This article presents an interesting research finding about the side effects of antibiotics. New research findings that appeared in the Journal of Physiology indicate that antibiotics given to preterm and low birth-weight babies may result in poor adult gut health.
Antibiotics are a class of medications used to treat bacterial infections in humans and animals. They work by either killing bacteria (bactericidal) or inhibiting their growth and reproduction (bacteriostatic). These drugs are designed to specifically target and attack bacteria, which are microscopic organisms that can cause a wide range of infections and diseases.
A team of researchers from the University of Melbourne has shown that antibiotics administered to neonatal mice have long-lasting adverse gut health function in the adult phase, especially with respect to the speed of motility through the gut and diarrhea-like symptoms.
The research team administered an oral dose of Vancomycin to mice every day for the first 10 days of their life. When they reached the adult stage, their gut tissue was analyzed for its structure, function, microbiota, and nervous system. Their experiment revealed that female mice had long whole gut transit, and the male had lower faecal weight than the control group. They also found that they had more faecal water content which implies that they had diarrhea-like symptoms. Interestingly, the study revealed that these changes in gut health have male-female dimensions.
You may know that mice have many similarities to human beings. But they are born with more immature guts and their gut microbiota and nervous system are less complex than ours. So the research findings cannot be directly extendable to human babies. Further studies in this direction are necessary. The research team is planning to undertake more studies relating to the mechanism of the antibiotics-gut health connection and how antibiotics administrated during infancy affect metabolism and brain function.
Tips: The natural way to improve your gut health is by following a healthy lifestyle and a gut-health-focused nutritious balanced food.
