Contrary to the opinion of the conventional medical establishment, there is no free lunch when it comes to antibiotics. Doctors, for the most part, are still handing out prescriptions like candy to their patients despite the continuing and growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
There is now a strain of tuberculosis (TB), the scourge of the last century, that is completely resistant to all antibiotics. Doctors have nicknamed this TB strain “TDR” for Totally Drug-Resistant. As of January 2012, a dozen patients in India were infected with this TB superbug.
The problem with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections continues to expand with babies and children representing a large chunk of the cases. I’ve been contacted by more than one young mother recently who was beyond desperate to resolve an MRSA infection in her child – an infection which was resisting all conventional treatments like antibiotics.
Beyond the problem of antibiotic resistance, however, are the long term effects of even a single round of antibiotics. The expectation in the health community that you can just fix the damage with probiotics and/or fermented foods and that gut flora magically returns to normal seems to be far from accurate.
Evidence is now emerging from multiple sources that gut flora may actually be permanently altered by drugs or, at the very least, the damage persists for several years.
Gut Damage from Antibiotics Persists for Long Periods of Time
The Journal Microbiology reports that the generally acknowledged precept that use of antibiotics only causes disruption of the gut flora for a few weeks is highly flawed.
Gut flora does not quickly return to normal after a round of antibiotics.
Even a short course of antibiotics can lead to resistant bacterial populations taking up residence in the gut that persists for up to 4 years – maybe even longer.
As a result, researchers are urging prudence and restraint in the use of antibiotics in order to prevent treatment failure for patients that have resistant bacterial populations still residing in their intestines from previous courses of antibiotics.
What this means is that taking antibiotics today for an illness that is not life-threatening may, in fact, lead to a growth of superbugs in your gut that could actually threaten your life down the road and prevent antibiotics from working for you when you desperately need it.
Could Damage to Gut Flora Be Permanent?
Dr. Martin Blaser MD of New York University’s Langone Medical Center who writes in the August 2011 edition of Nature, has this to say about damage to gut flora from antibiotics:
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 without much thought at most pediatrician offices.
Shockingly, the majority of 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 also negatively affects the composition of gut flora of these children. 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. This may be the case even when attempts to repair the gut after a course is completed are followed.
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 for long term health. Altering this balance with antibiotics not only negatively affects the variety of bacterial species present but also promotes the retention of resistant bacteria in the gut for up to 4 years and perhaps far longer.
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 and the other researchers are correct, it seems that people need to guard their microbiome against the assault of antibiotics in the same manner that they protect their home and possessions with locks on the doors.
Bottom line?
If your illness is not life-threatening, skip the antibiotics even for something like strep which even WebMD admits will almost always resolve without drugs or complications. The risk to your future health is just too great otherwise.
Sources and More Information
Long-Term Impacts of Antibiotic Exposure on the Human Intestinal Microbiota
Short-term antibiotic treatment has differing long-term impacts on the human throat and gut microbiome
Stop the Killing of Beneficial Bacteria
Are Antibiotics Always Necessary for Strep Throat?
The 11 Best Natural Antibiotics and How to Use Them
How to Kick Strep Throat Faster and Better Without Antibiotics
Lauren Snyder Grosz by the way, you can be thankful that your daughter responded to amoxicillin which is a mild antibiotic. If she had had many rounds of antibiotics in the past, it is likely that it would not have worked and she would have needed stronger meds and multiple courses of antibiotics. So good for you for making sure she hardly ever had antibiotics prior to her pneumonia.
How would you recommend someone deal with preventing problems from the drugs needed for surgery and detoxing afterward?
Yes!!
Lauren Snyder Grosz I would consider pneumonia to be life threatening and so antibiotics would be appropriate. However, pneumonia is easily prevented with a daily dose of fermented cod liver oil so for pneumonia I would consider prevention to be the best policy.
Prior to WWII, when the pentagon made penicillin widely available, vitamin A from cod liver oil was considered to be an effective anti-infective. (Just learned this from Chris Masterjohn’s excellent research).
My cousin’s son had pneumonia and was given antibiotics. Two years later, this formerly handsome boy now has disfiguring cystic acne. My daughter, who was a healthy athlete in high school, was prescribed augmentin for an ear infection, and has been struggling to recover from a crippling rheumatoid arthritis. Not sure the antibiotic caused the RA, but it might be a contributor.
