8 million – that’s the number of women currently at risk for difficult-to-treat bladder infections brought on by superbugs, transmitted to humans through E.coli.

But what makes these intestinal superbugs so super?

According to a recent report by the ABC News Medical Blog, superbugs are resistant to antibiotics.  This can lead to a bladder infection that many bladder infection sufferers say just won’t go away.

The reason why?

“[Chickens] in many cases, are getting drugs from the time that they were in an egg all the way up to the time they are slaughtered….”

That means are gastrointestinal bacteria chickens transmit post-slaughter has already survived a lifetime of antibiotic treatment before it gets to a human host.

This could have implications for your own digestive health, particularly if you are a woman.  Read the full blog here and see what doctors are doing to identify the full extent of intestinal superbugs’ digestive effects.