12 Mar , 22:55
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Scientists from Uppsala University have made an alarming discovery: a course of antibiotics can alter the composition of the gut microbiome for years. As it turned out, the consequences of treatment can persist for four to eight years after the end of therapy. The results of the large-scale study have been published in the journal Nature Medicine (NatMed).
Swedish researchers analyzed data from nearly 15,000 adult residents of the country, comparing their antibiotic use history with gut microbiome analysis results. The findings proved striking: even several years later, the composition of gut bacteria still bore the imprint of previously taken medications.
The deepest and most lasting traces in the microbiome were left by clindamycin, fluoroquinolone, and flucloxacillin. Moreover, in some cases, even a single course of certain antibiotics was sufficient to cause long-term shifts in the gut bacterial community.
At the same time, the widely used penicillin V demonstrated a far milder effect — the changes in microflora associated with it proved relatively minor and short-lived.
The authors of the study emphasize that antibiotics remain indispensable and often life-saving medications. However, the data obtained indicate that the recovery of the gut microbiome may take much longer than previously assumed. In the scientists' opinion, this factor must be taken into account both when prescribing antibiotics and in further studying their long-term impact on human health.
