Antibiotics Can Alter The Good Bacteria: Study
September 15th, 2010 - 7:33 pm ICT by Pen Men At Work
September 15, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): While it is a known fact that taking antibiotics may result in a stomach upset, the latest research study hints at something more serious. It has found that taking antibiotics repetitively over a period of time can alter the beneficial germs in our body thus producing long lasting and lingering illness.
The repercussions on health during the later part of life are still not very clear with answers being sought about the type of bacteria that resides within our gut. There are no known results about whether the type or the amount of bacteria present can trigger of ailments from obesity to the more serious inflammatory bowel syndrome.
The researchers worked with samples of stools from three healthy adults in order to discover the effects of antibiotics on the micro-organisms thriving in our intestines.
Dr. David Relman connected to the Stanford University stated that the bacteria have an important part to play in developing our immune system. Hence it would not do to take them for granted. Dr. Relman plans to track the effect of the bacteria on the immune system on young children in the first two years of their lives after they are put on antibiotics.
Dr. Martin Blaser, a microbiome specialist of the New York University Langone Medical Center also plans to study the effect of antibiotics in young children although he was not involved in Relman’s findings.
While it is a widely known fact that antibiotics can destroy germs, both good and bad, it is not known how robust our intestinal microbes are or how soon can they recover from the effects of the antibiotics.
Relman with fellow research scientist Les Dethlesfsen worked on healthy volunteers who had no record of taking antibiotics in the last one year. They were given a five day course of ciprofloxacin which was repeated six months later.
The findings reported that the bacterial intestines had altered and none of the volunteers had the same bacterial levels as before. One of the volunteers took months to recover from the effects.
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