Many medical professionals are worried about the overuse and over-prescribing of antibiotics, fearing it will lead to an increasing number of people being immune to it.
But now a new study conducted by a team at the universities of Colorado and Pennsylvania in the US have concluded that outbreaks of drug-resistant bacteria is not all we have to fear from our over-use of antibiotics. According to the study, published in journal Gastroenterology, there is also a strong link between the use of antibiotics on infants and young babies and the development of childhood obesity later in childhood.
Study author Dr Frank Irving Scott explains: “Antibiotics have been used to promote weight gain in livestock for several decades, and our research confirms that antibiotics have the same effects on humans.” He is quick to point out that the results do not imply that antibiotics should not be used when necessary, but rather that both doctors and parents should be encouraged to “think twice about antibiotic usage in infants in the absence of well-established indications.”
The US researchers performed a large-scale study in the UK, aiming to assess the link between antibiotic exposure before age two and obesity at age four.
What they found was that children with antibiotic exposure had a 1.2 per cent absolute – and 25 per cent relative – increase in the risk of early childhood obesity. And not only that; this risk then increased with any repeat exposures to antibiotics.
Wow. These are pretty alarming numbers when we know that many doctors are already worried about over-prescription of antibiotics in general.
Dr Scott said: “Our work supports the theory that antibiotics may progressively alter the composition and function of the gut microbiome, thereby predisposing children to obesity as is seen in livestock and animal models.”
Researchers noted that there must be further investigation into whether these findings remain into adolescence and young adulthood and whether or not specific types of antibiotics are more closely linked with obesity.
