The treatment is just 14-days of the antibiotic, there's nothing specifically done to recolonize your gut. The "off-and-on" again thing is really just a theory, if you can even call it that. Like a lot of medicine, it's something a drug they developed with an idea in mind, found that it worked and that's about the extent of our understanding of it. It may or may not do what we think it does, because all the manufacturer cared about is whether it works.
I did do my own research on whether taking probiotics would be helpful, to recolonize my gut as you say. Of all the studies I read, none found any benefit. Both during treatment and after. So it's unlikely that a manual recolonization process is even needed.
My personal pet theory is that the antibiotic doesn't wipe everything out, but instead works by making the gut a much, much more competitive environment. Beneficial flora tend to be better survivors in our guts (for various reasons), so they are more likely to survive the assault and the bad bugs are less likely. Once the good bugs have the advantage again they can outcompete and take over. There's also your gut's immune system which, based on my reading, has the potential to "farm" the flora in your gut. It too will be working to rid the bad bugs and promote the good ones. It seems like in the case of GI issues a bad bug gets a beachhead for one reason or the other and then your immune system can't naturally correct. The antibiotic gives it the chance to do that.
Hence why probiotics are unlikely to do anything. It isn't a total elimination, so there's nothing to reseed. And your immune system is going to favor the same microbiota it grew accustomed to when you were born. Not to mention the appendix which is suspected as being a safe-harbor for your natural gut flora.
I did take probiotics myself, since they don't seem to do any harm. I took them during and after treatment. Probiotic pills, Yakult, and yogurt. But there's no science backing that action.
I did do my own research on whether taking probiotics would be helpful, to recolonize my gut as you say. Of all the studies I read, none found any benefit. Both during treatment and after. So it's unlikely that a manual recolonization process is even needed.
My personal pet theory is that the antibiotic doesn't wipe everything out, but instead works by making the gut a much, much more competitive environment. Beneficial flora tend to be better survivors in our guts (for various reasons), so they are more likely to survive the assault and the bad bugs are less likely. Once the good bugs have the advantage again they can outcompete and take over. There's also your gut's immune system which, based on my reading, has the potential to "farm" the flora in your gut. It too will be working to rid the bad bugs and promote the good ones. It seems like in the case of GI issues a bad bug gets a beachhead for one reason or the other and then your immune system can't naturally correct. The antibiotic gives it the chance to do that.
Hence why probiotics are unlikely to do anything. It isn't a total elimination, so there's nothing to reseed. And your immune system is going to favor the same microbiota it grew accustomed to when you were born. Not to mention the appendix which is suspected as being a safe-harbor for your natural gut flora.
I did take probiotics myself, since they don't seem to do any harm. I took them during and after treatment. Probiotic pills, Yakult, and yogurt. But there's no science backing that action.