Common medications may change your gut for years
Common medications may reshape the gut microbiome long after the last dose is taken. In a study of more than 2,500 people, researchers found lasting microbial changes linked not only to antibiotics, but also to antidepressants, beta-blockers, acid-reducing drugs, and benzodiazepines.
Some effects were still detectable years later, suggesting past medication use may strongly influence the gut bacteria people carry today.
Medications you stopped taking years ago may still be leaving a lasting mark on the bacteria living in your gut.
Medications can influence the community of microbes living in the human gut long after a person stops taking them, according to a large study led by researchers at the University of Tartu Institute of Genomics.
The findings suggest that a person’s prescription history may help explain differences in the gut microbiome years later. The gut microbiome includes the vast community of bacteria and other microorganisms that live in the digestive tract and can influence digestion, metabolism, immune function, and other aspects of health.
Drug Effects May Persist for Years
Researchers analyzed stool samples and prescription records from more than 2,500 participants in the Estonian Biobank who were part of the Estonian Microbiome cohort. They found that most of the medications examined were associated with differences in the gut microbiome.
For a substantial number of drugs, those differences could still be detected years after people had stopped taking the medication.
The lasting effects were not limited to antibiotics, which are already well known for their ability to disrupt populations of gut bacteria. Antidepressants, beta-blockers, proton pump inhibitors, and benzodiazepines were also associated with distinctive microbial “fingerprints.”
Beta-blockers are commonly used to treat conditions such as high blood pressure and certain heart problems. Proton pump inhibitors reduce stomach acid and are often prescribed for acid reflux and related conditions. Benzodiazepines are medications commonly used for anxiety and other disorders.
“Most microbiome studies only consider current medications, but our results show that past drug use can be just as important as it is a surprisingly strong factor in explaining individual microbiome differences,” said Dr. Oliver Aasmets, lead author.
The finding suggests that researchers studying connections between the microbiome and disease may need to look beyond the medications a person is currently taking. Drugs used months or even years earlier could still influence the microbial patterns seen in a stool sample.
Anxiety Drugs Show Surprisingly Strong Effects
One particularly striking finding involved benzodiazepines, which are commonly prescribed for anxiety. Their associations with the gut microbiome were comparable to those seen with broad-spectrum antibiotics.
Broad-spectrum antibiotics are designed to act against many different types of bacteria, which is why they can produce substantial changes in the gut microbial community.
The study also found that medications belonging to the same drug class did not necessarily affect the microbiome in the same way. Drugs that may be prescribed for similar conditions, such as diazepam and alprazolam, differed in how strongly they appeared to disrupt gut microbes.
That distinction could be important because medications are often grouped together in microbiome research based on their drug class. The new results suggest that individual drugs may need to be considered separately.
Follow-Up Samples Reveal Predictable Changes
Researchers also examined follow-up stool samples from a smaller group of participants. These samples allowed them to observe what happened when people started or stopped certain medications.
Those changes were accompanied by predictable shifts in gut microbes, providing evidence that the medications themselves may be responsible for at least some of the observed differences.
Although the second time-point analysis involved a relatively small number of participants, researchers were able to confirm persistent effects linked to proton pump inhibitors, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and antibiotics, such as penicillins in combination and macrolides.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are a widely used class of antidepressants. Macrolides are a group of antibiotics that includes drugs used to treat a range of bacterial infections.
Medication History Could Matter in Microbiome Research
The results add to growing evidence that the gut microbiome reflects more than a person’s current diet, lifestyle, health, and medication use. Past treatments may leave biological traces that remain detectable long after the prescription has ended.
“This is a comprehensive systematic evaluation of long-term medication effects on the microbiome using real-world medical health records,” said Professor Elin Org, corresponding author. “We hope this encourages researchers and clinicians to factor in medication history when interpreting microbiome data.”
Accounting for that history could help scientists more accurately distinguish microbiome changes associated with disease from changes caused by medications taken in the past.
Journal Reference:
- Oliver Aasmets, Nele Taba, Kertu Liis Krigul, Reidar Andreson, Elin Org, Mait Metspalu, Andres Metspalu, Lili Milani, Tõnu Esko. A hidden confounder for microbiome studies: medications used years before sample collection. mSystems, 2025; 10 (10) DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00541-25
source nexusnewsfeed.com
Tom
| #
Doctors prescribe these horrid toxins like candy and yet don’t have a clue about what they do to the body. Doctors smart? In competition with a box of frozen rocks. The body is a work of perfection that doctors love to disrupt and destroy…for profit.
Reply
Lorraine
| #
Ignorance is not bliss.
