Antibiotics are wondrous, life-saving medicines, but using them in our earliest years may actually increase our risk of later developing allergies, suggests new research presented this week at the annual European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in London, England.
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Babies exposed to antibiotics are at greater risk of developing allergies later in life, according to Dutch research.
Researchers analysed the records of almost 400,000 patients to find a link between antibiotic use and development of allergies such as hayfever and eczema.
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about antibiotics.
The use of antibiotics in early life increased the risk of eczema by between 15 to 41 per cent, according to the findings. Studies were included that assessed the association between antibiotic consumption during the first 2 years of life and the risk of eczema or hay fever later in life.
The group of researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands held this research and Tuesday; they represented the complete outcomes through a doctoral journal. Though their review is yet to be published, there are independent scientists who cautiously agree with their overall conclusion.
Bristol University Professor of Paediatrics Professor Adam Finn warned that the findings add to existing evidence that there can be many downsides to using antibiotics. Without these early interactions, however, the immune system is more likely to become hypersensitive to normally harmless environmental triggers, causing allergies. The authors suggest the mechanism behind this effect is the immunomodulatory effect of antibiotics, and the disruption of the microorganisms (microbiome) in the gut caused by antibiotics which can lead to reduce immune responses.
“They should not be used unless they are really needed”, he explained.
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Moreover, the study also says that the risks of skin itchiness and fever are higher among those who had taken two courses of antibiotics than the people received who had taken one course of antibiotics when they were two years old or less than that.
