If you eat ‘this’ after sex, your risk of sexually transmitted diseases drops?

Recently, with the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases rapidly increasing in the United States and Europe, a study showed that antibiotics taken after sexual intercourse can significantly reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA Internal Medicine) found that people who took the common antibiotic doxycycline within 72 hours after sex had up to an 80 percent reduced risk of developing syphilis and chlamydia.

Researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Institute for Health Care Administration administered doxycycline to 2,253 people taking HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) prevention medication. The researchers looked at the results of sexually transmitted disease tests before and after taking doxycycline to determine how the drug affected the risk of sexually transmitted infection. Doxycycline is an antibiotic used to treat infections caused by bacteria and certain other parasites.

The study found that participants who took doxycycline had a 79% reduction in the incidence of chlamydia, an 80% reduction in syphilis, and a 12% reduction in gonorrhea. The low reduction rate of gonorrhea is because gonorrhea, which can cause pain, discharge, and infertility, is almost completely resistant to doxycycline. “This shows that widespread implementation of doxycycline could have enormous benefits in reducing sexually transmitted disease transmission and improving sexual health,” said study author Dr. Julia Marcus.

Meanwhile, sexually transmitted infections are on the rise, especially among middle-aged and older people, due to rising divorce rates, the emergence of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, dating apps, and the growth of retirement villages.