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Antibiotics increase susceptibility to disease
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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The human body is home to millions of microorganisms, both beneficial and not so beneficial.
Most bacteria are found in the intestines and are responsible for the functioning of the immune system.
Human heredity includes not only the DNA of the cell, but also of microorganisms, and, according to scientists, it is the DNA of microbes that is most susceptible to influence – it can be destroyed, depleted, supported, strengthened. Scientists have already proven that intestinal bacteria can control some functions of the body, including preventing the penetration of toxins into the blood, thereby protecting the brain from dangerous chemical changes and mental disorders.
Scientists have long established that human health depends on the state of the intestines, but modern methods of treatment can significantly disrupt the balance of microflora and trigger the growth of pathogenic flora, in particular, in recent years, doctors have been prescribing antibiotics for any disease, especially in childhood, often such drugs are prescribed inappropriately.
In childhood, when the immune system is just forming, taking antibiotics can cause the destruction of not only pathogenic microorganisms, but also beneficial bacteria. Such treatment, if necessary, will eventually destroy the microbes, but the beneficial bacteria will also suffer, and as a result the immune system will not be able to resist new viruses and infections.
According to scientists, not only antibiotics can destroy pathogenic microbes, the patient's body itself takes an active part in this, or rather his immune system, which not only fights pathogens, but also does not destroy beneficial microflora. Antibiotics should be taken only in extreme cases, when the disease is advanced, the body is exhausted and is not able to fight the disease on its own.
At one of the Canadian universities (Vancouver), a team of specialists once again confirmed the fact that taking antibiotics at an early age contributes to the emergence of specific diseases in adulthood. Scientists also noted that antibacterial drugs destroy all microflora in the intestines, both pathogenic and beneficial.
Kelly McNany, a senior specialist in the university's medical genetics department, said the new study will help identify bacteria that are vital for normal immune function. Two antibacterial drugs were tested during the study.
Scientists studied streptomycin and vancomycin, and in both cases the antibiotics showed different effects because the microflora in the intestines was changed in different ways.
When mice were treated with streptomycin, adult rodents were more susceptible to allergic alveolitis, while no such phenomena were observed in the vancomycin group.
According to scientists, this difference is caused, first of all, by the different effects of antibiotics on the intestinal microflora; most likely, streptomycin destroys, along with pathogens, most of the beneficial bacteria responsible for protecting the body from allergic alveolitis.
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