Children who take antibiotics during the course of their childhood gain weight more quickly than those who do not, according to a study published in the International Journal of Obesity.
The research also suggests that the weight gain can be cumulative and progressive, with the medicines having a compounding effect on body mass index (BMI) throughout childhood.
Lead author Brian Schwartz (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, US) says:
Your BMI may be forever altered by the antibiotics you take as a child. Our data suggest that every time we give an antibiotic to kids they gain weight faster over time.”
Schwartz and team used Geisinger Health System’s electronic data to track almost 164,000 children aged between three and 18 years, between January 2001 and February 2012.
They looked at the children’s BMI, antibiotic use, race, gender and other factors in order to establish the typical BMI trajectory for children who didn’t receive antibiotics and those who did.
On comparing the results, the researchers found that at age 15, children who had received antibiotics at least seven times during childhood weighed around three pounds more than children who did not take any. Almost 30,000 children (~21%) had taken the drugs seven or more times.
With each additional treatment, the weight gain became cumulative and progressive, ever increasing the difference between the two groups. Schwartz says this suggests that the effect is not going to stop at age 18 and that what’s happening is permanent. He explains:
While the magnitude of the weight increase attributable to antibiotics may be modest by the end of childhood, our finding that the effects are cumulative raises the possibility that these effects continue and are compounded into adulthood.”
A growing body of evidence has suggested that antibiotics can cause weight gain due to their effects on microorganisms in the body called microbiota.
There are ten times more microbiota in our bodies than there are our own cells and these bacteria help the digestion and absorption of food in the gastrointestinal tract.
As well as killing off damaging microorganisms, antibiotics also kill off these vital and beneficial bacteria. Studies suggest that repeated antibiotic use can alter the microbiota forever, which changes the way food is digested and increases the calories absorbed.
Schwartz says:
Systematic antibiotics should be avoided except when strongly indicated. From everything we are learning, it is more important than ever for physicians to be the gatekeepers and keep their young patients from getting drugs that not only won’t help them but may hurt them in the long run.”
Sources
UQ researchers use new dosing technology to enhance ICU antibiotic treatment