The use of antibiotics can be traced to many years back and indeed, it has saved thousands of lives. However, it has many side effects too like killing of the friendly microbes in the gut and anaphylactic attacks. A new study gives the consequences and bad health effects of long-term antibiotic use that shows far-more reaching than previously thought.
According to the study, long-term use of antibiotics can destroy the cells in the lining of the gut. The study was published in the journal Gut, as was supported by Oregon State University, the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon, and the National Institutes of Health in order to offer avenues to investigate the consequences of antibiotics use.
Andrey Morgun, assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy in Oregon State University, Corville, and colleagues, wish to investigate the long-term effects of using antibiotics especially that most individuals used an antibiotic at least once in their life. Use of antibiotics is widespread which is around 40% of adults and 70% of children take at least one antibiotic in a year.
Morgun said in a statement, "Just in the past decade a whole new universe has opened up about the far-reaching effects of antibiotic use, and now we're exploring it. The study of microbiota is just exploding. Nothing we find would surprise me at this point."
When antibiotics are administered and used properly, it can save thousands or not, millions of lives but at least 1 in 10 people are being treated for adverse effects of antibiotics, reported Medical News Today.
According to the study, long-term antibiotic use can kill intestinal epithelial cells. To reach their findings, the team used laboratory mice to look at the effects of four different antibiotics given to lab animals.
The new study confirms that the antibiotics can kill gut bacteria and hinder some immune functions in the gut. Furthermore and previously unknown, antibiotics also destroy cells in the intestinal epithelium.
Aside from that, antibiotics can also alter mitochondria and host-microbe signaling. It has a significant effect on the gene responsible for the communication between host and gut bacteria. Morgun says, "When the host microbe communication system gets out of balance it can lead to a chain of seemingly unrelated problems."
The intestinal epithelium is a velvet-like layer of special-acting cells that lines the intestine and helps absorb water, glucose, and essential nutrients into the bloodstream. It is also responsible for being a barrier between the rest of the body and the large colonies of bacteria that live in the gut.
The study also reiterates that fighting infections cannot only be dependent on antibiotics, instead, boosting and bolstering the immune system to fight infections naturally may be a better option.