Friday, March 22, 2024

Can I Take Multivitamins With Antibiotics

Is It Ok To Take A Probiotic At The Same Time As Your Vitamins

Can I take Antibiotics with Probiotics? Answers to FAQ of Align Probiotic Supplements

Did you know that your gut is home to more than 1,000 bacterial species? It’s true. These microorganisms are also known as microbiota, and they make up your gut microbiome, which affects not only digestion and gut health but overall health. Probiotics, found in fermented foods as well as supplements, help support your gut to optimize health.*

But can you take a probiotic supplement at the same time as your other vitamins and supplements? What about if you’re on antibiotics? The short answer: Yes. But let’s dive in a little further.

How To Take Vitamins With Amoxicillin

Amoxicillin is an antibiotic used to treat a wide variety of bacterial infections. Amoxicillin is typically administered three times per day, but it can vary based upon the use, dosage and your medical history. Proper administration of amoxicillin is imperative to experience its full benefits. Therefore, it is essential that you understand and follow your doctor’s orders when taking amoxicillin. Contact your physician or pharmacist if you are unsure of how to take your amoxicillin properly.

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How Should I Take Multivitamins

Use exactly as directed on the label, or as prescribed by your doctor.

Never take more than the recommended dose of a multivitamin. Avoid taking more than one multivitamin product at the same time unless your doctor tells you to. Taking similar vitamin products together can result in a vitamin overdose or serious side effects.

Many multivitamin products also contain minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc. Minerals can cause side effects such as tooth staining, increased urination, stomach bleeding, uneven heart rate, confusion, and muscle weakness or limp feeling. Read the label of any multivitamin product you take to make sure you are aware of what it contains.

Take your multivitamin with a full glass of water.

You must chew the chewable tablet before you swallow it.

Place the sublingual tablet under your tongue and allow it to dissolve completely. Do not chew a sublingual tablet or swallow it whole.

Measure liquid medicine carefully. Use the dosing syringe provided, or use a medicine dose-measuring device .

Use multivitamins regularly to get the most benefit.

Store at room temperature away from moisture and heat. Do not freeze.

Store multivitamins in their original container. Storing multivitamins in a glass container can ruin the medication.

Recommended Reading: Best Antibiotic For Ulcerative Colitis

What Other Drugs Will Affect Multivitamins

Multivitamins can interact with certain medications, or affect how medications work in your body. Ask a doctor or pharmacist if it is safe for you to use multivitamins if you are also using:

This list is not complete. Other drugs may affect multivitamins, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal products. Not all possible drug interactions are listed here.

Antibiotics With Multivitamins Medicines

Can I take Antibiotics with Probiotics? Answers to FAQ of Align ...

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Vitamin Combinations To Avoid

Vitamin C with vitamin B-12

Vitamin C is an essential antioxidant for immune system health. Vitamin B-12 helps maintain your nervous system and form red blood cells. Studies show that taking these two supplements at the same time may reduce the amount of vitamin B-12 that you receive. So, experts recommend taking these supplements at least two hours apart.

Vitamin A supplement with vitamin A-rich foods

Since vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, any excess is stored in the body. So, you don’t need to take vitamin A every single day. Too much vitamin A can lead to weaker bones and more bone fractures as you age. It can also be harmful to unborn babies.

If you are pregnant or take a vitamin A supplement, avoid eating liver or liver paté. These foods are so high in vitamin A that even if you do not take a vitamin A supplement, you should only eat them once a week to avoid consuming too much.

Folic acid and vitamin B12

While both of these B vitamins are important, taking too much folic acid or folate can actually hide the symptoms of a vitamin B12 deficiency. So, speak to your doctor to verify your vitamin levels before adding these supplements to your regimen.

Vitamin E and vitamin K

It is well documented that vitamin E supplementation can lead to increased bleeding in some people. Some doctors prescribe a vitamin K supplement to help with blood clotting. Taking vitamin E at the same time can counteract the effects of vitamin K.

