Watch What you Eat

Researchers from the University of Nottingham made an interesting discovery this year - apparently, there are steps you can take to avoid introducing bacteria with resistance genes into your gut. Why does this even matter? Antibiotic resistance genes are a fairly large problem as it takes stronger antibiotics to deal with them than common antibiotics.

What is the difference? For some it's the difference between putting a Band-Aid on their finger and moving on with their lives and having to go to the hospital and choose between being alive or losing a limb because the infection is still topical and not responding to typical antibiotics. How are these antibiotic resistant bacteria created? When someone has been taking antibiotics and does not finish the dose or is taking the antibiotics incorrectly. Anything that survives has the chance to mutate to be resistant to the antibiotics it was exposed to. It can also mutate with other bacteria in the environment that it's in.

So, how was the study conducted? The team took 14 different classes of antibiotics and used statistical modeling to stimulate intake of resistance genes on 1,000 people based on three different levels of antibiotic use. The researchers found that the number of resistance genes in a person's gut depended on their level of antibiotic use and found that the number of acquired genes can be reduced by changes in food consumption/diet. Perhaps, patients should be given dietary guidelines in addition to antibiotics when dealing with a bacterial infection. Particularly since, it was found that people are most susceptible to creating longer term problems due to drug resistant bacteria specifically from food.

If you eat something that has bacteria on it (which would be most things), that generally does not cause any harm. However, when you consume something that has a bacterium with drug resistant genes and you happen to be taking antibiotics you can create a whole new bacterium that has resistance to what you're taking that has now established itself in the gut. Foods eaten raw, like salad or sushi, and foods that require a specific cook temperature like steak, it may be good to avoid them while you're taking antibiotics. Just some food for thought.

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