Penicillin and Ketosis

(Ricki) #1

Hi everyone,
My wife and I have adopted the ketogenic diet since she was diagnosed in February with cancer recurrence. As part of her initial treatment she was subjected to the removal of multiple organs which included her spleen. As a result of the splenectomy she has to be on Penicillin for the foreseeable future.

We’re about 8 weeks in to keto and we bought some test strips, I did a strip and it showed positive immediately for the presence of ketones. When she did the urine stripe it showed no indication.

I get that the strips shouldn’t be used for accuracy but my curiosity peaked as we’re eating the same things and fasting for the same length of time.

So we isolated our diets further and extended our fasts and she delayed taking her Penicillin until later in the day.

Guess what, the urine stick showed her with a moderate presence of ketones. She took her Penicillin dose and without eating anything 2 hours later showed she was not in ketosis.

She has to take Penicillin twice a day - if taking a single dose makes such a drastic impact on the sticks does that mean that it’s likely kicking her out of ketosis by the time she takes her second and repeats each day?

Any advice would be massively appreciated.

Ricki

(KM) #2

What is the form and amount of the dose? I’m thinking if she’s taking a liquid that’s a tablespoon of flavored stuff, it could be the sweetener and not the penicillin itself. Not to be flip, but that spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down, maybe not so helpful! I have been looking around the internet as I’m sure you have as well, I don’t see anything specifically about penicillin (or blue cheese).

(Ricki) #3

Thanks for the reply :heart:

She’s takes x2 Phenoxymethylpenicillin (250mg Tablets) Twice daily - Usually 2 hours before/after food.

(KM) #4

I looked up the med, and the inert ingredients seem to vary by brand, but for one,

" Each tablet contains 250mg of Phenoxymethylpenicillin. The other active ingredients are **Magnesium Stearate, Talc (E553b), Macrogol 6000, Povidone (E1201) and Maltodextrin ."

"Is Maltodextrin Keto?

Maltodextrin contains empty calories and carbs, and also has a high glycemic index that can wreak havoc on your blood sugar and insulin levels. Maltodextrin contains 4 calories per gram, which equals the number of calories in sucrose (table sugar). "

I’m not sure that would be enough maltodextrin to have an effect, but can you try a different brand or delivery system?

(Ricki) #5

Thank you so very much, I really appreciate you looking into this for us. I guess the only thing to do is to try and see if her doctors will prescribe an alternative but it seems like we might have to consider stopping penicillin for a while.

(KM) #6

Some brands of your medicine don’t seem to contain maltodextrin, so it might be possible to continue the same prescribed medicine, just with different inactive ingredients. For example, switching from generic to name brand, or vice versa. You should be able to look up the inactive ingredients in whichever formula you try.

I wish you luck and health