Doxycycline destroyed my gut...anyone else?

[Milo007]

Am I wrong to assume that the monohydrate is lypophyllic? I guess I’m my simple mind I thought, the doxy may pair with fat to be carried throughout the body. But maybe that doesn’t make sense...hmm.

I think the monohydrate releases the active drug into the blood stream anyway so it doesn't matter. We have the chloride versions available here. I am assuming all the different forms of the drug are more or less equally effective irrespective of the release times of the molecules. I have no idea what's the difference between a monohydrate, hyclate or chloride in terms of efficacy. But pairing up with fat is not a bad idea at all. Won't harm I believe.

I think any systemic medication if absorbed well from the gut would reach the tissues through the blood stream. So fat soluble form of the drug might be better in terms of absorption from the gut with a high fat diet. Otherwise both fat soluble and water soluble forms of the drug would end up in the blood stream which would reach the meibomian glands through the fine capillaries.



I think buying the centrifuge was a very good idea but buying a pill press would be an overkill. Your thoughts are not super normal and I am in that league too lol. We both have some sort of OCD I believe and that's not always bad.

Am I wrong to assume that the monohydrate is lypophyllic? I guess I’m my simple mind I thought, the doxy may pair with fat to be carried throughout the body. But maybe that doesn’t make sense...hmm.

[Milo007]

Yeah, what’s mostly sold here is the hyclate salt and those are caps. I had to ask for monohydrate tabs. I specifically asked for monohydrate too because it’s fat soluble. So my hope is that it would accompany the fat/oil in the gland and better deliver the drug to the target tissue. I have no clue if that thought is correct, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt.

I think any systemic medication if absorbed well from the gut would reach the tissues through the blood stream. So fat soluble form of the drug might be better in terms of absorption from the gut with a high fat diet. Otherwise both fat soluble and water soluble forms of the drug would end up in the blood stream which would reach the meibomian glands through the fine capillaries.

I mean I would consider buying a pill press and making my own, but I am the guy that bought a centrifuge to make his own serum. My thoughts are not normal lol.

I think buying the centrifuge was a very good idea but buying a pill press would be an overkill. Your thoughts are not super normal and I am in that league too lol. We both have some sort of OCD I believe and that's not always bad.

Unfortunately doxycycline tablets are not available in India. Mostly we have capsules in the market which is doxycycline hydrochloride. I am taking capsules that has doxycycline hydrochloride equivalent to doxycycline 100mg and 5 billion spores of probiotics. Honestly I think the concept of clubbing an antibiotic WITH probiotics is ridiculous. You can't expect the spores to survive when they are released with the antibiotic TOGETHER in the stomach. My grandfather was a Master's in surgery and my grandmother is a pathologist. They always told me it's useless to take probiotics when you are on antibiotics. Probiotics should be taken after the completion of the antibiotic dosage or when you are on long term antibiotics live cultures of probiotics should be taken 2-3 hours after ingestion of the antibiotic tablet or capsule. Probiotic spores are useless WHILE you are on antibiotic therapy.

Unfortunately there no 50mg or 20mg version of doxycycline in the Indian market as well. We have 100mg or 200mg capsules.

Taking yogurt after doxycycline is a smart move. You need to replenish your gut flora everyday with live cultures of probiotics since the antibiotic is killing them on an every day basis and probiotic spores cannot survive and grow while you are on antibiotics . Lol

Yeah, what’s mostly sold here is the hyclate salt and those are caps. I had to ask for monohydrate tabs. I specifically asked for monohydrate too because it’s fat soluble. So my hope is that it would accompany the fat/oil in the gland and better deliver the drug to the target tissue. I have no clue if that thought is correct, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt.

I mean I would consider buying a pill press and making my own, but I am the guy that bought a centrifuge to make his own serum. My thoughts are not normal lol.

[Milo007]

Heres a workaround that helped me. Ask your doctor give you the monohydrate tablets NOT the capsules. The tabs are coated and get into the gut before they pop. That will reduce burning A LOT! Also, you can ask for 50mg tablets instead of 100mg which helps split the dose to different areas of the gut lining. I have ZERO gut issues now on 200mg and I don’t use a probiotic. Just 300g Greek yogurt with a scoop of chocolate protein powder. Tastes like pudding.

Unfortunately doxycycline tablets are not available in India. Mostly we have capsules in the market which is doxycycline hydrochloride. I am taking capsules that has doxycycline hydrochloride equivalent to doxycycline 100mg and 5 billion spores of probiotics. Honestly I think the concept of clubbing an antibiotic WITH probiotics is ridiculous. You can't expect the spores to survive when they are released with the antibiotic TOGETHER in the stomach. My grandfather was a Master's in surgery and my grandmother is a pathologist. They always told me it's useless to take probiotics when you are on antibiotics. Probiotics should be taken after the completion of the antibiotic dosage or when you are on long term antibiotics live cultures of probiotics should be taken 2-3 hours after ingestion of the antibiotic tablet or capsule. Probiotic spores are useless WHILE you are on antibiotic therapy.

