Kidney
Probiotics
September 2, 2022
in Kidney
Hi,
I had a kidney transplant 28 years ago and thank "God" have done pretty well.
I was recently diagnosed with a bacterial lung infection due to an ongoing cough post car accident. My pulmonologist ordered Augmentin 875mg every12 hours. From what I've heard it can cause stomach issues ( nausea/ diarrhea).
My pulmonary physician suggested taking a probiotic while I'm on it. She also suggested yogurt but I hate it!
I wanted to see if any of you with kidney transplants take probiotics?
If so what type/ brand? I want to make sure it's safe to take too.
Have you had any issues with taking it?
Appreciate your thoughts.
Thank you 😀
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Hi there! It’s exciting to hear that you’ve had your transplant for 28 years! I’m a few months from kidney transplant, and have been told the best I could hope for is 20 years with a live donor transplant. I apologize that my advice is not post transplant, but I do take a good probiotic now. The company is Modere and the product is call Tri-biotic. It’s a pre, pro and post biotic Good luck! Hopefully someone else can respond with a referral who’s taking biopics post transplant.
I’ve gone on and off with probiotics. (4 years post kidney transplant) I do know antibiotics can really tear up your stomach. I mostly make sure to get a probiotic that requires refrigeration so that it’s active and alive. I don’t stick to a certain brand, but hopefully others have more specific suggestions.
It sounds like you’ve been through a lot recently. Sending healing and love from Ohio! 💞
Wonderful news about the longevity of your kidney. So have you talked to your Transplant team about probiotics? I’m asking because my team told me not to take them. They said probiotics are OK, but not pro. So it may be worth a conversation with your team before taking them if you haven’t already done so. But I’m interested in hearing what they say.
Transplant Patient
@Ski73 did they say why? I’m just curious because my team suggested probiotics too. I’ve been taking them and noticed they definitely help with my GI issues. I’ve never heard of any issues with them
That’s great news! They said because it could interact with my immunosuppressants. But then, when I asked if I could eat yogurt or sauerkraut, they said yes. So I was a bit confused, because aren’t there probiotics in those food items? So knowing the others are taking probiotics, I’m going to circle back with my Transplant team to ask. Because I’m having G.I. issues/ acid reflux and I think probiotics could really help.
They said to stay away from anything that has live bacteria, because I am amino suppressed
Transplant Patient
That's really interesting. Do you have a transplant pharmacist? That's who was able to help me in terms of finding what would work best for me, making sure I wouldn't have any potential interactions with my tac... Maybe it depends on what kind of immunosuppression you're on (I'm only on tacro) but I'd definitely check with your team and see.
I will talk with my transplant pharmacist. Yeah I’m Tac and CellCept. Well, this is helpful so thank you.!
Transplant Patient
@stwbear - congratulations on being blessed with your Gift of Life for 28 years! 👍 Great job taking care of it. 👏
So sorry to hear about your recent health challenges. Hopefully the treatment will address your issues & you will be healed completely.
As for as probiotics, there are so many in the market place. I would most definately check with your care team - because they're treating you for an infection, they may not want to introduce certain 'live' bacteria into your body/system.
Good luck & please do update on this forum when possible. Take care. 🙏
Hi stwbear,
Congratulations on your life saving and long lasting kidney transplant. That's really great. Thank God is right. You give me hope for a long lasting transplant.
The last time I looked for medical research about the effectiveness of probiotics to establish in the gut microbiome, it concluded that they didn't effectively establish. They just don't seem to survive the trip to the large intestine where the gut microbiome is. However, the last time I studied this subject was in 2016. So, I humbly don't know if formulations have changed since then.
Since antibiotics kill bacteria, it doesn't quite seem logical to even take a probiotic while you are on an antibiotic (even if they did survive and establish) right ? After you've finished the antibiotic, would seem better wouldn't it ? Research has shown that just one course of antibiotics can kill up to one third of the bacteria species in your gut microbiome (hence the possibility of diarrhea). Most of them come back after a year, but some never do.
So, what can you do after your course of antibiotics and resolving your infection ?
If you want, you can take steps to help your gut microbiome recover. I've read that the preservatives that are found in so many of our processed foods were shown to be killing off our good, helpful bacteria in our gut microbiome. So, avoiding processed foods would be a positive step wouldn't it ?
Then there's emulsifiers, which are found in many processed foods too, they've been shown by research to be causing chronic or continual inflammation in the digestive tract (which in turn weakens the gut wall barrier). So, if you want to get over any diarrhea from your antibiotics, it would be helpful to avoid these also wouldn't it ?
It sounds like that anyone suffering from digestive issues should be avoiding emulsifiers, right ?
I've read research that has shown that sugars are feeding our bad bacteria. So, reducing or eliminating sugars in your diet would be helpful too, if you want to take this step.
Do you have any tips that helped you to keep your transplant healthy for so long stwbear ? What have you done that you feel really helped you ? How many infections did you have in the last 28 years ? Colds, influenza, etc ? I was blessed with a kidney 3 years ago and I would really appreciate any tips or information that you could share. Please.
Recently, I'm trying to understand just how careful I need to be to avoid infections. I'd really appreciate input about this too.