Babies who are given antibiotics during the first six months of life are more likely to develop childhood allergies.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousBabies who are given antibiotics during the first six months of life are more likely to develop childhood allergies, asthma, hay fever, or other allergic diseases. The same effect would occur with antacid drugs.
This was revealed by a study led by Uniformed Services University, in Maryland, published in the journal Jama Pediatrics, for which the medical records of almost 800 children born between 2001 and 2013 were examined.
Researchers found that within four years, children who received antacids such as Pepcid or Zantac in the first six months of life were twice as likely to develop a food allergy and were 50% more likely to develop anaphylaxis. (a severe allergic reaction) or hay fever. And those who received antibiotics were twice as likely to develop asthma, while the chance of developing hay fever or anaphylaxis was at least 50 percent higher.
A systematic review
The researchers involved 792.130 children: 131.708 of them were given antibiotics and 60.209 histamine H2 receptor antagonists, while 13.687 were given proton pump inhibitors. These are medicines, for example, usually prescribed for gastroesophageal reflux.
After about four and a half years of observation, it was found that children who had taken antacid drugs early were more than twice as likely to have a food allergy than those who had not used them. The risk was particularly high for cow's milk allergy. Those who were given antibiotics had a 14% increased risk for food allergy, 51% for anaphylaxis, and more than double the risk for developing asthma.
How can this be explained? According to scholars, both antacids and antibiotics negatively affect the intestinal flora. Both antibiotics and acid suppressive drugs can interfere with the normal human microbiome and can directly cause intestinal dysbiosis, ultimately affecting the likelihood of allergy. Intestinal dysbiosis occurs when harmless bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract become unbalanced.
Acid suppression, according to studies, would increase the production of immunoglobulins E, associated with allergic and inflammatory diseases. So some of these reactions in the immune system resulting from altered microbiomes can appear as an allergy.
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, allergic diseases are on the rise. In fact, allergies affect up to 30% of adults and 40% of children and are the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the United States.
In short, the authors of this latest research state that those types of drugs can cause allergies, but further investigations will be needed. In the meantime, it must absolutely be said and reiterated that abusing drugs such as antibiotics - especially in infants - does not protect against future diseases, but rather makes the body gradually weaker.
Read also:
- Microbiota of newborns: this is what reduces the intestinal flora in the first year of life
- Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria - An Invisible Danger to Infants
- Natural antibiotics: 10 foods and herbs, real drugs
Germana Carillo
