ANTIBIOTICS are far from subtle. Instead of wiping out only disease-causing microbes, they regularly kill “friendly” bacteria too. But popping an enzyme pill could protect the good bacteria while leaving the rest for dead.
Billions of useful bacteria colonise our guts, but because antibiotics are lethal to a whole range of microbes, drugs taken for a chest infection, for example, kill off friendly bacteria too. In most people, this will cause nothing more than a bout of diarrhoea. But others can get severe infections because killing the good bacteria lets dangerous microbes gain a foothold.
Now, Curtis Donskey at the…