I honestly think they don’t know any better. Doctors don’t concern themselves with downstream consequences.
It’s like setting out on a calm river only to find rapids ahead.
Well it looked good at first glance.
Reply
Lorraine
| #
Ignorance is not bliss.
I honestly think they don’t know any better. Doctors don’t concern themselves with downstream consequences.
It’s like setting out on a calm river only to find rapids ahead.
Well it looked good at first glance.
Reply
solarsmurph
| #
It is not the doctors, it is the drug manufacturers that are pushing their products.
Remove the ‘p’ for profits, and the name changes to ‘harmacueticals’ (feel free to use this term as you see fit).
Reply
solarsmurph
| #
It is not the doctors, it is the drug manufacturers that are pushing their products.
Remove the ‘p’ for profits, and the name changes to ‘harmacueticals’ (feel free to use this term as you see fit).
Reply
Herb
| #
People don’t take medications for no reason , blood work reveals problematic area’s and medications are prescribed to control them .
So many people die in their 30’s and 40’s because they don’t bother going to get blood work and physicals . If you have tons of plaque in your arteries and sky high blood pressure you better start taking a medication to control that OR you can worry about gut bacteria possibly being affected . Most people are not willing to change their lifestyles and start eating right and exercising unfortunately . Not doing anything about the plaque and sky high blood pressure will doom you to an early death so you got a choice , take medication to lower the blood pressure and control plaque or stay away from it or die an early death because the meds that save your life may effect your gut health .
Reply
JFK
| #
In the past, in my local area, when people did not die from a war, an incurable disease, a neglected disease, etc, they used to live at least until their 90s. Often more than that (e.g. 110). And most of the time with little to none medical aid.
Nowadays, you barely see their offspring go above 90.
The new limit seems to be 60 to 70, rarely 80.
And that is with super-heavy use of medication.
The genetics have not changed, since the current generation was not exposed much to 3G/4G/5G/WiFi.
So, it has to do with the rest of the environment.
From my personal experience, the less drugs you take, the better you are.
If you have health issues to due to lack of exercise and bad diet, no drug will be able to help you anyway.
But it makes me wonder:
What would happen if we stopped drinking chlorinated water?
Stopped eating foods with preservatives that kill the gut biome?
Stopped using antibiotics unless it was necessary?
Personally, I got healthy the moment I stopped going to doctors and started curing myself.
And even healthier the moment I stopped eating anything coming out of a factory.
Reply
Seriously
| #
People DO have a choice…but the medical establishment promotes their ideology of medical care (ie, a pill for that) ad nauseum – they are promoted as expert. You on the other hand, know nothing and must seek their expert advise. If that advise only consists of admonishing to eat better, exercise…and take this pill, forever, what do you expect the average human to do?There is little and none, education wise, for doctors that is REQUIRED to obtain that medical license…on what nourishes the body, what is harmful. They don’t even touch on the potions and lotions we use on the body…at all. We have so much more information now… but the status quo remains the same. And lawsuits, if you disagree.
The promotion of bad foods is in complete control of the pop…and anything against this food system is slow to materialize and only marginally promoted…its not shouted to the world every night on the ‘news’….while that ad for double stuffed oreos runs across the msm multiple times daily. So what do you think the message is?Netflix had many documentaries exposing the food system…they are all gone! And you know why. The powerful entities that want you to buy this crap have all the power..and a healthy, discerning pop is their mortal enemy.
I do wonder where we would be if the corporations that poison us, lie to us, and harm us with the mass production of medicine, engineered food that wake up the receptors in our brains, and chemical laden personal products were stopped. If we were no longer subjected to the ad campaigns that constantly bombard us us with these new, improved, toxic products, in everything we do from food to furniture to laundry, where our health meter would be.
They are running ads for the online betting sites now…with their little note at the bottom stating ‘if you have a gambling problem’….I think this puts everything in a nutshell. They want you to buy…and you are legally allowed to… but not their responsibility if you submit and ruin a life thru addiction to their product…that’s on YOU. Capitalism has been shanghighed, just like every other governing system invented by man to govern the pop, by the pharaohs of whatever age. And make no mistake, every single top down system from king to democracy, reverts to capitalism by the end….all for the powerful and the monied. Democracy is just propaganda for the pop…because you get to ‘vote’ on who rules your world. But that’s a whole nother kettle of misdirected fish…
With an msm that no longer seeks protection of the public, has no individuals willing or able once they find something to expose the overlords to a world audience, no longer a voice capable of telling the whole world the truth, no longer trumpeting that ugly truth on the 6 o’clock news, no longer investigating the ad machine claims? We are at their mercy…and believe me, they have none.
Reply