Comment · Thu, September 10, 2020 · ND Owner
Would Immune Defense be effective for helping the body fight off bacterial infections?
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post in this thread.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
So clindamycin primarily fights anaerobic bacteria, and is mostly bacteriostatic in nature. That means it doesn't kill bacteria right away at normal doses, but just prevents them from reproducing. This gives your body a chance to kill them off and take back over control. Higher doses can be directly bactericidal, bit it mostly just inhibits their reproduction. It also has almost no effect on aerobic gram-negative bacteria. Gram-negative bacteria have a thick outer lipid membrane surrounding them that clindamycin cannot penetrate. A more broad-spectrum antibiotic like amoxicillin is a lot more directly bactericidal, and hits both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Most probiotics that we consider "good" to be part of our microbiome are gram-positive. So while clindamycin can mess up your microbiome, it won't wreak as much havoc as amoxicillin, as it is mostly just preventing the reproduction. It does hit your gram-positive probiotics, though. So taking a good probiotic while on it is a good idea, to help your body keep things in balance.
Regarding Immune Defense, nigella sativa is the primary thing in it that would be affecting bacteria. It primarily affects gram-positive bacteria as well, like Staphylococcus aureus, not gram negative ones like E.Coli and Enterobacter. So that is the nigella sativa side of things. However, you have the fucntional yeast, which promotes good probiotics in your system, and has a lot of beta-glucans, which help fortify your immune response in the GI tract. Then you also have turkey tail, which has antibacterial properties as well. It does seem to affect gram-negative strains. Reishi is antibacterial as well. Reishi is primarily fighting gram-positive, like nigella sativa. Zinc is also antibacterial for both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Then you have the PEA and tyrosol, which help by their antioxidant properties. So you have a lot of positive mechanisms with the stuff in Immune Defense.