Antibiotics And Vitamins Work Together

The benefits of using vitamin C together with antibiotics are considerable. In a controlled trial with dairy cows with infected udders, high dose vitamin C has been shown to have synergistic effects when used with antibiotics. The cows were divided into two groups. One group was treated with antibiotics alone, and the other group was treated with antibiotics and the human equivalent of 10,000 mg/day injections of vitamin C. The vitamin C group got well much sooner: in just over half the time.

In humans, an astoundingly high 120,000 mg/day of vitamin C delivered intravenously has been demonstrated to accelerate healing of burned skin in a blinded clinical trial. 1,000 to 3,000 mg/day of niacin is a standard treatment for controlling cholesterol. Similar doses of niacin have been demonstrated to reduce inflammation and to reduce injury to the brain after strokes.

Physicians managing life-threatening bacterial infections have many options for administering vitamin C and niacin. The simplest is oral supplementation at modest doses of 2,000 to 10,000 mg/day of vitamin C and 100 to 500 mg/day of time-release niacin or “no flush” niacin . Injections can be used to deliver much higher doses directly to the site of infection. For improved at-home management of respiratory infections, extra vitamin C, vitamin D and niacin should be taken along with antibiotics or other prescribed medication.

References:

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Editorial Review Board:

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What Is Multivitamin With Iron Used For

  • Anemia Associated with Chemotherapy
  • Anemia Associated with Chronic Renal Failure
  • Aplastic Anemia
  • Anemia Associated with Folate Deficiency
  • Anemia Associated with Iron Deficiency
  • Anemia of Unspecified Nutritional Deficiency
  • Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia
  • Anemia Associated with Acute Blood Loss
  • Anemia Associated with Vitamin B12 Deficiency
  • Pancytopenia

What Happens If I Overdose

Mixing Medications and Supplements

Seek emergency medical attention or call the Poison Help line at 1-800-222-1222. An overdose of vitamins A, D, E, or K can cause serious or life-threatening side effects. Certain minerals may also cause serious overdose symptoms if you take too much.

Overdose symptoms may include stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, loss of appetite, hair loss, peeling skin, tingly feeling in or around your mouth, changes in menstrual periods, weight loss, severe headache, muscle or joint pain, severe back pain, blood in your urine, pale skin, and easy bruising or bleeding.

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Vitamin Interactions With Antidepressants

The combination of SSRI and antidepressant medications with supplements can be especially dangerous. If you have an anxiety disorder or depression, your doctor may prescribe a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor . Common SSRIs are Lexapro, Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft. These are safe for most people, but when taken with supplements or vitamins, the results can be risky. Brandi Cole, Pharm.D., a medical advisory board member for Persona Nutrition, explains why.

Most SSRIs are extensively metabolized by liver enzymes, and supplements that affect these enzymes could potentially change the way your body eliminates SSRIs, Cole says. For example St Johns Wort induces liver enzymesmeaning it makes the liver eliminate prescription drugs more quickly than normal. Translation: Your system clears SSRIs sooner than intended, and without the correct amount of medication in your system, your medication cant work.

Additionally, some supplements can cause medication to interact negatively with your bodys systems and processes. Supplements that affect the hearts rhythm could cause a dangerously irregular heartbeat when taken with SSRIs. Supplements that contain serotonin or alter serotonin metabolismsuch as 5HTP , SAMe, or St Johns Wort can cause serotonin syndrome when taken with SSRIs.

Fish Oil And Gingko Biloba

Omega-3 fish oil supplements may tame inflammation and improve your mood, but when you take these supplements with herbs that thin the bloodsuch as ginkgo biloba or garlicthey may prevent clotting and can lead to uncontrolled bleeding, Dr. Cooperman says. To be safe, split them up by at least two hours. Find out which vitamins are a waste of money and could even be dangerous.

