Antibiotics encourage obesity
Continued use of antibiotics in children can lead to obesity, changes in bone growth and altered gut bacteria, according to a new study in Nature Communications. The team stated that, in the USA, 262 million courses of antibiotics were prescribed to outpatients, that’s 842 per 1000 people a year, with use at its highest in children under 10. Estimates suggest children may have had 10 courses by this age. Antibiotics are well known to impact on microbial function, but little study has been done into how they affect host health during critical developmental stages.
The researchers mimicked childhood antibiotic use by using mice as their models. They found that early life pulsed antibiotic treatment (PAT) leads to short term increases in mouse weight and bone growth, whilst also leading to long-term changes in composition of gut bacteria. These changes included altering the species of the bacteria present and therefore the metabolic functions as well. Furthermore, they found that the bacteria in the antibiotic treated mice took much longer to adapt to new diets than those without antibiotics. The team remain cautious regarding the implication for humans though.