What are Terra essential oils?
My daughter is 11 and has only had one prior round of antibiotics. This Christmas she was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia and was on Amoxicillin for 10 days. I’ve been really focused on getting her to eat lots of fermented veggies. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to deal with this type of illness sans antibiotics. Thank you in advance.
There are two things we’ve found really helpful for our kids coughs/colds, and one of those has been used to treat pneumonia successfully! The Biocueuticals Immune Factors (elderberry & zinc) is great for shortening the length & severity of coughs and colds. The Dr Chris’ Lung & Bronchial Formula is the BEST one for lung support we’ve come across. It’s helped resolve pneumonia and other respiratory issues, and has strengthened our microprems lungs (damaged from his early birth and all the time on ventilation). And sometimes, we just have to use the antibiotics. My son especially has had quite a few courses in his life so far. Not ideal, but they are livesaving at times! 🙂
Efje Schmidt Sometimes you really do need the meds. If you tried everything else alternative then you’ve done your best.
How would you get the infection out of a tooth abscess? (for my sis) We tried everything I know and still had to use antibiotics 🙁
Efje – My son has a cap on one of his teeth that gives him fits, abscess every other month or so. We use two drops of Oil of Oregano in a small cup of water – swish until he can’t any longer and then swallow. When he starts to get a fever from it I add some colloidal silver to the mix and do this a few times each day. He also scrubs over it with his toothbrush and homemade toothpaste with coconut oil it and when it gets large he trys to push the pus out – ick!! We are trying to keep the tooth in there until it is ready to fall out. We’ve also started eating ghee and grass-fed butter along with Fermented Cod Liver Oil it help heal from the inside. Hope this helps!
Efje: Olive Leaf works very well for chronic infections. You can use capsules or liquid, depending on the infection. Sometimes both can be used at the same time. You can mix the liquid olive leaf (available online from iherb.com or Vitacost – cheap) in warm water and gargle/swish it in the mouth, you can put some (straight) onto your finger and rub it onto the tooth area, too. Olive leaf capsules can help to heal the gut, too, by opening the capsule and sprinkling it onto your food – works ok with salads, I haven’t tried anything else. I used the liquid for an infected toenail several years ago and it worked beautifully. It works fairly quickly, too.
I use high doses of Blue ice fermented cod liver oil, and a tea of a Chinese herb called She Gan with my patients with good results. Take a handful She Gan root (6-8 slices) rinse and boil on medium boil in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes. Drink warm and swish the tea around in the mouth. Obviously absolutely no sugar including fruit and honey.
I had a dr just give us some to “kill everything in her system” before she even had an infection (?). No thank you.
oh my is that Dr LOST!
Using antibiotics in a prophylactic fashion is not a great idea. This doctor is ignoring the current trends, evidently.
I took antibiotics for FOUR years to treat Lyme Disease. I regret it now, as I believe they robbed me of my fertility. Prior to taking abx, I was able to conceive my two children quite easily. After abx, I have been unable to get pregnant.
we are currently battling lyme with antibiotics (in my husband). Looking for alternatives. For now they are keeping symptoms at bay but the idea of doing this long term makes me incredibly uneasy to say the least because I get the gut issue. We are finding amazing healers who are doing incredible things with Lyme (and other chronic diseases) that involve much less antibiotic but most do use some.
I don’t have lyme and am not an expert, but I’ve heard Stephen Harrod Buhner has a lyme healing protocol that is herbal and apparently works well. You’ve probably looked/heard of everything, but maybe that could be useful. 🙂
The Yahoo group Lymestrategies may have some ideas for non-drug treatments of Lyme. I haven’t been there for a few years, but it was a very active group that discussed Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections and related illnesses, with an emphasis on alternative therapies.
Our naturopathic physician is treating my son with A-BAB, by Byron White formulas, to treat Lyme. It can be a long process, but no antibiotics!
I am an acupuncturist who 10 years ago got a tick bite with the classic red ring, and did a few weeks of Chinese antibiotic herbs along with 2 rounds of a parasite cleanse kit by Renee Ponder Herbs, the best parasite kit I’ve found. My husband also got 3 ticks deeply embeded all with the red rings 3 years ago. He did the same thing, and both of us got no signs of Lymes disease. Nature has remedies for our ailments. We need to trust the natural approaches. It is good to get an acupuncturist you trust and let her/him help guide you through this.