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Are Antibiotics Safe In Pregnancy

It depends on the antibiotic and how itsclassified by the Food and Drug Administration . Certain antibiotics, like those in the tetracycline class, should always be avoided, as should ciprofloxacin, fluoroquinolones, and streptomycin, among others. Use of these antibiotics during pregnancy has been linked tofetal bone weakening and otherdevelopmental defects.

That still leaves you with a lot of other frontline options, though, many of which are considered safe by OB-GYNs and primary care providers alike.

Most antibiotics are category B drugs, meaning no long-term negative effects have ever been seen and there have been no issues in animal studies, says G. Thomas Ruiz, MD, the OB-GYN lead at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center.

Be Cautious Of These Combos

Can I Take Vitamins While Taking Antibiotics

Even the most common supplements can have surprising interactions with drugs and other supplements.

âThings that are natural are not necessarily safe,â says David S. Seres, MD, director of medical nutrition and associate professor of medicine at Columbia Medical Center. He explains that much of the reasoning for taking different supplements comes from looking at large populations that consume these substances through diet and seem to have positive health outcomes as a result. However, when a substance is put in supplement form, itâs much more concentrated.

âConsumers should not be surprised that there is the potential for interactions and toxicity when it comes to supplements,â he says.

Here, a few supplements that can have potentially dangerous interactions with different medications and other herbal supplements.

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The General Antibiotic Prescription Pattern At The Immunodeficiency Unit

To obtain a measure of the general antibiotic prescription pattern at the Immunodeficiency Unit during the study period, we retrieved information on all prescriptions during 2012, 2013 and 2014 from the Strategic Programme Against Antibiotic Resistance , that registers all antibiotic prescriptions in Sweden . Before the study started , there were 38 prescriptions of respiratory antibiotics per month. After the inclusion was completed , there were 40 prescriptions per month of respiratory antibiotics. Importantly, these figures indicate that there was no general decrease in the prescription patterns during the study period, rather the numbers increased slightly. For non-respiratory antibiotics, the figures were 17 prescriptions per month before and 22 per months after .

Vitamin C with vitamin B-12

Vitamin C is an essential antioxidant for immune system health. Vitamin B-12 helps maintain your nervous system and form red blood cells. Studies show that taking these two supplements at the same time may reduce the amount of vitamin B-12 that you receive. So, experts recommend taking these supplements at least two hours apart.

Vitamin A supplement with vitamin A-rich foods

Since vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, any excess is stored in the body. So, you donât need to take vitamin A every single day. Too much vitamin A can lead to weaker bones and more bone fractures as you age. It can also be harmful to unborn babies.

Folic acid and vitamin B12

Vitamin E and vitamin K

What We Do And Dont Know About Concurrent Probiotic And Antibiotic Use

To begin, probiotics will not deactivate the antibiotic or make them not work. It is actually much closer to the opposite, where antibiotics will deactivate/kill probiotics when dosed too close together. The need and relevancy of taking probiotics when on an antibiotic is justifiably increased however, as antibiotics are typically not a very discriminatory killer.

That means that while antibiotics may kill off a lot of the bad bugs causing illness, they will also typically cause a lot of your beneficial bacteria to die and instigate a variety of potential side effects, including diarrhea. Probiotic supplementation can help to offset these potential issues.*

Also Check: Taking Antibiotics With Crohn’s Disease

What Antibiotics Are Safe During Pregnancy

Some common antibiotic that are likely safe to take during pregnancy include:

Drug name
Get erythromycin coupon

Other antibiotics can be safe at certain times during pregnancy. Dr. Ruiz saysBactrim shouldnt be prescribed after 32 weeks because it can affectyour babys bilirubin levels and cause jaundice on the other hand, the CDC recommends that nitrofurantoin not be prescribed untilafter the first trimester.

When prescribing antibiotics to a pregnant patient, most providers stick with drugs that have a long history of effectiveness and have shown themselves to be safe. Most of the drugs considered harmful to a developing fetus have perfectly safe alternatives that provide the same benefits, making them largely unnecessary for use during pregnancy. Your provider will also use discretion to prescribe the most appropriate antibiotic for your particular infection.

