Why some antibiotics & dairy don’t mix

Not all antibiotics interact withdairy products, but there aresome that will be dispensedwith the warning to avoid dairy.(Photo: Pixabay)

Ask Your Pharmacist

We know you sometimes have burning questions that can best be answered by a pharmacist. Our feature, Ask Your Pharmacist , seeks to address some of those issues. Send your questions to [email protected].

Question: Why can’t I have dairy with some antibiotics?

Answer: Fortunately, not all antibiotics interact with dairy products, but there are some that will be dispensed with the warning to avoid dairy. Some common antibiotics that will trigger this warning are Tetracycline, Doxycycline, Ciprofloxacin, and Levofloxacin.

Tetracycline and doxycycline

Tetracycline and doxycycline are antibiotics that work by disrupting protein formation in bacteria. Proteins are the basic building blocks for the cells of the bacteria. If there is no protein (or damaged protein), the bacteria cannot grow or flourish and will eventually die.

If you have been to the dentist for an abscess or an extraction, you have probably received doxycycline.

Ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin

Ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin work by destroying the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) of the bacteria. The DNA is the brain of the cell, so if the DNA is destroyed, the cell cannot function. The bacteria will eventually die.

If you have ever gone to the doctor for a urinary tract infection (UTI), you might have received ciprofloxacin.

Dairy warning

These antibiotics are always dispensed with a warning to avoid dairy products. Dairy products include milk, butter, yoghurt, ice cream, and cheese. The danger really stems from the calcium in these products.

Calcium in supplements, antacids, and fortified fruit juices are just as dangerous as the calcium in dairy products. Hence, many times, the pharmacist will go on to say that antacids and multivitamins/mineral supplements should be avoided for the duration of treatment with the antibiotic. In actuality, calcium-containing products can be had two hours before or after taking the antibiotic. This will ensure that the stomach is clear of the calcium by the time the antibiotic gets there. However, it can be difficult to get the timing right, so it might be best to just avoid these products for the duration of the treatment.

Calcium is needed for the development of strong teeth and bones. It is an essential mineral to have in the diet, so it might seem strange to advise patients not to partake of any calcium. The good thing is that most times antibiotic treatment therapies are short — about a week long — so you won’t have to stay away from dairy and calcium-containing supplements for an extended period.

Chelation

How does dairy/calcium affect these antibiotics though? The calcium in dairy products interacts with the antibiotics in a process called chelation. Chelation is just a fancy way to say that the calcium binds to the antibiotic molecules and changes the chemical structure of the antibiotic. This makes it quite difficult for the body to absorb and utilise the antibiotic.

Of course, if the body cannot absorb the antibiotic into the bloodstream, it will not get to the site of infection to kill the bacteria. Instead, the antibiotic might just stay in the digestive tract and be passed out of the body without carrying out its job. This may result in treatment failure. Even if the calcium affects just half of the drug, you’re only getting half the dose, which could mean the infection isn’t destroyed by the end of the course. In either case, the treatment would be ineffective.

Chelation can occur when any form of calcium is present in the stomach at the same time as the antibiotic, so pay attention to your diet, any supplements that you might be taking, and antacids that you might use to relieve heartburn.

Some patients think the important thing is to simply take the medication once or twice per day, as is written on the label. However, the auxiliary instructions are very important to ensure success of the therapy. After all, some antibiotics can be pretty expensive. You want to ensure that you get value for your money by utilising the drug properly. You also want to engage the shortest route to regain good health.

If the antibiotic therapy is ineffective because of chelation caused by calcium in your food or supplements, you will have the infection for longer and you might actually be prescribed another round of antibiotics to help fix the initial botched attempt. This is certainly not a desirable outcome.

The next time you get antibiotics, be sure to ask if it is okay to have dairy with it. If the pharmacist advises you against dairy, pay a little more attention to your diet. You can successfully substitute lots of things for dairy products. Look at your food labels, too, to ensure that calcium is not hiding in your favourite orange juice or cream-filled biscuit.

Novia Jerry Stewart, MSc, RPh, is a pharmacist who specialises in ophthalmic care. She may be contacted at [email protected].

