Are Antibiotics Making You Fat?

But antibiotics, in addition to aiding in the development of these “super-bugs”, have now been implicated in so called “lifestyle disease”, such as diabetes and heart problems. 

Penicillin was first discovered by Alexander Fleming; it was discovered almost on accident, when a byproduct of Penicillium mold killed Staphylococcus bacteria growing in a culture. This discovery was remarkably important, and antibiotics would go on to save millions of lives that would have otherwise been lost to previously incurable bacterial infections.

But Penicillin was by definition a mycotoxin – mycotoxins are poisonous byproducts of molds. Most antibiotics are mycotoxins. If you are a stranger to Know the Cause, Doug Kaufmann has compiled an astounding volume of material on the link between mycotoxins and ill health. These substances have been linked to all kinds of human illness .

I was talking with Doug the other day about a paper that had come out linking antibiotics to weight gain. This effect is well known in the agricultural world; farmers add antibiotics to the feed of animals to encourage them to put on weight. Why wouldn’t it be the same for people, too? With the over-prescribing of antibiotics a nationwide trend, the obesity epidemic may start to make a little bit more sense. If antibiotics are prescribed so often to so many people, and so many people have a weight problem in America, perhaps there is some link there.

Dr. Lynn Jennings talks quite a bit about gut dysbiosis in her newsletter articles. Mycotoxins, especially antibiotics, will destroy the internal flora in the intestinal tract. This leaves room for other more pathogenic microbes to colonize in the gut. For many people, this can be the way fungi gain a stronghold in your body. Once on board, fungi can cause you to crave carb-laden and sugary foods – both of which are complicit in gaining weight. This is why the Kaufmann 1 diet seeks to limit sugar, grains, potatoes, etc.; these foods are the exact kind of foods fungi need to survive, and denying them those kinds of foods starves them.

Antibiotics are sometimes necessary, and no one at Know the Cause would tell you to go against your doctor’s orders. However, given what we know about antibiotics, ask your doctor if it would be ok to follow up with probiotics. Probiotics are helpful bacteria that will recolonize your intestinal tract; the health benefits of these beneficial bacteria are proven and numerous, so your doctor probably won’t have a problem with you taking them. Rotating a few natural anti-fungals, such as olive leaf or oil of oregano, might help prevent any pathogenic yeast from colonizing your intestinal tract. Combining these steps with a Kaufmann 1 diet while on antibiotics may help prevent any weight gain that these drugs promote.