Concerning new research out of Princeton University should give every one of us even more reason to learn how to use natural antibiotics, making every attempt to avoid pharmaceutical meds unless it is a life-threatening emergency.
Microbiologist Kiran Krishnan describes this disconcerting information in the Healing Quest podcast below.
In essence, when one person in a household is on antibiotics, the gut disruption that this person experiences is shared by everyone else in the home.
Researchers discovered this disturbing information by testing the gut microbiomes of hundreds of people before and after they went on a round of antibiotics.
In addition, their gut microbiomes were measured every month for the next six months. The researchers also tested the microbiomes of those who lived in the same home with them.
Not surprisingly, gut disruption occurred immediately in the individuals taking the meds. The damage persisted for at least six months with each subsequent test. This was when the testing ended.
Most alarmingly, the people living in the same household as those taking the antibiotics also experienced similar gut disruption even though they were not taking any meds!
Worse, their gut disruption lasted just as long…at least six months.
The study’s startling findings build upon previously published research with similar conclusions. (1)
How We Share Gut Disruption with Others
How does this happen?
This occurs because each of us is living in what Dr. Krishnan describes as a “microbiome cloud”.
This means we share the microbiome that supports our health and very existence with everything around us. This is particularly true for those with whom we share a living space.
The microbiome of individuals…even pets…is shared in common living spaces via air ducts, surfaces and the basic process of breathing!
To vividly illustrate this, Dr. Krishnan uses the gross example of vaporized microbes from our gut and urinary tract that are released into the air every time we flush the toilet.
Umm, you really can’t unhear that can you? ?
While it won’t solve the problem entirely, if your home has enough bathrooms, it might be a good idea to have a family member taking meds use a separate bathroom from others in the home not on meds.
Even Pets Have an Effect
This information got me to thinking about last summer when one of our pets was injured and developed a life-threatening infection that required antibiotics.
The disruption of our pet’s microbiome would have disrupted all of us in the home too.
Could this be the Reason Some Heal and Others Don’t?
This study also got me thinking about how some people desperately try to heal their guts but don’t seem to have as much success as others. This despite doing the exact same things with their diet and lifestyle.
Why?
Could it be that a single holdout in their home refuses to improve his/her diet and prefers to just run to the doctor and take meds for every sniffle?
Could this person inadvertently be harming everyone in the home even those suffering from autoimmunity issues who are actively attempting to heal from gut dysfunction?
It also caused me to pick up the phone and call my son at college to remind him to be taking his soil-based probiotic every single day as there are no doubt any number of people in his living environment that are taking meds at any given time!
What are your thoughts on this startling new research? It certainly gives us all the motivation not only to help ourselves but also to encourage and support everyone in our home to eat and live better too. It seems that the family that heals together also thrives together.
Other Meds Likely Do the Same Thing!
A logical leap to consider from this research is the fact that literally dozens of medications, many of them over the counter, disrupt the gut microbiome.
Antibiotics is just the tip of the iceberg.
One of the most prominent gut disruptors is the birth control pill, which approximately 7 in 10 women of child-bearing age take.
Other common drugs that cause gut dysfunction include: (1, 2)
- Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). This includes drugs like Prilosec (omeprazole) for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Over the counter antacids for reducing the production of your stomach acid are also PPIs.
- NSAIDs. Use of Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs is at epidemic levels in our pain-ridden society. Drugs like ibuprofen, Aleve (Naproxen) and plain aspirin are three of the most commonly used.
- Depression/Anti-Anxiety drugs. Lithium, valproate, and the antidepressants fluoxetine (Prozac) and escitalopram all have been found to disrupt the quantity and composition of gut microbiota.
- Corticosteroid drugs. Long-term use of steroids drugs such as prednisone and hydrocortisone have been shown to negatively affect your gut health.
How to Protect Yourself
Science is telling us that avoiding medications through a healthful diet and lifestyle is not just a personal matter. It is a community issue as well.
If you’ve been lacking the motivation to make the changes you need, let this study serve as a wake-up call that your dietary and lifestyle choices could be inadvertently harming the very ones you love the most.
And, if you live with someone who insists on eating processed foods with a dependence on meds to function, Dr. Krishnan recommends that everyone in the home take a spore-based probiotic to minimize the negative effects. He recommends Just Thrive, but there are several brands of therapeutic probiotics that will also work effectively.
Other common sense ways to reduce the risks from negative microbiome sharing include:
- Have a person on antibiotics or other gut disrupting meds use a separate bathroom from others in the home.
- Close the toilet lid before flushing.
- Place a HEPA air filter right outside the door of the bathroom used by the person on antibiotics to remove microbes from the air before they float around to the rest of the house. I suggest this brand.
Listen in. Dr. Krishnan’s fascinating description of the Princeton study starting at 6:22.
Do you have any more info on how this is also true when someone takes probiotics? Whenever I start taking a new strain/strains of probiotics our entire household goes through a detox, even though I’m the only one ingesting the new bacteria.
Do you have suggestions for those who can’t tolerate most probiotics? I try to drink a little kombucha, and take a tablespoon of almond yogurt daily, but all probiotic pills I’ve tried are super constpating, and most food probiotics
give me migraines. I believe in the concept but my body disagrees with me:(
Probiotics whether in food or supplements are incredibly detoxifying for sure and this can trigger very uncomfortable symptoms. I am investigating a brand that is supposedly good for people in your situation. I am not ready to recommend it just yet … but stay tuned.
In the meantime, I would suggest homemade kefir as the BEST source of probiotics (if you can’t tolerate dairy, then make it with coconut milk). Do very small amounts that your body tolerates with no detox symptoms and gradually work your way up to a cup or so per day would be what I would do if I was in your situation. Hope that helps!
After years of disbelief and ridicule from doctors and people, in general, I feel vindicated in regards to my being floxxed when my husband and daughter took Cipro.
You were right! I’ve wondered the same thing for a very long time … so glad to have some science behind this logical hunch.
Studies also show that taking too many probiotics shall cause SIBO. A good remedy is aople cider vinega. It increases the acid level and pushes the growth out of the small intestine. Probiotics should be taken only at the right time, and reduce or minimise the intake when the symptoms reduce.
Color me skeptical.
You don’t have a link to the Princeston study, and about half of the studies CANNOT be reproduced. Also remember the studies showing RoundUp and various other things “safe”?
You properly don’t believe them, so why think any study is accurate even if they agree? The Gut microbinome is expected (did they try taking probiotics?). The household? What is the mechanism, and the “microbinome cloud” should have restored the person taking the meds, not the reverse. I’d be curious if anyone is looking into a cause.
Beyond that I totally agree that antibiotics are overprescribed, natural remedies, or just suffering through minor maladies is better (even and especially vaccines). And other things like the Birth Control Pill, which is estrogen – not unlike the new fake meat GMO soy patties.
Yes, good point! However, you can’t compare to the “Roundup is safe” studies because those studies involved a patented product and were conducted by the actual company (Monsanto) producing it!
Microbiome studies are more objective and independent from what I’ve seen so far. I tried to find the Princeton study online, but couldn’t as of this writing. That said, perhaps Dr. Krishnan learned about it at a medical conference and it hasn’t been published online yet. Sometimes it takes years to get into a journal. I’d prefer to know about it sooner rather than later 🙂 Either way, the study involved HUNDREDS of people and the findings build upon on other similar studies such as this one https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-37298-9
It seems quite valid to me and I felt it was important to write about as most of my readers like to stay ahead of the curve like I do…not waiting for “the” study to tell us what is already known from preliminary studies.