Alexander Fleming\u2019s discovery of penicillin 98 years ago paved the way for what was described as an\u00a0\u201cantibiotic revolution\u201d.<\/p>\n
Many previously untreatable bacterial infections finally met their match \u2013 at least until some germs started developing resistance in recent years.<\/p>\n
But taking antibiotics\u00a0has often meant side effects such as nausea and diarrhoea, as well as damage to\u00a0beneficial gut bacteria.<\/p>\n
To limit the fallout, medical researchers are now advising patients to avoid\u00a0sweets for the prescribed duration, after a five-year study showed sugar\u00a0could \u201cexacerbate\u00a0antibiotic-induced microbiome disruption\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur research supports emerging evidence that avoiding sugary foods during antibiotic treatment may protect the microbiome,\u201d said study corresponding author Dr Marcel van den Brink, who is also the chief physician executive at City of Hope, a Los Angeles-based cancer research centre in the United States.<\/p>\n
In a paper published in the journal Nature, a team from City of Hope, New York University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said they analysed over 9,000 meals and around 1,000 stool samples from 173 hospital patients described as \u201cparticularly high risk for severe gut microbiome disruption and associated side effects\u201d.<\/p>\n
The findings could be of particular interest to cancer patients\u00a0prescribed antibiotics to prevent infections during treatments such as chemotherapy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPreserving microbiome diversity has previously been linked with improved clinical outcomes for patients with cancer,\u201d said Dr van den Brink, whose team\u2019s tests were carried out on blood cancer patients put through what City of Hope described as\u00a0\u201can intensive treatment called allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplant\u201d.<\/p>\n
In March (2026), researchers at Uppsala University warned<\/a> that a course of antibiotics\u00a0can \u201cleave traces\u201d in the gut up to eight years later.<\/p>\n \u201cAntibiotics are known gut microbiome disruptors, but their long-term consequences remain underexplored,\u201d the Swedish team explained at the time. \u2013 dpa<\/p>\n