Results are in from FDA tests for antibiotics in milk

Health

Updated on: March 5, 2015 / 6:18 PM
/ CBS/AP

WASHINGTON — In an encouraging development for consumers worried about antibiotics in their milk, a new Food and Drug Administration study showed little evidence of drug contamination after surveying almost 2,000 dairy farms.

In response to concerns, the agency in 2012 took samples of raw milk from the farms and tested them for 31 drugs, almost all of them antibiotics. Results released by the agency Thursday show that less than 1 percent of the total samples showed illegal drug residue.

Antibiotics and other drugs can end up in milk when they are used on dairy cows to keep them healthy. Small levels of drugs are allowed in milk, but residues that go beyond certain thresholds are illegal.

“Overall this is very encouraging and reinforces the idea that the milk supply is safe,” said the FDA’s William Flynn, who led the study. He said the agency will use the findings to try and reduce the drug contamination even more.

Should Americans be drinking more milk?
01:26

The industry does regular testing for the drugs, but public health advocates had expressed particular concern about milk that had come from dairy farms that had repeatedly tried to sell older cows for slaughter with illegal levels of antibiotic residue in their tissue. So the FDA study focused on those farms with previous violations, with about half of the samples coming from them and half from a control group.

FDA said 11 of the samples from the group with previous violations showed illegal levels of drug residue and four from the control group showed illegal residue. Flynn said the illegal drug residues found in the study were from unapproved drugs, so any level is illegal.

The agency said the study was blind, so no violations would be reported.

The milk industry balked when the FDA first announced the study in 2010, expressing concerns that the broad testing would disrupt the milk supply. After negotiations, the testing began in 2012 and the agency spent the next two years analyzing the results.

The industry praised the study as it was released.

“These results are great, but we still are aiming for zero positives in the future,” said Jim Mulhern, CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation.

The findings may help reassure American consumers who have been steadily turning away from drinking milk. The average consumption of dairy milk has dropped from about 22 gallons a year per person in 1970 to less than 15 gallons in 2012 — a 33 percent decline — while bottled waters, teas and energy drinks gained market share.

The dairy industry has been working to reverse that trend with renewed marketing efforts and a variety of new products designed for modern tastes, such as flavored and blended milk drinks in round, re-sealable containers.

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• Food and Drug Administration
• Antibiotic

First published on March 5, 2015 / 4:31 PM

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How to determine antibiotics in milk at home?

Even if you are against antibiotics, you still get them with food without knowing it. Half of all antibiotics produced in the world are fed to livestock, which brings fabulous profits to both livestock breeders and pharmaceutical companies. This is done not only for the sake of treating certain animals, but also in order to ensure rapid growth and a larger size of livestock. Due to antibiotics, livestock breeders save about 30% on feed. As a result, we also receive a significant dose of antibiotics.

Russian farmers feed and treat their animals with levomycetin, penicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline, etc. Manufacturers then add antibiotics during the manufacturing process to increase shelf life. Together with dairy and meat products, these substances enter the human body, after which sensitivity to involuntarily taken antibiotics disappears, immunity is weakened, and allergic reactions develop.

Allergies are the scourge of modern city dwellers; every 30 years, the incidence of allergies doubles. The most serious complication of allergy is bronchial asthma. Agree, this is not at all what a person who drinks harmless cow’s milk would like to get.

It turns out that according to the technological regulations, a certain proportion of antibiotics is officially permissible – in hundredths-thousandths of a percent. But how to understand that the norms are met and milk is safe? You can check this at home and quite simply. It is enough to leave some milk out of the refrigerator overnight at room temperature. If the milk does not turn sour, then the antibiotics in it are more than normal.

It is also possible to conduct an experiment according to GOST technology. Pour 100 ml of milk into a sterile container, add a teaspoon of fresh sour cream. After 3-4 hours, we look at the result: if there are no inhibitors, milk placed in a warm place turns into yogurt.

It is impossible to determine the exact amount of antibiotics in milk “by eye”, special laboratory tests are needed. But the main thing to understand is that if extraneous bacteria can be killed by heat treatment, then the antibiotic from milk cannot be eliminated by any boiling.

