Re: Rifaximin (was SIBO, antibiotics, and now a low-carb hell)

[Guest guest]

Chickacheese -

Hope you've gotten some helpful motivation for sticking with the diet

after the antibiotic.

I was hoping you could tell more about your experience with Rifaximin

and your doctor came to prescribe it.

My teenage son was diagnosed with UC, and through testing with a

holistic MD, we have found a strong bacterial connection, including

C-diff and other pathogenic bacteria. He's been taking Flagyl (for the

C-diff) and Cipro (for the other bacteria) and definitely responds,

better than to any of the other IBD meds he's tried. I first heard about

Rifaximin when his IBD doctor was the expert of the month on the

myibd.org site and someone asked about being on Rifaximin for

maintenance. The doctor answered as follows:

Rifaxamin is a non-absorbable antibiotic that does not appear to have

any major long term safety concerns. Most of the studies on Rifaxamin in

IBD have been short term (less than one year), however it is probably

safe to use beyond one year. The optimal maintenance dose for UC is not

known, but if you’ve done well on 800mg per day it may be reasonable to

discuss with your doctor a slow decrease in your dose to 200mg two to

three times per day; if you have a return of symptoms at a certain dose

then you may need to hold at that dose or the next higher dose.

Pasted from <http://www.myibd.org/AsktheSpecialist/index.html>

I was curious if your doctor had considered using Rifaximin for

maintenance and what your original dosage/protocol for Rifaximin was,

since I'm going to be asking about it at our next visit.

Thanks for any info.

Sally