Medications affect gut microbiome 10 years later

Everyday drugs could be having an impact on your health even decades after you stopped taking them.

Although everyone knows that antibiotics can interfere with the gut microbiome, new research has discovered that many other drugs have a similar effect.

As the microbiome influences so much of our health—one that is out of balance can lead to cancer, heart problems and even depression—these drugs could have long term consequences, possibly more serious than the original ailment being treated.

Researchers from the University of Tartu Institute of Genomics in Estonia have analysed the gut health of more than 2,500 people who had taken common drugs such as antidepressants, beta-blockers, and anxiety medications, and discovered the medications had caused ’measurable’ changes in the gut microbiome even years, and sometimes decades, later.

Benzodiazepines, often prescribed for anxiety, alter the microbiome in a way that is usually seen with broad-spectrum antibiotics, and drugs within the benzodiazepine family, such as diazepam and alprazolam, had different impacts on the gut microbial balance.

The researchers saw a direct cause-and-effect relationship between medications and the microbiome in a smaller group that had been prescribed drugs such as proton pump inhibitors to relieve indigestion, SSRI antidepressants, and several antibiotics, including penicillin in combination and anti-bacterial macrolides.

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