UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL: Study: Antibiotics trigger bowel disease but fiber minimizes effects

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Oct. 25 (UPI) -- For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that antibiotics prevent avoidable infections by triggering bowel disease in mice.

But they found substances derived from fiber can prevent this damage to the gut, meaning a high-fiber diet could be beneficial during and after a regimen of antibiotics. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

 

"Epidemiological evidence already links antibiotics given to babies and young children, when the immune system is still developing, to inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, psoriasis and other inflammatory diseases later in life," Dr. Elizabeth Mann, who works at the Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation at the University of Manchester in Britain, said in a press release. "However, until now it has been hard to determine cause and effect, especially with the time lag between taking the antibiotics and the development of disease later in life."'