Unfortunately there no 50mg or 20mg version of doxycycline in the Indian market as well. We have 100mg or 200mg capsules.

Taking yogurt after doxycycline is a smart move. You need to replenish your gut flora everyday with live cultures of probiotics since the antibiotic is killing them on an every day basis and probiotic spores cannot survive and grow while you are on antibiotics . Lol

I don't agree with the claim that probiotics can stop doxycycline from burning your gut. Instead doxycycline should be taken the "right way". When you swallow doxycycline the capsule surface might rupture anywhere inside your food pipe or stomach. If the drug touches a specific area of the gut in concentrated amounts it's supposed to cause erosion of the mucous layer and that's what exposes the gut epithelium to damage. So doxycycline must not be allowed to touch the gut in concentrated amounts before it reaches the stomach. The ideal way is to drink 750 ml of water before actually swallowing the pill and another 750 ml of water immediately after swallowing the pill. The purpose of drinking water before swallowing the pill is to create a water pool inside your stomach that will dilute the doxycycline so much that it cannot cause erosion of the gut at that concentration. The purpose of drinking water immediately after swallowing the pill is to force the pill to rush through the food pipe straight to the stomach without touching the food pipe surface and possibly getting dissolved releasing the doxycycline in a small area of the same in concentrated form to cause the erosion.


For those who freak out thinking about drinking 1.5 litres of water in a go, you may reduce the water quantity to 250-500 ml (each time) according to your stomach size.

Doxycycline should always be taken on an empty stomach (without food but lots of water) to increase the drug availability and absorption. One must not take dairy products one hour before or after ingesting doxycycline.

To add to this. Milo is correct, two fold, that the pill is a large bolus of medicine and therefore irritates the gut AND the capsules will open in your stomach rather than in your gut.

Heres a workaround that helped me. Ask your doctor give you the monohydrate tablets NOT the capsules. The tabs are coated and get into the gut before they pop. That will reduce burning A LOT! Also, you can ask for 50mg tablets instead of 100mg which helps split the dose to different areas of the gut lining. I have ZERO gut issues now on 200mg and I don’t use a probiotic. Just 300g Greek yogurt with a scoop of chocolate protein powder. Tastes like pudding.

[Milo007]

I don't agree with the claim that probiotics can stop doxycycline from burning your gut. Instead doxycycline should be taken the "right way". When you swallow doxycycline the capsule surface might rupture anywhere inside your food pipe or stomach. If the drug touches a specific area of the gut in concentrated amounts it's supposed to cause erosion of the mucous layer and that's what exposes the gut epithelium to damage. So doxycycline must not be allowed to touch the gut in concentrated amounts before it reaches the stomach. The ideal way is to drink 750 ml of water before actually swallowing the pill and another 750 ml of water immediately after swallowing the pill. The purpose of drinking water before swallowing the pill is to create a water pool inside your stomach that will dilute the doxycycline so much that it cannot cause erosion of the gut at that concentration. The purpose of drinking water immediately after swallowing the pill is to force the pill to rush through the food pipe straight to the stomach without touching the food pipe surface and possibly getting dissolved releasing the doxycycline in a small area of the same in concentrated form to cause the erosion.


For those who freak out thinking about drinking 1.5 litres of water in a go, you may reduce the water quantity to 250-500 ml (each time) according to your stomach size.

Doxycycline should always be taken on an empty stomach (without food but lots of water) to increase the drug availability and absorption. One must not take dairy products one hour before or after ingesting doxycycline.

yes you should definitely have some kind of probiotic whilst taking doxycycline. Doxy is very harsh on the flora of the stomach and kills a lot of good bacteria too, so it's best to blalnce it out with a probiotic to keep the healthy balance as much as possible.

[ebi1368]

I would try taking a probiotic daily while on Doxy. As others have mentioned, Doxy can destroy the gut flora overtime. I wish I would've known about Probiotics before.

I took Doxycycline (100mg per day) for two years without a probiotic, and now I'm being prescribed a Proton Pump Inhibitor (Pantoprazole) to take daily and also take a probiotic a few times a week as a result of bad indigestion/low stomach acid. It got to the point where I couldn't eat anything after 5pm or I wouldn't be able to sleep that night. Fortunately the Pantoprazole and Probiotic have helped somewhat restore my digestion, but I have to watch what I eat for dinner.

Sorry what is probiotic?
Is that something that doctors should prescribe. I have been on doxy for a while now.

