristore, give it 60 hours or so on your kitchen counter, be sure to vent, and you're going to have very delicious sparkling juice.

Speaker 1: 15:05

That is very helpful, one of the most important things you can do while you're taking an antibiotic and, of course, in the aftermath after taking an antibiotic. I like to do this chronically because it's such an important strategy. It's not quite clear how it works, but the working theory is that Saccharomyces blardii does not take up residence it's a fungus but when it dies it sheds components of its cell walls. That feeds beneficial bacteria, some of those same species I mentioned before, like fecalobacterium acrimansia, the ones that produce butyrate and exert all those beneficial effects on both your intestinal lining as well as on the rest of your body. Now let me pause for a moment to tell you something about Defiant Health's sponsors, paleo Valley and BioDquest.

Speaker 1: 15:50

The Diviant Health podcast is sponsored by Paleo Valley, makers of delicious grass-fed beef sticks, healthy snack bars and other products. We're very picky around here and insist that any product we consider has no junk ingredients like carrageenan, carboxymethylcellulose, sucralose and, of course, no added sugars. All Paleo Valley products contain no gluten nor grains. In fact, I find Paleo Valley products among the cleanest in their category. One of the habits I urge everyone to get into is to include at least one, if not several, servings of fermented foods per day in their lifestyles. Unlike nearly all other beef sticks available, paleo Valley grass-fed beef sticks are all naturally fermented, meaning they contain probiotic bacterial species. And now Paleo Valley is expanding their Wild Pastures program that provides 100% grass-fed, grass-finished pastured beef and pastured chicken and pork Raised without herbicides or pesticides. And they just added wild-cut seafood caught from the waters of Bristol Bay, alaska. Among their other new products are pasture-raised fermented pork sticks, chocolate-flavored grass-fed bone broth protein and grass-fed organ complex in capsule form, and new essentially electrolytes in powder form to add to potassium and magnesium intake, available in orange, lemon and melon flavors. And then for the fall and winter season, they've brought back pumpkin spice superfood bars. Listeners to the Defiant Health podcast receive a 15% discount by going to paleo valley dot com.

Speaker 1: 17:24

Backwards slash defiant health, and I'd like to welcome Defiant Health's newest sponsor, biodicuest. I've had numerous conversations with Biodicuest founders Martha Carlin, an academic microbiologist, dr Raul Kenno. They have formulated unique synergistic probiotic products that incorporate what are called collaborative or guild effects, that is, groups of microbes that collaborate with each other via specific metabolites, potentially providing synergistic benefits. They have designed their sugar shift probiotic to support healthy blood sugars. Simple slumber to support sleep. Ideal immunity to support a healthy immune response. Heart-centered that supports several aspects of heart health. And antibiotic antidote designed to support recovery of the gastrointestinal microbiome after a course of antibiotics. Biodicuest probiotics are, I believe, among the most effective of all probiotic choices for specific health effects. Consider the discount code UNDOC15 for a 15% discount for Defiant Health listeners. So I've talked about including lots and lots of fermented food several times per day in your routine, especially during an course of antibiotics. About making the saccharomyces, bulardi, ice, sparkling juices delicious waste and joy of fruit soda. But there are some other strategies worth knowing about. One of the Defiant Health sponsors, that Biodicuest, has a product called antibiotic antidote that not tested yet in clinical trials but put together for its metabolite sharing effects that may amplify effects in protecting you against antibiotic speculative. It's a new product, but just be aware that there's something called antibiotic antidote that you have access to from Biodicuest.

Speaker 1: 19:15

There's also a microbe called lactobacillus ramnosis GG strain. It's important to recognize the GG strain. Only choose that strain because that's the only strain of lactobacillus ramnosis that has been shown that, when taken concurrently with your antibiotic, prevents that awful complication. Clostridium difficile enterocolytus or C diff. We say C diff is awful. It involves violent, terrible diarrhea, bloody diarrhea. It does extensive damage to your gastrointestinal tract. It requires treatment with several concurrent antibiotics and these antibiotics are increasingly failing to get rid of the infection. That's why they're turning now to fecal transplant. But it's a terrible complication. Well, lactobacillus ramnosis GG strain has been shown to reduce the likelihood of developing that awful complication, so that's worth knowing about. You can get that commercially. There are a number of products that contain that microbe, including the culturel product and several others, so it's widely available. Now I can't say that this next strategy played a role in keeping me from having any complications or perceived adverse effects of the antibiotic, but it's worth knowing about.

