The Strange Similarities Between Antibiotics And Cancer Chemotherapy

Or should it really be strange?

Ever since Sir Alexander Fleming was able to isolate penicillin from a mould, antibiotics have been prescribed for situations that are related to bacterial infections — in different variations and strengths, of course.

An antibiotic, as we can tell, is “anti” (or against) “biotic” activity (pertaining to life). Meaning that whatever it does, it sure as heck aims to massacre the living daylights out of its target organisms.

Different antibiotics tend to do the job differently — whether we’re looking at:

the inhibition of bacterial cell wall synthesis, the enhancement of bacterial cell membrane permeability, an interference with bacterial protein synthesis or the inhibition of bacterial nucleic acid replication and transcription.

However, we’d be looking at the antibiotic being able to disrupt the cell cycle and replication of specific bacterial organisms in the body based on any of the abovementioned techniques. If those organisms are responsible for a certain bacterial infection, the antibiotic should disrupt the replication of said bacterial cells, such that they wouldn’t be able to replicate (and continue infecting the body) any further.

And that’s why an antibiotic prescription commonly instructs one to complete the course of antibiotics, without paying much attention to the patient’s clinical response.

The problem with the antibiotic treatment is that when we consume it orally, it will also end up traversing our digestive system and killing the microbes that live in our gut — because those microbes are ALSO bacterial cells, after all.

As it is said in this article,

While antibiotics have benefits, the trouble with antibiotics is that the medicine doesn’t just kill the ‘bad’ bacteria causing infection that is being treated. They also kill good bacteria that live in our gut. This can lead to an imbalance in the microbiome, also termed dysbiosis, which can lead to GI symptoms.

Let’s assume, for instance, that a course of antibiotics can eliminate most of the bacteria in our gut microbiome. As these gut microbes are living cells, the ones that grow back the fastest… are those that thrive best on the food that we’re feeding them.

Therefore, even if we didn’t have to consume any antibiotics, our diet can significantly influence the composition of our gut microbiome.

Another problematic consideration in the overconsumption of antibiotics is that of antibiotic resistance. Much like how familiarity breeds contempt, a microbial cell that has been exposed sufficiently long to a certain type of antibiotic will end up being resistant to its activities and effects.

How would chemotherapy be any different?

We end up with the assumption that chemotherapy is completely different from consuming antibiotics, isn’t it?

Strangely, though, antibiotics are used as chemotherapy drugs, too!

That’s because in chemotherapy,

Cancer cells tend to form new cells more quickly than normal cells and this makes them a better target for chemotherapy drugs. However, chemo drugs can’t tell the difference between healthy cells and cancer cells. This means normal cells are damaged along with the cancer cells, and this causes side effects. Each time chemo is given, it means trying to find a balance between killing the cancer cells (in order to cure or control the disease) and sparing the normal cells (to lessen side effects).

The good news is that most normal cells will recover from the effects of chemo over time. But cancer cells are mutated (not normal) cells, and they usually do not recover from the effects of chemo. This is why chemo is good at killing many types of cancer cells.

So regardless of the type of drug being used, the main aim is to disrupt and massacre those cancerous cells.

Unfortunately, healthy living cells in our body that are innocently doing their own thing efficiently can also end up as collateral damage.

Does this make chemotherapy any different from antibiotic treatment?

The underlying philosophy and the mechanisms behind chemotherapy treatment are almost identical to antibiotic treatment.

Which means, again, that the health of a cancer patient is determined by not just what is killed off, but ALSO by what they feed themselves with post-treatment.

If a cancer patient is feeding themselves with junk, they may have gotten their cancer into remission with all those therapies that they have endured…

But what’s the likelihood of getting themselves into a state of oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, and a dysfunctional immune system that cannot detect (and eliminate) mutated cells that easily?

One thing is for sure, however.

When we do call upon antibiotics or chemotherapy treatments, we’re essentially calling upon higher chemical powers to carry out the biochemical functions thatour immune system ought to have taken care of but is somehow unable to.

Our immune system can take care of bacterial infections — but we might need antibiotics for severe infection loads.

Our immune system ought to have destroyed mutated cells via autophagy — but we might need chemotherapy to destroy them when the immune system cannot.

We do need to know how to take care of ourselves better.

I’m not advocating that we ought to stay away from antibiotics completely, but I’m saying that we may not need to consume them if we can take care of ourselves better.

At the same time, medical misinformation can be problematic. While antibiotics are unable to deal with viral infections (hence they aren’t featured as potential COVID-19 miracle cures), I was prescribed antibiotics for the common cold/flu as a child.

Would they have damaged my gut?

It is completely possible — but thankfully I didn’t exhibit symptoms of severe gut dysbiosis or digestive issues as I was growing up.

Even worse — they would have done squat with addressing the viral infection. I’d have (sorry, my parents would have) been paying money for a completely useless product in this specific situation, even though no refunds are entertained once sold!

Nor am I saying that we ought not to take any chemotherapy drugs.

Rather, whatever that we do end up having to take as a result of any medical treatment procedure can affect what will happen to us in the long term. Antibiotics do affect our gut health, and our digestive systems can be significantly affected.

It isn’t surprising, then, that cancer patients would also face issues with their digestive systems as a result of chemotherapy treatments.

What grows back after a cell massacre is highly dependent on what we do feed ourselves and what work we put in maintaining our health.

History has shown the destruction of great cities as a result of wars, sieges and massacres.

Some of these cities have grown back to become even stronger than ever, while other cities continue to lie in ruins.

It’s all dependent on who put in the effort to rebuild the city, isn’t it?

Put in a good effort, and a ruined city can be rebuilt and will flourish in due time.

Put in a shoddy effort, and even the best of cities will fall to ruins in due time.

It’s the same thing with our body — in this case, our digestive system.

Feel free to refer to What Nutrients Support Digestion And Detox In Our Body? to see how our diet can affect the functioning of our digestive systems!

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