Common painkillers such as ibuprofen and paracetamol may be contributing to the growth of antibiotic resistance, according to a study published in the journal npj Antimicrobials and Resistance by scientists at the University of South Australia.
This study has found that common painkillers we take for headaches or fevers (like ibuprofen or acetaminophen) can secretly help harmful bacteria become immune to antibiotics, the drugs that are supposed to kill them. Imagine trying to defeat your enemy (bacteria) with your super weapon (antibiotic), but your “helper” (painkiller) inadvertently gives your enemy a shield that makes them resistant to your weapon. This is not just an interesting fact, but a potentially very serious problem.
The authors found that these drugs not only contribute to the strengthening of bacterial resistance to antibiotics in the presence of the latter, but also multiply enhance this effect when used together. In experiments with Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and the antibiotic ciprofloxacin, painkillers accelerated bacterial mutations, inducing the so-called SOS response. This made them not only resistant to the drug itself, but also to other antibiotics (the phenomenon of cross-resistance). Experiments on living organisms (wax moth larvae) also showed that painkillers reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics in the treatment of infections.
This means that when you take a painkiller with an antibiotic, the bacteria don't just get a little used to the medication, they become incredibly resistant to it. This is because the painkillers cause the bacteria to go into a kind of “survival mode” (called the SOS response), in which they very quickly change their “code” (DNA) to adapt. What's worse is that they become resistant not only to that particular antibiotic, but also to many others that we might use in the future (this is called “cross-resistance”). It's as if the enemy, having learned to defend against one type of your weapon, automatically becomes immune to a dozen others. Interestingly, scientists tested this not only on bacteria in a test tube, but also on living creatures – wax moth larvae, and the results were the same: painkillers reduced the power of antibiotics.
Scientists are particularly concerned about the effects on older people in nursing homes, where patients are given multiple medications at the same time. This “polypharmacy” creates ideal conditions for the formation of treatment-resistant superbugs.
This situation is especially dangerous for the elderly, especially in nursing homes. Why? Because they often take many different medications at the same time – this is called “polypharmacy” (from the Greek words for “many” and “medicine”). Imagine that this creates the perfect conditions for bacteria to “train” and become “superbugs” – that is, those that cannot be treated with any medicine.
According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance was the direct cause of 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019 alone. The researchers emphasize that it is impossible to give up painkillers, but their interaction with antibiotics requires much closer monitoring and further research to develop new treatment recommendations.
And this is a huge global problem. More than a million people died in 2019 because bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics! It's like an invisible enemy that's getting stronger, and our weapons are getting weaker, and we're losing the war. Of course, we can't just stop using painkillers, because they help millions of people cope with pain. But this discovery shows that we need to be much more careful, study this interaction more carefully, and develop clearer rules for how to treat people, so that bacteria don't have a chance to become invincible, and save more lives.
