The microbiome is the collection of trillions of bacteria that live in our gut, on our skin, and on other surfaces. What’s interesting is that these bacteria are highly sensitive to changes in the environment. These bacteria have an effect on how we metabolize certain drugs, which can lead to drug resistance or toxicity. This article will discuss some ways microbiome changes can influence medication use!
What are the microbiome changes that can influence drug medication use?
If there are changes in your microbiome, it’s very likely that it will also influence how the medication affects you. A recent gut microbiome research says that it can decrease the stability of the drugs you are taking. Because of this, drug manufacturers and medical professionals will need to understand the microbiome in order for them to prescribe the right medication for their patients.
As your body changes, so do the effects of the medication. It is important to understand that microbiome changes can also change how your body responds to drug treatment.
How does this change in the microbiome affect your body’s ability to absorb drugs?
Absorbing drug is a complicated process that involves multiple aspects of the microbiome. In order to absorb drugs, your body needs sufficient quantities of enzymes that break down these molecules into smaller pieces so they can cross through your intestinal lining and get absorbed into blood vessels in the small intestine.
The microbiome is responsible for producing some of this necessary enzyme activity which allows drug absorption to take place properly. However, if there are changes in microbiome composition or diversity then it may lead to an inability to effectively absorb drugs resulting in poor treatment outcomes.
The microbiome refers to all different types of microorganisms living inside us including bacteria, fungi, etc. One example is E Coli which lives naturally within our digestive tract where it helps with digestion processes such as breaking down complex carbohydrates.
But microbiome can also cause problems if there is a shift in the microbiome’s composition and diversity leading to changes within your gut. If this happens, they may not be able to produce enough enzymes or healthy bacteria needed for drug absorption which will result in bad treatment outcomes such as poor medication compliance.
In some cases, it might even cause antibiotic resistance as well as gastrointestinal side effects that could lead to the discontinuation of certain drugs due to lack of efficacy or tolerability. It has been shown that microbiome modulators like antibiotics alter the microbiome by killing off good bacteria with potential negative consequences on human health but further research needs to take place before we know how exactly your microbiome affects drug metabolism and absorption process so new therapies can potentially help improve patient care and safety.
How do these changes occur?
These changes occur with microbiome dynamics. The composition changes based on exposure to different bacteria and foods. The same is true for microbiome diversity as exposure to new types of microorganisms will change your microbiome diversity which in turn may influence how it reacts to medication intake.
For example, antibiotics are known to make a person experience diarrhea but they also remove important health-promoting bacteria from our body that help suppress pathogens such as E Coli or Shigella infections. Taking probiotics after antibiotic treatment helps promote these good microbes again by adding them back into our systems.
As another interesting aspect is that there have been cases where people who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) became intolerant towards common dairy products due to microbiome changes.
However, these cases are rare and more research is needed to understand how microbiome changes influence our interactions with the environment.
The effects these changes have on your health and how it affects you as a patient
This, of course, affects your health in a number of ways. For example, microbiome changes have been linked to inflammatory bowel disease in the past, which is one of many diseases that can be attributed to microbiome changes.
Also, microbiome changes influence how effective certain medications are for you and your illness(es). As such it’s important to take steps towards microbiome health management even if you don’t suffer from any chronic illnesses. Good gut health habits will help keep your medication use effective and efficient!
Your doctor may refer you to a pharmacist or nutritionist who specializes in this area. However, there are also plenty of books and websites out there dedicated solely to this subject matter (such as The Microbiome Diet by Sofia Brawer). They offer advice about different microbiome changes and microbiome diseases.
Why should you be concerned about my gut bacteria levels?
You should always be concerned about your microbiome levels because it can affect how often and what type of medications you take. This is even more relevant as you begin to see microbiome changes due to our food, daily activities, and environments.
People who have a microbiome that has been changed by their diets or lifestyles will normally be prescribed medication if they are ill or unwell in order for them to feel better again. But the problem here arises when this microbiome change causes drug dependence on certain medications such as antibiotics which may not be effective anymore against an illness since bacteria become immune to these drugs at some point after continued use (or abuse).
However, there could also be cases where people need their microbiome altered using either probiotic (good microbes) or prebiotics (food/subsidence for microbiome). There have been numerous studies being conducted in order to find out more about microbiome changes and their relation to drug use.
Ways to increase good gut bacteria
There are some ways to increase gut bacteria. Here’s a list of things to do:
- Eat gut-friendly foods.
- There are some gut-friendly foods to eat, including:
- Take probiotics and prebiotic supplements. It’s important that you talk with your doctor before doing this though because there are certain medications that can be affected by gut bacteria.
- Get more sleep. It’s important for your gut health because there are some studies showing an association between lack of good gut bacteria and insomnia, anxiety, depression, or fatigue in addition to other issues like weight gain or obesity.
- Get tested for gut bacteria.
Microbiome changes are inevitable and you should monitor them. This way you’ll know how drugs will affect you and which ones can actually help you at certain points. It’s also important to know how these things occur so that you avoid them, as well as how to restore the good gut bacteria inside your gut. Stay healthy!