Unfortunately, from milk in which the norm of antibiotics is exceeded, it will not be possible to prepare homemade sour-milk products – beneficial bacteria will die without even starting the fermentation process. So, if you failed to make yogurt at home, then one of the possible reasons is antibiotics in milk.

How to remove antibiotics from milk?

Unfortunately, at home it is not possible to determine which particular antibiotic is used in milk. Accordingly, it will not be possible to choose a method of neutralization either – you can harm the body. Therefore, if by one of the above methods you have determined that the milk contains antibiotics, it is better to refuse the milk of this manufacturer.

Inf. FBUZ “Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Stavropol Territory”

Experts told why there are traces of antibiotics in milk

Latest issue Fresh number

Leningrad region

01/12/2021 18:14

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Three regions of Russia have become pilot projects for the development of safe technologies

Tatyana Tyumeneva (NWFD)

A pilot project has been launched in several regions of the country to reduce the use of antibiotics in the agro-industrial complex. Enterprises are implementing an antimicrobial drug control system (SCAMP), and products may be labeled “Without antibiotics”.

– The consequences of the use of antibiotics in agriculture were tracked back in the 90s of the last century. Residual amounts of antibiotics used to treat and prevent diseases in farm animals ended up in milk and dairy products, eggs, and meat. Microbes acquired resistance, so antibiotic treatment could become ineffective when an illness occurred. Studies have shown that even microdoses are dangerous, – said Svetlana Shchepetkina, chairman of the research center of the St. Petersburg Union of Scientists “Social significance of veterinary medicine”, head of the scientific consulting center for the development and transfer of system technologies in veterinary medicine and agriculture of the Animal Health Group.

Unfortunately, antibiotics given to animals for prophylactic or therapeutic purposes are not destroyed by heat treatment of the product. To change the psychology of farmers, many European countries have needed decades of work to prove that it is possible to raise animals without antibiotics and without economic losses. In 2018, the European Parliament approved a ban on the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry for preventive purposes.

In our country, work is also underway to eradicate antibiotics, animal products are tested for antibiotics. Dairy plants, meat processing plants have their own laboratories, and if the parameters are exceeded, the products are rejected. For their part, large agricultural producers also control the content of residual antibiotics.

-It is impossible to ban antibiotics in agriculture, as this will lead to mass animal diseases and a threat to food security. But another solution is possible: in industrial conditions, to develop a technology in which animals and birds would not experience stress, have good immunity and not get sick, which means that antibiotics would not be needed, – Schepetkina believes. Pilot regions in the development of such technologies were the Leningrad and Belgorod regions, the Krasnodar Territory.

In the Leningrad region in 2019, equipment was purchased that provides manufacturers with free testing of samples of meat, eggs, milk for more than 90 antibiotics. This is important both for checking incoming raw materials and for examining the residual amount of antibiotics after treatment of animals, so that even safer products can be produced. The number of enterprises that have implemented an antimicrobial drug control system (SCAMP) is increasing. The marking means that the company has organized a technology that ensures the production of high-quality and safe products “from stall to table”, that antibiotics are used only for treatment and are not used to stimulate the growth and productivity of animals. On the products of such enterprises, a special marking “Without antibiotics” may appear.

But how profitable is this for producers?

– My farm cannot be called organic, in my conditions it is impossible. One of the reasons is the insufficient amount of land for keeping animals and the lack of their own forage base. But we pay great attention to disease prevention and use antibiotics only when they become the only way to cure the animal. The antibiotic is used after determining the sensitivity of the microbe to it – the causative agent of the disease, the milk from the cow undergoing treatment is disposed of. To make sure that the antibiotic has completely disappeared from the body of the animal, tests are carried out in the future. They can be made for free,” says Tatyana Pugacheva, a farmer from the Priozersky district.

Speaking of milk. It turns out that the consumer will not be able to determine by taste whether there are traces of antibiotics in it or not. A bitter taste is a consequence of completely different reasons (some diseases in a cow, poor-quality feed). The only method that is available to all of us is to buy sourdough and make yogurt, yogurt, from purchased milk.