AUGUST 3 2019 LISTENER 19
are quite resilient
and, in most cases,
have almost entirely
recovered from anti-
biotic use within a
month or two.
“The best way
to help your gut
recover from antibi-
otic use is by feeding
dietary fibre to your
gut bacteria, which
helps beneficial spe-
cies grow. You can
do this by eating a
variety of fruits and
vegetables. Probi-
otics can help to
reduce some anti-
biotic side effects,
such as diarrhoea,
but most probiotics
will not colonise the
gut long term after
you stop taking
them.
“It’s commend-
able of Paul to try
to be an educated
patient, and to be
aware of antimi-
crobial resistance,
which is becoming a serious public-health
problem. However, your microbiome gets
what it needs to function properly when
you eat a well-balanced diet. There is no
strong evidence that healthy people need to
take extra herbal supplements or vitamins
to make their microbiomes work better.
“At the beginning of the 20th century,
everyone had microbiomes unaffected by
antibiotics, because they didn’t exist, but
the average life expectancy at birth was 47
years, largely because rates of infectious dis-
ease were so high. Antibiotics have been a
major contributor to raising our life expec-
tancy to more than 80 years.”
Sullivan has a slightly different take on
the research, and believes that, although the
gut microbiota of healthy adults are resil-
ient and able to recover after short-term
exposure to antibiotics, broad-spectrum
antibiotics may reduce the diversity of
the intestinal bacterial ecosystem and that
diversity can take years to recover.
“Supporting my immune system to fight
the MRSA was my main focus for the three
months I had the infection. I know some
people will find it hard to rationalise the
path I took, but I take comfort in the fact
that my body was able to heal 12 infections
on its own and I reached out for help when
I thought the balance had tipped; the last
one on my arm was a step too far for analready ‘maxed-out’ immune system.
“If there’s one thing I want people to take
away from my story, it’s not to question
the skill of our medical practitioners or the
validity of modern medicine, but to be curi-
ous about what a more holistic approach
to well-being and health could look like,
including gaining a deeper understandingof the role stress – physical,
relationship and environ-
mental – devices, diet and
sleep play. There’s a stress
epidemic coming, if not
already here, and I’m not
convinced modern medi-
cine is the right or only
answer.
“That doesn’t mean I
am not in awe of modern
medicine and the miracles
it performs on a daily basis.
I am incredibly grateful for
the care I received. We are
fortunate in New Zealand
to have access to world-class
medical care.”THE BIG WORRY
University of Auckland
associate professor Mark
Thomas, a specialist in
infectious diseases, says it
is not unreasonable to treat
yourself in the way Sulli-
van did – up to a point. He
advises people to see their
doctor if the diameter of
a boil on the skin is more
than 3cm, and the red area
around it more than 7cm,
and certainly if they are feeling feverish.
The main thing about treating these boils is
to drain the pus, which Sullivan did assidu-
ously, and to cleanly dispose of it, along
with any dressings, as they will be full of
millions of bacteria looking for somewhere
else to live.
Why did the bug have such a devastating
effect on a fit young man? Sullivan thinks it
was the stress of life in general at that point,
made worse by the fact that he couldn’t run
to relieve it, as he usually did. Sweating is
ill-advised with such an infection, as it pro-
vides just the right conditions for bacteria
to grow on the skin.
“Fitness and youth afford no special
protection,” says Thomas. “Some immune
systems cope better with particular bugs
than others, and their capacity can change
with time. Some bugs are just more aggres-
sive than others.”
Where did Kelly’s infection come from in
the complete isolation of the West Coast?
“It was probably from his own body,” says
Thomas. “A third of us have staph living in
our noses, just a few millimetres inside the
nostrils. About a tenth of the bacteria, onSI
M
O
N(^) Y
O
U
N
G
“At the beginning of the
20th century, everyone
had microbiomes
unaffected by antibiotics,
because they didn’t
exist, but the average
life expectancy at
birth was 47 years.”
Paul Sullivan
with partner Fliss
Winstone and
daughter Chloe.