It has always seemed logical to me to avoid antibiotics and other meds like the Pill that decimate beneficial gut flora even though probiotics could conceivably “fix” the damage after the fact.
This expectation that repairing antibiotic damage with quality probiotics is straightforward, and that over time, gut flora returns to normal, may not be entirely correct.
Evidence is now emerging that damaged gut flora may actually be permanently altered by drugs. It is also one of the little-known risks of a screening colonoscopy.
This concerning and extremely provocative theory has been put forth by Dr. Martin Blaser MD of New York University’s Langone Medical Center who writes in the August 2011 edition of Nature:
Early evidence from my lab and others hints that, sometimes, our friendly flora never fully recover. These long-term changes to the beneficial bacteria within people’s bodies may even increase our susceptibility to infections and disease. Overuse of antibiotics could be fueling the dramatic increase in conditions such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, which have more than doubled in many populations.
As evidence, Blaser goes on to say that infections with H. pylori, the bacterial cause of ulcers, has plummeted in recent years. H. pylori, as it turns out, is very susceptible to the same broad-spectrum antibiotics used to treat children’s ear infections and colds which are doled out like candy at most pediatrician offices.
Most children routinely receive up to 20 courses of antibiotics before the age of 18.
In addition, between one third and one half of pregnant women receive antibiotics during pregnancy. The high C-section rate is also a contributing factor as surgical birth negatively affects the composition of gut flora in children as they completely miss out on exposure to Mom’s friendly bacteria as they travel through the birth canal.
This is a lot of antibiotic exposure for our younger generations and the implications for those children who don’t acquire H. pylori due to excessive antibiotics appear to be dramatic with a higher risk for both allergies and asthma.
Blaser’s research group has also observed that lack of H. pylori in the human body affects the production of ghrelin and leptin, 2 hormones that play a factor in weight gain.
Preservation of the MicroBiome
The composition of a person’s microbiome, not only in the gut but also on the skin and everywhere in the body, has huge implications to long term health. Altering this balance with drugs not only negatively affects the variety of bacterial species present but also promotes the retention of resistant bacteria in the gut.
Preservation of your personal microbiome is critical and affects not only your health but the health of your children as parents bequeath their microbiome to their offspring.
Blaser observes that:
Each generation … could be beginning life with a smaller endowment of ancient microbes than the last.
If Dr. Blaser is correct, it seems that people need to guard their microbiome from the assault of drugs and processed foods in the same manner that they protect their home and possessions with locks on the doors.
Does this research mean that it is futile to use probiotics and lacto-fermented foods to attempt to repair antibiotic damage? Absolutely not. Even if it is proven that a damaged gut cannot be returned to “normal”, the situation very well could be improved and at worst case, positively managed by a steady and regular infusion of friendly microbes.
Reference
Antibiotic Overuse: Stop the Killing of Beneficial Bacteria, Nature, August 2011
I don’t know if anyone is still reading this thread – my husband is quite ill. He’s never recovered from a head on car accident 2 years ago. He just developed a very large abscess under his arm that spread quickly. He is on IV vancomycin and an oral antibiotic as well. I am going to start feeding him natural saurkraut, and making my own pickles, and WAS going to give him raw milk but there won’t be any available until next week because of the cold.
Any other advice? His diet is crap, he is overweight and has diabetes. And gut problems, surprise, surprise.
You are all morons.
My daughter had IV antibiotics at 2 weeks old (we took her in for a fever and she was put on AB before cultures came back revealing a virus, so the AB were unneeded of course). She is now 1 year and has taken Dr. Ron’s Friendly Flora all along. She eats yogurt and fermented vegetables and will be breastfed until she self-weans. She seems healthier than her peers (only 2 mild colds in the last year), but has always had undereye circles that make me wonder about allergies. What else should I be doing? Would it be helpful to have her basically on the GAPS diet as she gets more established with solids?
I would recommend a food allergy test… This can be caused by food intolerance.
Scary stuff. I was on a constant stream of antibiotics form childhood through my 20’s! http://t.co/SNnCh3Ca
Judicious use of medical interventions such as antibiotics, vaccines and cancer screening tests such as colonoscopy save lives. It would be a pity to see the Real Foods movement become another extreme diet cult.
(commenting on colonoscopy discussed above)
I worked for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program in Australia. Bowel cancer (colon cancer) is a silent disease. It is largely asymptomatic in its early stages. People should not wait for symptoms before seeking help. Tragically too many people with bowel cancer do not know they have it until it’s too late. Bowel cancer screening saves lives. The screening test is simple and non-invasive. People in the target group (e.g. people over 50 years old) who return a ‘fecal occult blood test’ (FOBT or FOB) that is ‘positive’ should be followed up by a doctor. Usually a colonoscopy is recommended. National guidelines may vary between countries.
We are blessed by the advances in science and medicine today as never before. However let us not forget the wisdom of traditional foods. Balance is needed.
Kelleigh Grace
Devoted to Real Foods
The fecal transplant does not implant on the gut wall – it implants in the gut. And, yes it works well enough to eliminate c diff infections but don’t know whether totally normal function before all the meds is regained?
Maybe time to rethink the antibiotics yet again. Yikes! No wonder we’re sicker than ever! http://t.co/7HsvPNba
OK, but what about this? https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/07/ultimate-probiotic-treatment-beats-deadly-superbug/?
I’ve long thought that a fecal transplant is the “ultimate” treatment to restore good gut bacteria *because* it implanted it into the gut wall. Thoughts?
Now four years later, fecal transplant is gaining ground in acceptance and use. It was helped along earlier with reports of knocking out C. Difficile in 24 hrs when everything else failed. I tried once from a healthy five-yr old neighbor, tough subject to broach, his mom was a good sport, and I think we both resisted the temptation to engage in toilet humor.
I’d like to know how the beneficial bacteria find their way from the large intestine to small.