Each of us had to take antibiotics. And many, during or at the end of the course of treatment with these drugs, began to feel a bitter aftertaste in their mouths. By the way, almost every instruction for this type of drug warns about the possibility of such a side effect. Why does this problem arise? What to do when bitterness appears in your mouth and what can you drink to avoid this? We will try to answer all these questions later in the article.
About antibiotics
Antibiotics in medicine are comparable to “heavy artillery”, because, despite their apparent effectiveness, they can have a lot of contraindications and side effects.
Doctors not without reason consider antibacterial agents to be one of the most effective drugs, because they are able to suppress the growth of pathogenic microorganisms and thus ensure the patient's recovery. But the uncontrolled use of these drugs or the wrong dosage prescribed by the doctor can lead to serious health problems, which, by the way, will manifest themselves not only as bitterness in the mouth. After antibiotics, the growth of both pathogenic and beneficial microflora is suppressed in the human body, leading ultimately to dysbiosis; there is a violation of the biliary tract and a strong decrease in immunity.
Possible causes of bitterness in your mouth
The causes of bitterness in the mouth can be different. And most often they are associated with impaired liver or gall bladder. So, bitterness in the morning after a meal can be caused by acid reflux, gastritis, gallstone disease, or a dysfunction of the biliary tract. Often, the symptom mentioned also appears with various lesions of the duodenum (inflammation, ulceration, the appearance of tumors).
It should be noted that all of the listed diseases, as a rule, are already present in the patient (to one degree or another) before treatment with antibacterial drugs, and taking these drugs only provokes their exacerbation and causes various manifestations of the pathological condition, including bitterness in the mouth after antibiotics.
Why taking antibiotics leads to bitterness
as already mentioned, the described drugs belong to potent drugs, and their metabolism (conversion) occurs mainly in the liver. Therefore, it is not surprising that this body is the first to be targeted by the effects of their main active substances. And if the liver was already affected by some kind of ailment, then the patient will necessarily get bitterness from antibiotics in his mouth.
The fact is that tissue damage in the liver causes a violation of its detoxification capabilities, and the antibiotic is perceived by it as a source of toxic substances, which as a result provokes an exacerbation of all available problems.
In addition to bitterness, the patient may develop jaundice, fever, urine becomes dark, and feces, on the contrary, become discolored. Violation of the accumulation of glycogen (a kind of preserved glucose in the body that nourishes the muscles) causes weakness and apathy.
Therefore, if you already have some problems, be sure to check with your doctor how much an antibiotic can affect the liver. Especially dangerous in this regard are drugs such as Levofloxacin or Moxifloxacin.
Bitterness in the mouth after antibiotics: what to do?
Regardless of how antibiotics can affect the liver, taking them in some situations is vital, so doctors decide to prescribe these drugs. Although because of this, the above symptoms, including bitterness in the mouth from antibiotics, can, alas, become your companions for a while. What to do?
As a rule, during the course of treatment with these medications, the patient is shown a sparing diet, as well as taking hepatoprotectors - medicines that help the liver in the process of combating intoxication caused by antibacterial drugs, and increasing its cellular potential.
How to take antibiotics
In order to reduce the risk of side effects and not feel bitterness in the mouth after antibiotics, you must follow the mandatory rules for taking these medicines.
- To maintain a constant level of a drug substance in the body, you should take drugs strictly at the appointed time.
- Drink the tablets only with non-carbonated drinking water or weak tea.
- After completing the course of taking antibiotics, after consulting with your doctor, you can take probiotics that restore dead microflora in the digestive tract or drink yoghurts.
- Eat an appropriate diet (do not eat spicy, fatty or fried foods).
- Give up alcohol.
- You can not take antibiotics with food (only an hour before it or an hour after).
- In no case do not prescribe yourself antibiotics yourself!
How to understand what caused the appearance of bitterness
If you still have strong bitterness in your mouth after taking antibiotics, you should immediately inform your doctor. He will refer you to a gastroenterologist to clarify the causes of the unpleasant symptom. Gastroscopy (sampling using a probe of inflamed tissues of the stomach) will help the specialist. Thanks to this diagnostic procedure, the doctor will be able to detect existing inflammation or tissue modification.
Often, less informative methods are used to make a diagnosis - ultrasound or stomach x-rays, which, however, can also help identify existing pathological processes. Important information in such cases will give a blood sampling for clinical and biochemical analysis.
Only as a result of the above studies can we reliably establish how serious the causes of bitterness are, and whether only the withdrawal of the medication will be sufficient to get rid of it.
How to get rid of bitterness in your mouth
Unfortunately, treatment of bitterness in the mouth may not be possible without eliminating the disease that caused this symptom, but more often a small therapeutic effect is sufficient. It is carried out under the supervision of a doctor, and he also adjusts the stages of this treatment, for its greater effectiveness.
For this, the patient is first of all helped to cleanse the intestines from the pathogenic flora. For these purposes, the appointment of medicinal herbs having an antibacterial effect is prescribed (these include anise, blackberry, marsh calf , etc.). In addition to them, it is also planned to take adsorbing agents (activated carbon, Almagel, etc.). Then comes the turn of procedures that normalize the work of the intestines, for which, as a rule, vegetable bitterness is used (calamus, yellow gentian, etc.).
And the last step, which helps to completely solve the question of “how to get rid of bitterness in the mouth,” usually becomes the “colonization” of the intestine with beneficial microflora. For this, in medicine, lactobacilli and bifidobacteria are used, which create optimal conditions for the normal functioning of the intestine. They are found in drugs called probiotics.
Once again on how to avoid bitterness in your mouth
From the foregoing, we can draw unambiguous conclusions:
- Most often, in order to get rid of the risk of bitterness in the mouth during antibiotic treatment, it is enough to strictly follow the doctor’s prescriptions and recommendations and follow a special diet.
- And if bitterness and other side effects nevertheless begin to bother, then the doctor in such cases reconsiders the appointment, refusing drugs that cause this reaction, or replacing them with suitable analogues.
- To help those who have felt the negative effects of the drug, hepatoprotectors that support the work of the liver and probiotics that restore the microflora can come.
In cases where bitterness in the mouth after antibiotics does not disappear even after the end of the course of taking the drugs, an urgent examination should be urgently performed to identify the diseases that caused the described symptom. And you can’t delay with this, since the problems that appear can be very serious!