[Aurornis]

On the other hand, we're discovering that certain antibiotics can be very useful in treating specific GI conditions.

Rifaximin, and antibiotic designed to stay in your gut, has been approved for treating specific types of IBS. When it works it can induce remission for months or longer.

[hirvi74]

Story time: I went through a dark and stressful period of my life when I was in my teens. After I mostly got over the issues, I went on a vacation with a friend and his family. At one point in the vacation, I ended getting some kind of food poisoning from shellfish that apparently no one else who at the same meal got. Anyway, I eventually recovered in a few days, but it seemed as though I never fully recovered. I had frequent GI issues for literal years.

I sometimes wonder if the intense stress and whatnot that I had experienced prior some how made me more susceptible to whatever illness I happened to succumb to? No way to truly know, I suppose.

After various specialists and unhelpful treatments for what was later deemed to be "IBS", I was recommended to try something by my GP. He gave me some antibiotic (this was 15 years or so ago) it may have been that one -- Rifaximin -- I know it started with an "R." Anyway, my GP warned me that he came across it in some research, and would be willing to give a try, but I was not to get my hopes up.

I took the antibiotics for 14 days. Towards the end of the regiment, I was starting to have symptoms far worse than normal, but I pushed through. 15 years or so later, I basically have no issues at all. Whatever the drug was it was like a freaking miracle cure.

[justinclift]

If you have medical records (ie at the doctors office, etc), then maybe you can ask them about it the next time you visit the doctor?