Dr Amir Khan

Yeah, well, there'll be something in that that her body's just decided, you know what, I can't be bothered to break this down or I'm not as good at breaking this down as I used to.

And that slow breakdown or inability to break it down will produce lots of gas and they can end up bloated and intolerant to that.

And that can happen at any stage in life.

This is really important and I tell this to my patients all the time.

So every time you take a course of antibiotics, and I know you need them for whatever infection, I'm hoping they're only prescribed when you need them,

They don't just kill the harmful bacteria.

They do have a negative effect on your good bacteria as well because they're an antibiotic.

They kill bacteria.

And so lots of people can get diarrhea and gut symptoms when they're on antibiotics because you're killing off the helpful bacteria that would normally help you digest food.

Now, most people will, once they finish that course of antibiotics, they'll replace their good bacteria.

The good bacteria will recover through the food and all the other stuff that you're taking.

But if you're on repeated course of antibiotics, which you are from UPI, so you have been.

I used to be constantly.

I was really concerned about it.

But I knew it was affecting my health.

Yeah.

And the other thing is...

you know, when patients come and see me and they've got viral infections and I tell them, look, you've got a viral infection, you don't need antibiotics.

And they'll say to me, no, but I want antibiotics because they always make me feel better.

It's the time that's making you feel better, not the tablets.