Is Your Patient’s Gut Making Their Skin More Sensitive to the Sun?
Drug-induced photosensitivity is nothing new, but could the gut microbiome be influencing how severely patients react to sunlight?
This JDD article explores this fascinating angle, connecting what’s happening in the gut to the skin’s response to medications like NSAIDs, antibiotics, and psychotropics when UV exposure is involved. While phototoxic and photoallergic reactions have traditionally been tied to drug metabolism and DNA damage via reactive oxygen species, researchers are now examining how gut bacteria might modulate immune response and inflammation, tipping the scales on how these reactions unfold.
New evidence shows that gut microbes can alter the way drugs are absorbed and processed, including how long NSAID metabolites linger, which may increase side effects. In fact, targeting the microbiome with probiotics like Lactobacillus gasseri or Bifidobacterium breve has shown promise in reducing GI damage from aspirin, hinting at broader implications for drug safety.
For dermatologists, this raises a timely question: Should we be thinking more about gut health when managing drug-induced skin reactions? The “gut-skin axis” is proving to be more than a buzzword, with short-chain fatty acids and gut-associated lymphoid tissues playing a direct role in how inflammation is regulated systemically—including in the skin.
Your patients with puzzling photosensitivity might have more going on below the surface—literally.
J Drugs Dermatol. 2025;24(6):e40-e41.
