December 29, 2014
Are antibiotics linked to the obesity epidemic?
We have touched on this topic a few times recently, however, we have not looked at the age at which one is exposed to antibiotics and the risk of obesity.
In the journal JAMA Pediatrics, Dr. Bailey assessed the exposure of children under the age of 2 years to antibiotics and their risk of subsequent weight issues. What she found was that children that were exposed to four or more antibiotic treatment courses were 11% more likely to develop obesity in the ensuing three years. Another result of the analysis was that the more broad spectrum (kills more species of bacteria) the antibiotic was, the worse the obesity risk.
We know that in cows, farmers use antibiotics in daily feed to increase the animals body size over time. Extrapolating this phenomenon back to humans we see the same development.
What is occurring?
The antibiotics target bacteria all over the body and especially affect the human gut micro biome. The weak and diverse bacteria die off in favor of the hearty and less diverse players. These bacteria affect human metabolism in a positive energy storage pattern. The outcome is energy stored as fat. Each antibiotic prescription presumably selects for the strong and energy storing bacterial species. The more antibiotics that are used the more narrow the micro biomes bacterial diversity becomes.
Many studies have now proven that every antibiotic prescription carries a risk and a benefit. We now have evidence that multiple antibiotic prescriptions are associated with obesity, inflammatory bowel disease and allergic disease to name a few. The fact that it is associated with obesity is especially damning because obesity is the poster child for metabolic derangements of all types.
Remember the list from last week.
Dr. M
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