Why you should never take antibiotics for the flu

The CDC estimates that 1 in 3 antibiotics prescribed in the U.S. are not needed—that adds up to 47 million completely unnecessary prescriptions per year.

About half of this inappropriate prescribing is for viral infections—like the flu.

And as Dr. Marc Micozzi points out in his Breathe Better Lung Health Protocol, this is a serious problem. He explains, “Antibiotics don’t fight viruses! They fight bacteria, and they should be reserved only for serious bacterial infections.”

And new evidence reveals that antibiotics are not only ineffective at fighting viruses—they could also have major impacts on your health…

Antibiotics disrupt your immune response

It’s no secret that antibiotic overuse promotes antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that overcome all attempts at treatment. But that’s not the only way antibiotics suppress your ability to fight off viral infections…

As Dr. Micozzi points out, antibiotics also harm your microbiome—the colonies of healthy bacteria living in your GI tract. This not only causes digestion problems and but it also disrupts your immune system.

In fact—in a 2019 mouse study—researchers at England’s Francis Crick Institute found that gut bacteria sends a signal to the lungs to prepare them for a viral attack. But when gut bacteria is disrupted by antibiotics, the signal to the lungs is interrupted, leaving the lungs vulnerable.

The study results showed that the mice treated with antibiotics had five times more virus in the lungs than mice who weren’t treated with an antibiotic drug.

And Dr. Micozzi cites a separate study that was published in Nature Microbiology about yet another danger of taking antibiotics. For this lab study, researchers transplanted either normal gut bacteria, or bacteria that had been exposed to antibiotics, into healthy pregnant mice.

The mice that received the bacteria and had been exposed to antibiotics experienced changes to their microbiome. Even worse, the newborn mice also exhibited those same harmful changes in their GI microbiome.

While we already knew that antibiotics harm the microbiome, now we know those changes are even passed down to the next generation.

Shift your focus to proactive prevention

The bottom line? Dr. Micozzi says, “Avoid taking antibiotics whenever you can—and never take them for the flu.”

Instead, he says, focus on flu prevention through personal hygiene, exercising regularly, getting adequate sleep, and eating a balanced diet of fresh, whole foods.

Dr. Micozzi also recommends using humidifiers in your home during cold-weather months. Research shows that the number of viruses in the air drop as the humidity increases.

You can find many other insider techniques like this to help you reduce your risk of a viral infection in Dr. Micozzi’s Breathe Better Lung Health Protocol. Click here to enroll right now or to find out more about this essential online learning tool.

SOURCES

“Modeling the airborne survival of influenza virus in a residential setting: the impacts of home humidification” Environmental Health 2010; 9, 55. doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-9-55