Eating more sugary food while taking antibiotics can sharply reduce the diversity of microbes in the gut and raise the risk of dangerous infections, according to a new study published in the journal Nature. Ajker Patrika reported the findings, citing CNN.
Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and NYU Langone Health in New York and City of Hope in Los Angeles analysed more than 1,000 stool samples from 173 cancer patients who were in hospital on long courses of antibiotics before stem cell transplants. The patients ate more than 9,400 hospital-prepared meals, so the researchers knew exactly what and how much each had eaten.
Co-author Jonathan Peled said the finding that came up again and again was that the more sugar people ate, the more harm the antibiotics did, with added sugar the worst. Each extra 3.5 ounces, or about 99 grams, of sweets or sugary food during antibiotic treatment was associated with about 24 per cent lower microbiome diversity in stool samples. The change was linked to rapid growth of the bacterium Enterococcus faecium, which can sometimes cross the gut wall into the bloodstream and cause sepsis or other serious infections.
In mice given an antibiotic along with sugary food, Enterococcus rose 16-fold by day three and 33-fold by day six. Patients who ate more sugar than average had about a 12 per cent higher risk of death after transplant than those who ate less, a small but significant increase, the researchers said.
The study does not prove cause and effect. Peled said avoiding too much sugar is wise anyway, so cutting back during antibiotic treatment is not unreasonable, but the results do not show that sweets must be cut out entirely for the whole course. Anthony Maresso, who was not involved, asked whether hospital diets should change and whether the findings apply to people taking antibiotics outside hospital.
This report is based on reporting by Ajker Patrika's desk, citing CNN and the journal Nature.
Photo: Janice Haney Carr, CDC / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Ajker Patrika
Comments
(0)