Mice Given Antibiotics More Likely to Die of Influenza

A version of this article was first published on Jennifer Margulis’s Substack, Vibrant Life 

Jennifer Margulis, PhD

Antibiotics may be deadly for healthy gut bacteria.

A new study suggests that taking antibiotics at the first signs of illness can increase the chances of the flu turning deadly. Mice infected with influenza were three times more likely to die after receiving antibiotics.

Mice not given antibiotics fared much better than the mice taking antibiotics.

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute in London conducted this research. They published it in the peer-reviewed journal, Cell Reports. Read the study in its entirety here.

We know that healthy gut bacteria help prime the immune system to respond to early signs of viruses that invade the lungs and suppress the infection. We also know that antibiotics derail our healthy gut bacteria.

So it makes sense that animals are less likely to survive the flu when given antibiotics that will wipe out healthy gut bacteria.

Antibiotics and autism

If you watched the movie Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, you heard parents report that their children were given round after round of antibiotics, usually to treat ear infections. These antibiotics wipe out healthy gut bacteria.

When the babies then went back to their doctors for “preventive” care and were given vaccines to prime their immune systems against infectious diseases, they became severely brain damaged. The brain damage sometimes happened slowly over time, or sometimes right away.

One dad’s story

I recently interviewed a father of two. The family breadwinner (he does tech support for a venture capitalist company), he doesn’t share his story publicly because he’s afraid of losing his job.

His first child, who’s eight years old, has a sensory processing disorder, as well as learning difficulties and behavioral problems. He has not been diagnosed with autism but he struggles with reading, writing, and communicating.

Most children love the ocean. But when this little boy was a toddler he screamed at the beach. He couldn’t stand the feeling of sand between his toes. He was vaccinated, circumcised, and formula-fed, his dad told me.

With a child doing so poorly, this dad and his wife started researching. They looked for alternatives outside the standard of care medicine that hurt their son. For their second child, who’s not quite two, they did everything differently. His wife breastfed their son. They did not circumcise him, they did not vaccinate him, and he’s never had an antibiotic.

“With number two I see a huge difference,” the dad said. “He loves books, he’s talking all the time, not toe walking like our older son.”

Could the over-use of antibiotics be playing a causative role in the rising rates of autism in America, in part because it disrupts healthy gut bacteria?

We know that children with autism have disrupted healthy gut bacteria, as several studies have shown. And we know that antibiotics are a key factor in disrupting healthy gut bacteria.

Well baby visits disrupt healthy gut bacteria, and make children sick

Clinical data and parent testimony show that some children on antibiotics who go to “well baby” visits, where they receive preventative “care” from the doctor, often end up with brain damage or worse.

Three main causes of autism and other chronic and sometimes devastating illnesses that public health officials must investigate:

1. Over-use of antibiotics

2. Neurotoxins like aluminum

3. Glutathione-inhibitors like acetaminophen (the main ingredient in baby Tylenol)

What are the synergistic effects of exposure to toxins combined with overuse of pharmaceutical products?

These three triggers: antibiotics, aluminum exposure (particularly the injected aluminum found in vaccines and in some brands of the vitamin K shot given to babies at birth), and infant Tylenol may be the main drivers of environmentally induced autism.

Feeding mice antibiotics can make the flu turn lethal. This study provides strong evidence that we need to do more to avoid giving antibiotics to children.

Feeling clicky?

Read more about the deadly antibiotics study in The Independent.

Read the full study: Konrad C. Bradley, Katja Finsterbusch, Daniel Schnepf, Stefania Crotta, Miriam Llorian, Sophia Davidson, Serge Y. Fuchs, Peter Staeheli, Andreas Wack. Microbiota-Driven Tonic Interferon Signals in Lung Stromal Cells Protect from Influenza Virus Infection. Cell Reports, 2019; 28 (1): 245.

Find better, safer alternatives to children’s Tylenol here.

Learn more about how to raise a healthy child by reading these three books:

1. The Vaccine-Friendly Plan by Paul Thomas, M.D., and Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D. (aka me)

   • How to Raise a Healthy Child In Spite of Your Doctor by Robert S. Mendelsohn, M.D. (this may be my favorite parenting book ever.)

   • The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International

Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an award-winning science journalist and book author.

To read more of her articles about natural health, sign up for her

Substack, Vibrant Life.

Bioregulatory medicine is a total body (and mind) approach to health and healing that aims to help facilitate and restore natural human biological processes. It is a proven, safe, gentle, highly effective, drugless, and side-effect-free medical model designed to naturally support the body to regulate, adapt, regenerate, and self-heal. BRMI is a non-commercial 501(c)(3) foundation and will expand and flourish with your support. Our goal is to make bioregulatory medicine a household term.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for the direct care of a qualified health practitioner who oversees and provides unique and individualized care. The information provided here is to broaden our different perspectives and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.