Speaker 1: 20:26

I have a friend who is a functional dentist in Oklahoma City, oklahoma, dr Debbie Osment, and she told me a story about every year she goes to Peru, to the Highlands of Peru, where she volunteers her services for free to the Peruvians who often don't have access to any sort of dental care, and she told me that some people would ride their donkeys for as much as a day, or even two days, just to see the American dentist, and she said she'd spend her days pulling teeth pulling cavities', diseased teeth because these people chewed sugarcane and thereby had extravagant dental decay. She also noticed that every once in a while someone would show up with a full mouth of healthy teeth and she'd ask them do you chew sugarcane? And they'd say yes, I do. And she asked them what are you doing differently from everybody else? And she says that every last one of them told her that they used a twig to clean between their teeth after eating sugarcane. Now she speculates that the effect preservation of dental health was because this action of putting a stick between your teeth broke up the bacterial biofilm that allows unhealthy species to sequester and cause tooth decay. So of course, in our world you're not going to use a twig, but you might use one of those picks that you buy, the plastic picks, or a toothpick or just dental floss, and that's a wonderful way to preserve oral health. Now I can only speculate that that may have also added to not having a complication in the jaw of an infection. I can't say that it has an effect on the GI microbiome. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, I don't know. But at least I think it encourages healthy oral flora and discourages overproliferation of potential oral pathogens such as streptococcus mutans or poor pheromones gingivalis, which, by the way, is suspected to be a contributor to Alzheimer's dementia, because you can retrieve that microbe from the brains of people who have dementia.

Speaker 1: 22:30

Anyway, so if you are facing a course of antibiotics, first of all question whether it's truly necessary. Don't take antibiotics, of course, for a viral illness, for a viral upper respiratory infection, for instance, but as I experience, there are times when you must take it. In my case, I did not want to risk having jaw osteomyelitis, a very dreaded complication. Or maybe you have an out of control urinary tract infection that is ascended to your kidneys. Of course you have to take an antibiotic. Or maybe you have pneumococcal pneumonia, which can be very dangerous. You have to take an antibiotic.

Speaker 1: 23:02

So if you face that sort of a situation, consider lots of fermented foods kefir, kimchi, yogurts, fermented vegetables and this can be very expensive. Just conduct it on your own kitchen counter. Just be sure that the vegetables you buy or, even better, grow yourself, but make sure they're organic, don't have pesticides and herbicides and don't have any sort of coating, like the wax coatings, for instance, they often put on cucumbers or other coatings on tomatoes, because that will prevent fermentation from occurring. If you don't know how to ferment vegetables, see my Super Gut book, but there's many other resources outside of my books that show you how to ferment. It's a lot of fun, it's tasty and it's inexpensive. So lots and lots of fermented foods at least several servings per day during a course of antibiotics. Be aware that lactobacillus rhodorii, lactobacillus gasri you can ferment as yogurt or other foods. If you don't like to use dairy, we use coconut milk, but that requires several additional steps. All those recipes are in my Super Gut book, also in my DRdafusInfiniteHealthcom blog, so I try to make that very available to you. Exactly where to source the microbes, how to ferment it, how to get these super-duper high numbers using extended fermentation.

Speaker 1: 24:17

Saccharomyceblortii sparkling juices. That recipe is also in my blog. That recipe is not in the Super Gut book because it's something that came after I wrote the book, but the recipe in the blog and also in my DRdafusInfiniteHealthcom inner circle recipe collection, but I also just gave it to you A capsule fluorostore any juice that has no preservatives, the pulpier the better. Let it sit in your counter for about 60 hours, just make sure you vent it. And then be aware of antibiotic antidote from biodequest and also be aware of lactobacillus ramnosus GG.

Speaker 1: 24:51

That is the only microbe that's been shown to prevent or reduce the likelihood of C diff endocrinitis, and of all things you do for preservation of dental health and oral microbiome. Make sure you disrupt the microbiome biofilm by whatever means it could be. A toothpick could be one of those. Plastic picks could be flossing. Now, if you learned something from this episode of the Defiant Health Podcast, I invite you to subscribe to your favorite podcast directory. Post a review. Post a comment. Help build this community of like-minded people who want to be empowered in their own health and be as free as possible of the healthcare system. Thanks for listening.