Jul 11 • Education
🤩 Fun Fact Friday 🤩
Antibiotics are one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. Yet, nearly 50% of antibiotics prescribed on an out-patient basis are unnecessary. To make matters more tricky, antibiotics and gut health are not the best of friends. In fact, there is a negative correlation between antibiotics and gut health.
Your gut is its own ecosystem. It’s home to 100 trillion microorganisms, including at least 400 different species of bacteria. These microbes in your gut play crucial roles in digestion, immunity, metabolism, and mood. Sixty to eighty percent of your immune system is located in your gut and ninety percent of your neurotransmitters — the chemical messengers that help regulate mood — are produced there.
Unfortunately, a course of antibiotics can disturb your gut’s equilibrium, which is why it’s so important to take probiotics after antibiotic use. Antibiotics work by blocking bacterial processes. They either kill the bacteria or stop them from multiplying. Unfortunately, antibiotics cannot tell the difference between the “bad” bacteria causing an infection and the “good” bacteria that belong in your gut. It’s the beginning of a bad relationship between antibiotics and gut health.
Antibiotics are like a blanket smothering both good and bacteria. They disrupt your gut’s delicate ecosystem, creating a state of imbalance. As the number of good bacteria in your gut decreases, you become susceptible to overgrowths of other organisms, including a yeast (or fungus) called Candida.
While a small amount of yeast is normal and necessary, Candida is opportunistic. If given the chance, it will grow and multiply quickly — especially when it’s fed sugar or alcohol. When yeast starts to multiply, it can damage the lining of your intestinal walls. This leads to increased intestinal permeability and what’s known as leaky gut.
When foreign substances enter your bloodstream via a leaky gut, your immune system flags them as invaders and begins to attack. Over time, this overwhelms your immune system, liver, and lymphatic system, causing inflammation. When your immune system remains on constant high alert dealing with invaders and chronic inflammation, it can become overwhelmed, leading to autoimmune disease.
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🤩 Fun Fact Friday 🤩
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