If you are on Doxy take a GOOD probiotic and take lots. Killing all of the flora in your gut is very dangerous. And don't take them together

I agree, I eat a lot of prebiotic foods (green veg, high fiber) and probiotics as well (Greek yogurt, fermented sauerkraut, etc.) I don't do well with kombucha or any pill type probiotics. They actually make me more sick. I'm just assuming it's the bacterial load just not complying with my gut. I eat really clean, maybe 2-3 meals a week I'll have sugar (I eat 6 meals a day to put it into perspective), otherwise I eat super clean just because I also get gut issues if I don't.

I may have to try a stronger probiotic...I went down the rabbit home once with probiotics and found out which type of bacteria as well as load was best. I'll have to research that again...it had a name with numbers in it. Was clinically studied so that made e feel good about it but never needed to take them because I resolved my gut issues and it had nothing to do with my flora.

[farmgirl]

If you are on Doxy take a GOOD probiotic and take lots. Killing all of the flora in your gut is very dangerous. And don't take them together

Doxy gave me serious gut problems which Im still dealing with now. It also made my rosacea and ocular rosacea a lot worse

That sucks to hear...I'm going to give it another go. I took it at 100mg once a day when my eye issues first started, so I think I can tolerate it. Again, I assume the doxy made your overall condition worse because you inflamed your gut. Just an assumption...but I know a lot of internal diseases manifest themselves on the skin.

[DryinNYC]

Doxy gave me serious gut problems which Im still dealing with now. It also made my rosacea and ocular rosacea a lot worse

[Glucoa]

So just like dry eyes, I believe my issues with gerd and my digestion were due to cyclic inflammation. What do I mean by that? Well if I eat too large a quantity of food, or too many bad foods in a row, I'll be inflamed for a few days. So even putting clean bland food in my body, is still feel horrible. So first off I did an elimination diet...I know chicken and rice NEVER bothers me, unless I'm already inflamed. So every single meal was cream of rice with fresh strawberries and a chicken breast just salt no pepper no other seasoning. After a couple weeks, the inflammation went down and so I'd introduce a new food, if it upset my stomach, I made sure not to eat it.

Now as as I did this I refused to take my aciphex anymore. That's where I employed different techniques to help heal my gut and stop the excess acid production. I would drink a tablespoon apple cider vinegar with mother, every single time I had heartburn. That helped, if it got out of control I took tums to bandage my pain. But the point is to still find the underlying issues. So I stared intermittent fasting, 12 hours no food. That gave my gut a break.

thats when things got better...eventually I didn't need the vinegar anymore. I can stil get heartburn but I know why...because I ate a pizza or a burger and tons of fries. Then I eat clean and pull back...things even out and I feel good again. If I continued to eat garbage I'd just put myself back into the cycle. So I can literally peg whats bothering me now where as before I couldn't. Hope that helps.

Thank you for explaining this process in more detail. I plan to experiment with intermittent fasting very soon and will also look into trying the elimination diet. I definitely don't want to be on Proton Pump Inhibitors long term, especially if there are natural techniques out there that can reduce inflammation and the need for PPI/Antacids.

Glad to hear it wasn't worse. Hope you guys are well soon.

I was tested for H Pylori and it came back negative. It's interesting that you used to bodybuild, since I used to also work out 5 days a week and eat 4-6 large meals a day a few years back. Due to a transition to full-time work and being engaged and wedding planning I'm lucky to hit the gym twice per week now. My appetite has decreased significantly since and the indigestion issues are still an annoyance. Especially when I forget to take the Pantoprazole. I plan to get back into the gym 3-4 times per week and meal prepping again after the wedding.

How exactly did you regulate your stomach acid with apple cider vinegar? And what meal plans have worked well for you with GERD?

So just like dry eyes, I believe my issues with gerd and my digestion were due to cyclic inflammation. What do I mean by that? Well if I eat too large a quantity of food, or too many bad foods in a row, I'll be inflamed for a few days. So even putting clean bland food in my body, is still feel horrible. So first off I did an elimination diet...I know chicken and rice NEVER bothers me, unless I'm already inflamed. So every single meal was cream of rice with fresh strawberries and a chicken breast just salt no pepper no other seasoning. After a couple weeks, the inflammation went down and so I'd introduce a new food, if it upset my stomach, I made sure not to eat it.

Now as as I did this I refused to take my aciphex anymore. That's where I employed different techniques to help heal my gut and stop the excess acid production. I would drink a tablespoon apple cider vinegar with mother, every single time I had heartburn. That helped, if it got out of control I took tums to bandage my pain. But the point is to still find the underlying issues. So I stared intermittent fasting, 12 hours no food. That gave my gut a break.

thats when things got better...eventually I didn't need the vinegar anymore. I can stil get heartburn but I know why...because I ate a pizza or a burger and tons of fries. Then I eat clean and pull back...things even out and I feel good again. If I continued to eat garbage I'd just put myself back into the cycle. So I can literally peg whats bothering me now where as before I couldn't. Hope that helps.