Intermittent Supplementation
 

Hi Mrs.D,
As you may know, I am on several antibiotics. These are all metabolized in the liver/kidney. My kidney and liver functions are regularly monitored.

Prior to the antibiotics, I have religiously taken most of the supplements listed in your thread. However, due to the toxicities of the antibiotics, I am thinking of just taking hte supplements on a "randomly" basis. My question is: would I get any benefits, even minimally, by taking the supplements intermittently i.e. 3x or 2x a week?

Thank you for your reply?

You might. In the beginning, people who start supplements may be filling a "void" that was long standing.

Once that is fixed, then just keeping a bit of them going into those enzyme systems may be enough.

There just isn't much research on this subject, because it would cost lots of money, to guide people.

Omega-3's are essential, meaning we need to have them in the diet or supplemented. But other things like carnitine, CoQ-10, lipoic acid, are actually made by our bodies. (statins will deplete CoQ-10 over time because of their chemistry).

If something a person is taking is a depleter...then adding the depleted nutrient back in is important.

Ethambutol for example depletes copper and zinc. So taking those in a multivitamin or in the form of OptiZinc may be necessary over time. I don't recall your other drugs. Many antibiotics though over time deplete B-complex, inositol, Vit K
Biotin. But not all of them do this equally.
B12 I think you need daily. I wouldn't stop that.
Taking acid blocking drugs reduce nutrient status of
calcium
zinc
magnesium
B12
folate
iron. And those are only the ones we know about so far.

Thank you very much for your reply Mrs.D and so sorry for the delayed acknowledgement, it has not been easy for me the past days.

You are so helpful and I appreciate it. I will take the minimum supplements you suggested.

Other than Ethambutol, the other antibiotics I take are Rifampin and Azithromycin.

Again, thank you.

I had my VitD3 tested 2 weeks ago and the result was 40. I was expecting to be h igher than this because of my supplementation. I was taking 2000mg of VitD3 prior to the test. I remember this was about the same number when I had it tested 2 years ago when I was not taking the supplement. I increased it to 4500mg after I got hte result. The Rifampin must be affecting the absorption of my VitD3.

Yes, Rifampin is listed as a depleter of Vit D.

Azithromycin is like erythromycin and other macrolides:
Depletes all the B's
inositol
kills off good bacteria in the bowel
Vit K
Biotin