According to studies published in Nature Communications, overuse of antibiotics in children can lead to weight gain, double bone growth and stimulation of intestinal bacteria.
According to the research team of Dr. Martin Blesser of the Medical Center of New York University School of Medicine in Langan, in 2011 in the United States, 262 million prescription antibiotics were prescribed to outpatients, which is equivalent to 842 prescriptions per 1,000 people per year.
Research shows that the highest use of antibiotics is in children under 10 years of age, and on average, American children have taken 3 courses of antibiotics by the age of 2 and 10 courses of antibiotics by the age of 10.
Previous studies have shown the effect of early antibiotic use on children’s health. For example, Medical News Today in a December 2014 article reported an increased risk of premature obesity in children who had taken multiple courses of antibiotics before the age of two. Another article linked the use of antibiotics in childhood to an increased risk of developing juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
However, Dr. Blesser and colleagues questioned previous studies, saying: “Previous studies have examined the effects of low-dose antibiotics in animals, and humans use antibiotics at doses between 10 and 100 times higher.” کردن.
Based on this, the research team tried to simulate the use of pediatric antibiotics in mice by considering similar conditions.
To do this, give three short courses, common medications, amoxicillin and tylosin – which are not currently prescribed for children but are similar to a group prescribed called macrolides – or a mixture of the two to young female mice. Were compared with another control group who did not receive any antibiotics. These are the same number of courses and doses that a child typically receives antibiotics before he or she is 2 years old.
Antibiotics stimulate intestinal microbiome, overweight, and larger bones
Compared to the groups, those who received amoxicillin, tylosin, or a mixture of them gained more weight and their bones became larger.
What was found was the interaction of both antibiotics with the gut microbiome in the gut, which is a combination of gut bacteria, in mice. Antibiotics altered existing bacterial species, as well as the number of genes with specific metabolic functions.
Dr. Blesser explained: These drugs change the shape of symbiotic microorganisms in terms of density in different organs of the body, their diversity, as well as what we call the structure of society or nature.
The results showed that tylosin had a stronger effect on the maturation of intestinal bacteria than amoxicillin and the stronger the number of periods of antibiotic use, the stronger the effect.
“After the second period of use, there was some suspension during puberty , and this suspension increased with the passage of the third period,” said Dr. Laura Cox, senior research assistant at the Department of Medicine at the New York School of Medicine in Lang.
Another interesting finding was the reduced ability of the intestinal bacteria of mice given antibiotics to adapt to changes in the environment. For example, when the diet of mice was changed to a high-fat diet, the intestinal bacteria of mice that did not take antibiotics adapted to the new environment overnight, but for some mice that received amoxicillin, It took weeks to adapt.
Dr. Cox added: “It took 2 months for mice that received tylosin to adapt their coexisting microorganisms to a high- fat diet .
The researchers note, however, that the consequences of these changes in gut bacteria and their potential impact on overweight and bone growth are unclear, adding that the results came from mice, not humans.
But the research team still emphasizes the obviousness of its findings on the negative impact of antibiotic use in childhood and on child development.
Because the antibiotics used in the experiment were all families of antibiotics prescribed for children, our findings show the stability of the effects, even at low doses of antibiotics in the early years of life. And this new model reflects the long-term effects on growth and metabolism, as evidenced by animal models and epidemiological studies.