Very often, patients undergoing a course of therapy with potent drugs, face the fact that they begin diarrhea. This phenomenon is called diarrhea after antibiotics. How to treat this pathology and what, by what means to stop the liquid stool and not create additional problems for the organism, in this case becomes the main issue for a person. In order to make the right decision what to do with diarrhea after antibiotics, it is first of all necessary to find out the specificity of the appearance of frequent watery excrements: they appeared just after the application of certain medications or because of the unwashed apple eaten by the patient before he swallowed the pill.
That kind of dysfunction of the intestine, which originated precisely against the background of taking medications, is called associated diarrhea. The frequency and consistency of the stools that appeared as a consequence after antibiotic treatment depends on which particular preparation and in what dosages was used. In addition, risk factors that can provoke this bowel dysfunction should be considered. They will help to choose the right treatment for diarrhea after taking antibiotics:
- The most dangerous and the most demanding in this case are age categories of patients, such as elderly people over 65 and children under 5;
- Provoke diarrhea after the therapy of any illness, and the appointment of large doses of drugs, or violation of their intake;
- The greater likelihood that an individual will develop antibiotic-associated diarrhea, whose treatment in some cases is difficult, also appears when the patient has an anamnesis of acute and chronic gastrointestinal pathologies, as well as physical illnesses;
- The use of drugs that have a wide spectrum of action or are excreted from the body with bile also becomes a provoking factor for the emergence of a loose stool.
When a patient has at least one of these risk factors and there is diarrhea after antibiotics, what to do in this situation, how to cure the associated diarrhea and what means to stop watery bowel movements should be decided only by a specialist. Self-medication in this situation is not recommended in order to avoid the development of a person's dangerous complications of pathology.
All causes contributing to the development of diarrhea after taking antibiotics are grouped into 3 main groups, each of which needs its own methods of how and how to treat this form of pathology and what is best done to stop diarrhea:
- Pharmacological, toxic and allergic side effects, caused by the drug itself;
- Osmotic form of associated diarrhea, developed after antibiotics as a result of intestinal disturbances in the metabolism of carbohydrates and bile acids;
- Excess growth of pathogenic microorganisms due to suppression of beneficial microflora.
If, in the first two forms of pathology, patients are asked about how to treat this bowel dysfunction, specialists rarely prescribe medication and offer mostly probiotics and diet, then the third is the most dangerous, capable of provoking the development of colitis with severe and painful diarrhea.
How to treat diarrhea after antibiotics?
What to do and how to stop diarrhea, developed against the background of taking medications? This question is also very often asked by specialists. To get rid of the symptoms of associated diarrhea that occurred after a person was prescribed antibiotic treatment, first of all it is necessary to normalize the intestinal microflora. Due to specific medicines it is possible to prevent the development of pathogenic microorganisms and restore the balance in a qualitative and quantitative way. In this case, the process of absorption of water and nutrients is greatly improved.
Also on the question of patients, how to cure diarrhea after antibiotics, experts besides the use of medications recommend the introduction of dietary nutrition, which allows you to bring the moment of full recovery. It is necessary to avoid the development of dehydration, it is necessary to increase the amount of water consumed with electrolytes dissolved in it. In addition, you can drink tea without sugar or broth of rose hips.
After the liquid stool has stopped, the goal pursued by the treatment of diarrhea after antibiotics will be colonization of the beneficial microflora in the intestine. To do this, it is necessary to use certain drugs for a certain period of time with the beneficial bacteria that enter into their composition. In these cases, probiotics are prescribed in capsules. Also good effect in the treatment of diarrhea, developed after a course of antibiotics, can be achieved if included in the diet of sour-milk products, such as live yoghurts, kefir, yogurt.