Why People Should Never Eat Lunch With Me

I was having lunch with a member of my family a few days ago and he was telling me about his bronchitis that he was suffering through. I told him he should have gone with walking pneumonia, cause it sounds cooler. He had just finished taking his prescribed meds and was feeling a little sleepy. Out of curiosity I asked what he was taking. The doctor had put him on a very potent oral antibiotic. The first thing out of my mouth was to tell him to start eating lots of yogurt. The look he shot me was delightful. There was confusion and sleepy mixed in with the “what is he babbling about now?” that I usually get.

In an effort to clear up my cousin's confusion, I started to ask what the doctor said he should expect to happen during the course of meds. Great conversations over meals I have, I know. The doctor or pharmacist told him that he could expect diarrhea as a side-effect of the medicine. “Side-effect”! That made me laugh, calling the diarrhea from antibiotics a side-effect is the same as calling victims of friendly fire the side-effect of gun fights.

Antibiotics have one job. It is right there in the name; anti- against, biotic- life. They are designed to kill things, specifically bacteria in the body. Oral antibiotics kill bacteria in the gut, both good and bad. They basically carpet bomb your gut, then the move onto the blood stream and continue their job. It is the killing of the good bacteria that causes the well known “side-effect”.

The solution is simple, cheap, and safe. Take a pro-biotic 2 hours after each dose of the antibiotic. Wow, one little pill and you don't have all the joys of the “side-effect” of the prescription, kinda makes you wonder why they don't tell you this when you pick-up your medicine. Don't ask me, I have no clue, I just shake my head and marvel at what people will go through because someone in a white coat tells them to.