Heart And Blood Pressure Drugs

Probiotics use when prescribing Antibiotics

Many herbs and dietary supplements pose serious risks when taken with prescription cardiac and antihypertensive medications. Consult your doctor before combining any such medication with a dietary supplement. This precaution applies to any type of calcium channel blocker, beta-blocker, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, nitrate medication or digitalis drug . Notable and potentially serious interactions or side effects have been documented with garlic , ginseng , guarana, hawthorn, licorice, phosphorus, potassium, slippery elm, St. Johns Wort, vitamin D, aloe vera , bioflavonoids .

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Vitamin C Improves Amoxicillins Effectiveness And Prevents Bacteria From Gaining Antibiotic Resistance

Vitamin C is the go-to nutrient for people who are ill. However, even its antioxidant prowess cannot achieve much against bacterial infections by Helicobacter pylori in the stomach unless it works alongside an antibiotic.

The conventional treatment method for H. pylori infections consists of amoxicillin and another substance that decreases the acid production of the stomach. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that the effectiveness of this therapy greatly improved if the patients took copious amounts of vitamin C as well.

Furthermore, a 2005 experiment by the Federal University of Minas Gerais indicated that massive doses of ascorbic acid prevented Pseudomonas aeuruginosa from developing antibiotic resistance. The results showed that kanamycin, streptomycin, and tetracyclines retained their effectiveness against future cases of respiratory disease caused by the bacteria if these antibiotics were taken alongside vitamin C.

On the other hand, ascorbic acid did not get along with chloramphenicol. Treatments using this antibiotic failed more often if the patient took the vitamin as well.

What Happens If You Dont Treat Bacterial Infections During Pregnancy

If youre feeling squeamish about the idea of taking a prescribed antibiotic, know that for many conditions, the benefits of taking it are likely to far outweigh the risks. Some conditions may resolve without using oral antibiotics.

Pregnancy is a relatively immune-compromised state and you are more susceptible to rapid spread with bacterial infections, Dr. Ruiz says. Pneumonias are worse, UTIs are worsereally will be worse than when youre not pregnant.

According to Dr. Ruiz, what starts as a typical UTI can quickly progress to a kidney infection and, possibly, if left untreated. Although taking any kind of medication during pregnancy comes with a dose of extra caution, sometimes not taking a drug is more dangerous.

In general, the risk of untreated infection in pregnancy is much greater than the risks of antibiotic use, especially if the antibiotic is safe to use in pregnancy, says Dr. Arbuah-Aning, who adds that antibiotics should be taken for the shortest effective duration, and other therapies can and should be used, if necessary.

You and your provider can discuss treatment options and their risks, benefits, and adverse effects for medical conditions and determine the best course of action.

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Other Supplement Combinations To Avoid

Copper and zinc

Both copper and zinc are important minerals. Most people get enough of these nutrients through their diet. Copper helps with brain development, nervous system health, and in making important tissues in the body. Zinc is an important mineral for healing.

Different minerals can compete for absorption in your digestive system when taken at the same time. So, if you take copper and zinc together, one usually has poor absorption. In the case of these two supplements, zinc wins. People who take a lot of zinc supplements may develop a copper deficiency.

One source of zinc supplementation is denture cream. If you use denture cream and experience neurological problems, you may have a copper deficiency.

Green tea and iron

On their own, both of these supplements offer a lot of benefits. Green tea has anti-inflammatory compounds that may help people with conditions like inflammatory bowel disease. Iron is important for making hemoglobin, a protein in your blood.

However, when taken together, the antioxidants from green tea bind to iron. This lessens the positive effects of consuming green tea.

Calcium with other minerals

Calcium is an important mineral for bone health. Taking a calcium supplement can affect how your body absorbs other minerals including zinc, magnesium, or iron. If you take any combination of these supplements, talk to your doctor about the best timing for maximum absorption of each mineral.

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