If the side effects alone weren't enough, there is now even more reason not to take antibiotics unless they are needed. The overuse of antibiotics has been linked to an increase in antibiotic resistance and now to an increase in IBD, specifically Crohn's disease (1, 2).
It isn't completely clear how the long term use of certain antibiotics can increase the risk for Crohn's disease but it may be due to the imbalance of gut bacteria that it can cause. Our guts have a host of bacteria that are...
