Antibiotics play an important role in medicine. Without a doubt, they can be absolutely life-saving. However, our own CDC tells us that about 30% of antibiotics used in America are used inappropriately or unnecessarily. That said, we are all generally familiar with the consequences of antibiotic abuse, including the creation of antibiotic-resistant organisms, as well as changes that can happen to the gut microbiota.
But there's a new discovery with reference antibiotics that is turning out to be very important. We as physicians have always been trained to believe that antibiotics, while affecting bacteria, have no effect on the cells of the human body. We are now learning that this may not be the case. As you will see in the video, new research is demonstrating that antibiotics may have a dramatic effect in terms of damaging mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles that live within our cells. When we recognize that problems with mitochondrial function underlie many of our degenerative conditions, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, the idea that commonly-used antibiotics might threaten mitochondrial function becomes quite important.
