Medical question: will taking an antiviral drug harm the god viruses in my gut?

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xyiq

5:57 am
17 May 18
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Will taking an antiviral drug harm the god viruses in my gut?

A few years ago, I started to have herpes outbreaks, up to three or four times a year, depending on the level of stress and demanding work life at that time.

I still have less frequent outbreaks now.

I asked for advice from my local clinic, and was prescribed Zovirax, to take over a period of five days, during an outbreak. This was to help with the accompanying symptoms of fatigue.

I have never taken the medication, I am now wondering, after reading about the microbiome, if I were to take Zirovax, would it harm the beneficial viruses that live in our gut?

I’m wondering about this, in case Zirovax, or antiviral medications generally, work in the same way antibiotics do, for example, by destroying all bacteria, both the good and bad.

What would be best to do during an outbreak, for the sake of my gut? I can tolerate the symptoms for five days or so until they clear.

dykask

6:32 am
17 May 18
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I think we mostly have bacteria in our gut. It is possible there are virus but it is the bacteria that do the work for us.

Amazon

3:11 pm
17 May 18
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The first question you should ask yourself is how healthy your gut microbiome is in the first place.
Do you eat a mostly healthy and varied diet? Have you taken many courses of anti-biotics or other medication that could damage it?

Have you read the information leaflet that comes with the Zovirax? It should give you information on any possible side effects.

If you have an outbreak of herpes and need to take Zovirax you can help your gut bacteria to recover from any effect the drug might have by eating probiotic yoghurt, or taking the probiotic drinks available in every supermarket or by drinking kefir which is now available in some supermarkets.