HEALTH
Gut Bugs and Liver Cancer: The Early Antibiotics Connection
GLOBALTue Nov 12 2024
You wouldn't think that taking antibiotics as a kid could lead to liver cancer later in life, right? Well, it turns out those little pills can mess up the tiny friends living in your tummy, called gut microbes, and that could set the stage for a serious liver disease called MASLD-HCC. This disease is becoming more common around the world, and scientists are trying to find out why.
Gut microbes play a big role in keeping our bodies healthy. But if they're thrown off balance early in life, it might open the door for MASLD-HCC to show up much later. The thing is, we still don't know enough about this link.
Scientists are busy studying this connection to understand how early gut microbes can impact us in the future. Maybe one day, we'll discover a way to stop this from happening. Until then, it's important to think about the long-term effects of antibiotics and how they might affect our gut health.
continue reading...
questions
Should we start a library of healthy bacteria for newborns? Would that cover the antibiotic damage?
How does early-life antibiotic exposure exacerbate the progression of MASLD-HCC?
What are the potential epigenetic changes that occur from early-life antibiotic exposure contributing to MASLD-HCC?
actions
flag content