Teens with prediabetes are more likely to have taken antibiotics in the first three years of life, according to a Greek study.
Antibiotics have long been a miracle cure for all kinds of infections. The many Health Insurance campaigns have since drawn a red line between viral diseases, against which these treatments have no effect, and bacterial diseases, such as ear infections, which are treated with antibiotics. The objective: to curb the appearance of bacterial resistance, against which the therapeutic options are still very limited. But antibiotics are also known to disrupt the intestinal flora by suppressing certain good bacteria. In children, they could thus create a metabolic disorder.
“Increased antibiotic intake up to age 3 appears to decrease beneficial gut microbes and impair nutrient absorption and metabolic balance. This can lead to prediabetes, an early stage associated with a high risk of type 2 diabetes, ”explains Dr Charikleia Stefanaki, researcher in pediatric endocrinology, at the University of Athens, Greece, a country which holds the European record. consumption of antibiotics.
A risk multiplied by 8.5 times
Researchers looked at the records of 10 prediabetic adolescents and 14 healthy participants, aged 12 to 17. According to their results, adolescents who took antibiotics from birth to age 3 were 8.5 times more likely to develop pre-diabetes. While a family history of autoimmune diseases only increases the risk by 1.75 times compared to the control group. On average, young people with pre-diabetes had taken antibiotics three times a year during their early childhood.
The stool analysis of pre-diabetic adolescents contained less ruminococcus, the colonies that feed bacteria that are beneficial to the gut. A depletion which would therefore be at the origin of the unfavorable changes in the microbiota, and which would increase the risk of the development of prediabetes. Dr Stefanaki’s advice is simple: protect children’s intestinal flora during antibiotic treatments, by giving them probiotics – these living microorganisms that are found in particular in yogurts or cereals – and prebiotics – complex sugars , which will serve as “food” and support for probiotics.
A risk multiplied by 8.5 times
Posted by Why doctor on Sunday April 10, 2016
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