Antibiotics: Preserve the miracle?

The placebo effect is well-known in modern medicine. Unfortunately, the most effective medicines we’ve ever discovered are more often used as placebos rather than cures. What are these medicines? Antibiotics.
They’ve added 20 years to the average human life expectancy, some would call this a “miracle”. In-fact “preserve the miracle” is the official slogan for Antibiotic Awareness Week. But it’s a word that carries some baggage, after all miracles don’t come with adverse consequences.
Antibiotics, like other medicines have side-effects. In the patient these can range from allergies and Stevens-Johnson syndrome (beta-lactams and doxycycline), through to anaphylaxis and long-QT syndrome (macrolides and fluoroquinolones). However, antibiotics have consequences that extend beyond the human host. Antibiotics are bacterial weapons of mass destruction, indiscriminately killing friend and foe alike.
The microbiota acts as an extension of its human host, mediating immunological modulation, metabolic functions and even production of serotonin. Loss of these organisms caused by antibiotic use creates another set of complications for the host including metabolic disorders (i.e. weight gain) and auto-immune diseases. The microbiota also provides other benefits to the host. By growing in the internal and external ecosystems we provide to these bacteria, they prevent potentially harmful microbes doing the same. By diminishing our microbiota with antibiotic use we leave o...

Source: Life in the Fast Lane - January 20, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Jarrad Hall Tags: Immunology Infectious Disease Microbiology antibiotics Faustian bargain placebo resistance Source Type: blogs