ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY

Amoxicillin or Amoxicillin + Clavulanic Acid

Since their discovery, antibiotics are a fundamental tool in medicine. Their use is very important, sometimes indispensable, to eradicate infections of bacterial origin, both in children and in adults, therefore they are to be considered real life-saving drugs.

There are several types of antibiotics. The family of beta-lactam antibiotics certainly includes a large portion of those most prescribed and used by patients all over the world.

The most used beta-lactam antibiotic is undoubtedly Amoxicillin, capable of inhibiting the synthesis of key enzymes for the synthesis of peptidoglycan, a structural component of the bacterial cell wall. Thanks to this mechanism of action, Amoxicillin is able to kill various types of bacteria.

Amoxicillin is the drug of first choice in the treatment of various bacterial infections. First, we can list respiratory tract infections, but also ENTl, stomatological, urogenital, skin, gastrointestinal infections, septicemia, and postoperative sepsis.

Unfortunately, some bacteria have developed powerful mechanisms of resistance to Amoxicillin and are able to inactivate it (by breaking the beta-lactam ring that distinguishes its chemical structure). For this reason, Amoxicillin + Clavulanic acid, better known under the commercial name of Augmentin®, was formulated, which improves the activity of the antibiotic by blocking the bacterial defense functions.

Amoxicillin is an antibiotic that has a broad spectrum of action and is therefore capable of counteracting a large number of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Simplified to the extreme, this means that it eliminates both the bad and good bacteria that normally contribute to the balance of the intestinal environment, reducing its intestinal share even very significantly.

Among the good bacteria most “sensitive” to the activity of antibiotics are the bifidobacteria, which play an important role in the human intestine and constitute the main pillar of the intestinal microbiota in children.

Following antibiotic therapy, the abundance of bifidobacteria is drastically reduced. The demolition of these beneficial bacteria creates “free space” which can be occupied by the proliferation of other opportunistic and pathogenic bacteria, resulting in a condition of dysbiosis (imbalance) which can lead to intestinal symptoms such as pain, bloating, flatulence, diarrhea and constipation, as well as in possible infectious recurrences post-antibiotic treatment due to the growth of pathogens.

Unfortunately, the use of the most common probiotics and lactic ferments during antibiotic therapy is not able to buffer this drastic drop in good bacteria, since the products on the market often do not have characteristics that allow them to resist the activity of the antibiotics used, being also overwhelmed by the bactericidal action of these drugs.

SIDE OF THE COAL:

Possible side effects of Amoxicillin and Amoxicillin + Clavulanic Acid

DURING ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY

Preserving the balance in the intestinal microbiota

The vast majority of probiotic products available today contain microorganisms that are not able to resist the action of antibiotics and this makes them useless in conjunction with antibiotic therapy. In fact, what is the point of taking beneficial bacteria if they are immediately eliminated by the antibiotic?

For this reason, the doctor should correctly prescribe the intake of a probiotic to be started just after finishing the antibiotic therapy. However, this is not always able to stem the side effects that the antibiotic can have on the intestine. Sometimes the symptoms already appear during the treatment and the probiotic has the arduous task of re-establishing a now altered balance.

Fortunately, microbiological research has made it possible to isolate a benevolent probiotic strain, the Bifidobacterium breve PRL2020, which has a unique characteristic in the world among bifidobacteria: that of resisting high concentrations of the antibiotic Amoxicillin/Clavulanic acid. This discovery has made it possible to develop a probiotic that can be usefully associated with antibiotic therapy in order not to allow the decrease in the amount of bifidobacteria in the intestine and thus prevent a condition of dysbiosis that could cause more or less unpleasant symptoms.

When they say… prevention is better than cure!

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTIONS?

FAQ Section

A dedicated page where you can find the answers to the most frequently asked questions.