Antibiotics: the longer term effects

UCL recently released the findings of a new study: a single course of antibiotics can change the composition of your gut microbiome for at least a year. We already know that antibiotics decrease the number and types of gut bacteria. This study suggests that the disturbance may transition the microbiome to a new composition, perhaps permanently. 

We are only starting to understand the importance of our gut for our overall health. Did you know that approximately 95% of serotonin is made in the gut? Serotonin makes us feel happy and low levels are linked not only with depression, insomnia, anxiety and addictions, but also with conditions like pre-menstrual syndrome and ME/CFS.  

Antibiotics can also cause ‘leaky gut’. Roughly 70% of our immune system lies just behind the lining of our gut. When this lining is damaged, or ‘leaky’, it can cause autoimmune disease, autism, allergies and intolerances. It’s no coincidence that hay fever, allergies, food intolerances and autism are at their highest levels ever. 

A disturbed microbiome has also been linked to gastrointestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, cancer and ulcers; as well as weight gain or an inability to lose weight. 

Historically medicine believed that ‘bacteria are bad’. Antibiotics are without question a life-saving and very valuable invention. We are all now aware of the issue of antibiotic resistance that has arisen from their overuse. What science is now revealing is that bacteria are not all bad; in fact our very survival and health depends on ‘good’ or commensal bacteria. We are actually made up of billions of bacteria, not only in our gut, but on our skin, in our lungs – well, actually in every cell: mitochondria are ancient bacteria; they make energy and are like the batteries within every cell of our body. Unfortunately, antibiotics don’t discriminate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria – they kill them all.

So, what are the other things that can upset our gut bacteria? A lot of them are connected with our increasingly busy and toxic 21st century lives: a diet high in sugars, refined starch and processed foods, food additives such as preservatives, emulsifiers and artificial sweeteners, pesticides, high alcohol consumption, constipation, high levels of stress, anxiety and depression, low immunity and also other medicines like antacids. 

The good news is that there is a solution. With the exception of conditions where (auto)antibodies have been produced ie allergies and autoimmune disease, you can heal your gut and correct the imbalance to restore your optimal health. It’s called the 4R approach (or 5R in functional medicine) and any nutritional therapist, naturopath or functional medicine practitioner can guide you through it. It may also help improve your symptoms if you do have allergies or autoimmune disease or prevent it worsening/other allergies developing.