Antibiotics = Childhood Asthma?

From the "Village of Long Life"

In October of last year I wrote "Antibiotics - A Scourge on Humanity".  A paper in Nature was recently published that confirms some of my comments (see Blaser M., J. Stop the killing of beneficial bacteria. Nature 476, 393–394 (25 August 2011).

Surprisingly science today does not seem to fully recognize that a compound that kills bacteria does not distinguish between "good" bacteria and "bad" bacteria.  An article in Wired (here) claims the current scientific "wisdom" in this matter says that "good" bacteria will repopulate.

But the bad bacteria, e.g., strep, don't repopulate.

Why would the rest?

"Good" bacteria are necessary for life - without them you simply could not live.  Period.

So let's consider H. pylori.  H. pylori is known to cause gastric ulcers.

So it must be a bad bacteria, right?

Studies now indicate that antibiotics, which kill H. pylori, have been largely successful in recent decades.  But consider this: Science has uncovered an inverse relationship between H. pylori and childhood disease like asthma.  If a child is not exposed to H. pylori during his or her very early life their chance of having asthma is increased.

This is trend apparent not just in the United States but the entire developing world.

This goes along with something called the "hygiene hypothesis" that states (from Wikipedia) "a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious agents, symbiotic microorganisms (e.g., gut flora or probiotics), and parasites increases susceptibility to allergic diseases by suppressing natural development of the immune system."

There are a number of factors that have changed during the last several decades related to how humans acquire "good" bacteria.

For one, antibiotics are prescribed almost like candy - an average child receiving some twenty or more doses before adulthood.  For another, the dramatic rise in C-sections reduce a child's first exposure to "good" bacteria by eliminating the trip through the birth canal.

Antibiotics and other antibiotic compounds are present in virtually all commercial animal food (see "Animal Drugs").  These pass from the animal to humans.

And finally there is the ubiquitous "hand sanitizer" that indiscriminately kills all bacteria (see "Death by Hand Sanitizer")


Science is now speculating that a number of other problems besides childhood asthma may be caused by kill off "good" bacteria: type 2 diabetes (though I doubt this), obesity, depression.

What's interesting is that we spend billions and trillions of dollars on other things but virtually nothing on trying to understand what makes us healthy in the first place.

Western civilization is doing poorly at keeping people healthy and most forget that staying healthy in the first place is far more important that having the most advanced medical technology to take care of you once you are not.

Western science is also doing a poor job of understanding what helps people to live healthy lives - is it diet, lack of stress, or some other factor (see this as an example).

In any case I'd think twice before taking a does of antibiotics.

(Which at this point I won't even give to my dog...)