Antibiotics use can turn children into diseased adults.New study has shown that antibiotics affect the gut bacteria of children leading to the weakening of the immune system and various diseases.
The classic antibiotics that doctors usually prescribe can transform the bacteria living in the gut of children making them vulnerable to infections, allergies and different problems with the autoimmune system.Antibiotics use can also cause children to develop obesity as they grow up, new study states.
During the last year, researchers have analysed hundreds of studies and discovered that there is a strong connection between antibiotic use, the transformation of gut bacteria and the way the body responds to diseases as children grow up, explained the senior author of the study Dan Knights from the University of Minnesota.
Antibiotics are the most common medication prescribed to children and represent around a quarter of the drugs taken by children. The study showed that up to 30% of these prescribed medicine are considered useless arrive to alter even more the condition of the child.
According to medical experts, diseases involving our immune system are developing at an increased rate and what is even more worrying is the fact that in many of the situations no one knows for sure what is causing this.
In general, patients are aware about the risks they expose themselves to, when taking antibiotics and the side effects they might encounter. Even so, they consider that side effects are something minor and keep on taking the drugs even if they know antibiotics are useless against viruses. People agree to take them just in case, explained researchers.
Gut bacteria are a very important presence in the health of a child. For example, when it comes to allergies, antibiotics use may kill the gut bacteria that is responsible for helping immune cells grow up.
The link between antibiotics and the transformation of gut bacteria can lead to obesity, as the short chain fatty acids may reach a level that can affect the well functioning of the body.
Nowadays viruses and bacteria are mutating and are becoming more powerful and have developed a resistance to many of the antibiotics on the market. This situation leads experts to keep on creating newer and more powerful medication that would fight this kind of diseases.
Even so, many scientists have warned the population about the dangers of antibiotic use and advised them to pay attention as this drug may lead to serious diseases as time goes by.
This new study, may help to the creation of further research which will establish what antibiotic use really means to our system and in what situation doctors should prescribe them, stated professor Knight.