A new study encourages beware of antibiotics. Indeed, this work reveals that the use of antibiotics at the age of 50 or more could increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in a woman.
According to this study, conducted by researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Rush (Chicago), women who took antibiotics for at least two months consecutive to this period of their life have systematically obtained poorer results on cognitive tests. In detail, these tests concerning the functioning of the brain, Memoryattention, etc.
According to the researchers, the brains of these women would have aged three to four years more than the others. To reach this conclusion, they observed data from over 14,000 women. These findings were published in the journal PLOS. For this research, the women indicated their consumption of antibiotics and carried out various tests.
The gut microbiota in question?
“Further research is needed, but ours suggests that if we can prevent infections and minimize antibiotic treatment in people with mental illness, we may be able to prevent the onset of manic episodes“, underlines Dr. Robert Yolken, researcher in Baltimore, Maryland (USA). For the moment, the scientists have not precisely identified the link between antibiotics and these results but they think that it could be linked to the way of which le microbiome intestinal and the bacteria it contains are affected by medicinal substances.