Working in A&E, I see many tragic cases - but one of the worst is diagnosing a young person with advanced and incurable bowel cancer. This used to be a rarity. Not now.
Working in A&E, I see many tragic cases – but one of the worst is diagnosing a young person with advanced and incurable bowel cancer. This used to be a rarity. Not now.
I sent him for an urgent CT scan and it showed that he had stage 4 bowel cancer, which meant it had spread to the rest of his body. Two months later he died in a hospice. With no obvious cause, such as piles, I made an urgent two-week referral for her to have bowel cancer tests. But more recently, emerging evidence points to the role of our gut microbiome – the community of microbes that is found there – in protecting us from bowel cancer. Harm those microbes, and you have a higher risk of bowel cancer.
This is not necessarily proof that antibiotic use can increase your risk of bowel cancer, but it is an eye-opening piece of research with a good scientific explanation for what's going on. As for what you can do now to protect yourself, my first port of call would be to take steps to improve your gut microbiome.
As for my patients, while I was once content to prescribe antibiotics fairly liberally, I'm now much more cautious – and I always tell them to take their prescription with probiotics, knowing this advice will do no harm and may very well reduce their risks of getting bowel cancer.Last week, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced plans to introduce league tables for hospital performance, including A&E waiting times.
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Young patients are now dying from bowel cancer - and I believe antibiotics could be behind this:...Working in A&E, I see many tragic cases - but one of the worst is diagnosing a young person with advanced and incurable bowel cancer. This used to be a rarity. Not now.
Read more »