Are antibiotics making you fat?

More and more research is coming out these days about the effects of antibiotics on our overall well being. While it is important to remember that antibiotics are needed for many infections, most Americans run to quickly to the doctor for a prescription to fix every sniffle that comes their way. All of this mass murder in your system is wreaking havoc on your long term health and on your waist line.

Ranchers and chicken farmers have known for decades that if they give their livestock low doses of antibiotics, not only do they not have to worry about wide spread disease ravishing their close-quartered animals, but the animals will also fatten up quicker and be ready for the feed lot sooner which means faster turnover for producers and more money in their pockets for heavier animals. The same thing is happening to humans with overuse of antibiotics, except for the fact that we aren't selling each other to feed lots, instead we are paying more in health care costs and for bigger clothing articles.

When you take an antibiotic, it not only kills the bacterial infection, but also all the beneficial bacteria in your GI tract. These bacteria make it possible for you digest food; absorb nutrients like calcium, B vitamins and essential fatty acids; and to produce other essential nutrients like Vitamin K which clots your blood to keep you from bleeding out when you acquire a huge bruise after running into the corner of a table piss-ass drunk; not to mention with out all those good gut bacteria you also have a hard time with bowel movements.

So how is this making you fat you ask? Well that is what researchers are working on but the thought is that it has something to do with the absorption of nutrients through your gut wall. Certain bacteria and fructans (onions, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, Rye, barley, asparagus, chocolate, agave, leeks, yicama) can help to increase satiety quicker during meals, reduce the expression of genes which respond to short-chain fatty acids in adipose (fat) tissue, and make the mucosal barrier lining your intestines stronger against stuff (read calories/fat etc) crossing it, thus there is less development of fat mass so that people are better able to maintain weight.

If you wipe out the good bacteria in your gut, you run the risk of recolonizing your intestines with bacteria that are not as beneficial. Further studies are looking to be done to see which bacteria and in what proportions they are needed to help people maintain/lose weight and have more productive inner workings. So next time before you get an Rx to wipe out all living things in your body, think about just how sick you are, it might not be worth taking antibiotics for every illness.