Antibiotics affecting allergies?
A new study suggests that antibiotics may explain the massive rise in allergies seen over the past 40 years. Antibiotics don’t just kill the “bad” bacteria of an infection, they also kill a great deal of the “good” bacteria that normally live in the human body. After an antibiotic treatment the human body is low on bacteria and yeast populations can then rise. Scientists think that excess yeast causes humans to develop allergies, because they produce a chemical that makes the immune system overly sensitive to some substances. Researchers mimicked this condition in mice by giving them doses of antibiotics and then doses of yeast. The mice were found to be much more sensitive to moulds and egg white protein.
-Zoe Cormier
Source: Nature
