Gut health is certainly a common topic these days. Research continues to increase demonstrating the importance of a healthy gut and a plethora of beneficial bacteria. Most yogurt containers now boast about having probiotics in them, alongside healthy drinks such as kombucha and kefir.

Gut Bacteria and Health

The human gut is filled with bacteria. Bacteria is usually used to denote something bad, but your body is filled with beneficial bacteria responsible for keeping your body in good working order, using and breaking down your food, and keeping illness at ay. Without a healthy balance of bacteria, your body cannot keep illness away, cannot properly digest food, and cannot move toward healthy, full functionality.

Gut bacteria can be destroyed by a number of things, but increasingly, the most common source of destruction is antibiotics. Doctors have scaled back quite a bit on prescribing antibiotics, but their frequent use in people of all ages and background have potentially given rise to the onset of autoimmune disorders such as Type 1 diabetes.

Bacteria and Type 1

How are Type 1 and gut bacteria related? Researchers found that mice with depleted gut bacteria were particularly prone to developing Type 1 diabetes. The body’s mechanisms put in place to manage illness and inflammation did not work properly, leading to the inflammation of the pancreas in response to illness. Inflammation of the pancreas can lead to the onset of Type 1, making antibiotics a risk for developing diabetes.

The results of the studies suggest that antibiotic use is particularly problematic in the womb and during infancy, with the likelihood of negative impacts decreasing with age. Type 1 was not the only illness to have developed, as autoimmunity as a whole increased with antibiotic use.

Cause for Concern

This finding, though centering primarily on mice and in need of further evaluation, suggests that the administration of antibiotics in children should be closely monitored. If antibiotic use is essential, children may need to be monitored and checked more closely than children who do not have antibiotics in the womb or during infancy, as Type 1 can get out of hand quickly once it has developed.

Antibiotic use has grown ubiquitous in hospitals, being offered up as a standard “just in case” model of medicine that may have repercussions down the road. While the research team was quick to urge readers not to worry just yet due to the lack of human testing, it may be wise to forego antibiotics unless you know for certain that they are needed.