What you eat could protect your gut bacteria from being destroyed by antibiotics, a new study suggests. Research has shown that taking antibiotics - especially too many - can change the amounts and types of bacteria within the intestines.
But, in a study conducted on mice, researchers found that a healthy diet helped beneficial bacteria thrive and mitigated changes made by antibiotics. The team, from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, says the findings could lead to doctors potentially prescribing a diet - along with antibiotics - to patients so that they receive maximum benefits from treatment.
Out of all the antibiotics tested, amoxicillin - used to treat infections of the ear, nose, and throat - killed several kinds of gut bacteria and even changed the genes of the leftover bacteria. In humans, this can lead to infections from C diff, a bacterium that causes life-threatening colon inflammation after taking antibiotics that kill off both beneficial and harmful bacteria.
But, one type of beneficial bacteria, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, actually multiplied after treatment with amoxicillin. And, when researchers added glucose - a simple sugar and the primary source of fuel for humans - to the diet of mice, it increased the sensitivity of this bacteria to amoxicillin.
The team says this means that making changes to diet may be able to protect beneficial gut bacteria from being killed by antibiotics. For future research, the team plans to examine how fiber might impact gut bacteria after antibiotic treatment, and how diabetes might affect the susceptibility of gut bacteria to antibiotics.
