If you’re trying to fight obesity, then you know how hard it is to lose weight–and now new research shows that calories may not be the only reason you’re fatter.
According to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, antibiotics may be causing you to have a bigger physique.
Martin Blaser, physician and head of the human microbiome program at New York University, says he first uncovered this link after comparing increasing rates of obesity and antibiotic use in the United States.
“When I lined up those two maps, they were almost identical,” says Blaser, who has been studying obesity and antibiotic use for over a decade. “At some level, the relationship has been known on the farm for generations. Livestock producers have long been using tiny doses of antibiotics in their herds to grow bigger animals faster.”
The Study
Analyzing data on antibiotic use in 2010 among adult Americans, researcher Lauri A. Hicks, who also works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, expected to find higher antibiotic use in states with higher elderly populations, such as Florida. Yet when she looked at the data, that wasn’t the case: Antibiotic use was only average among Floridians.
Instead, she found that states that had the most antibiotic use included certain southern states, such as Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
After examining the data, however, Hicks discovered something even more strange: Higher rates of antibiotic use occurred in states with the highest obesity rates.
To Hicks, this couldn’t just be a coincidence–it had to mean the two factors were related.
“There might be reasons that more obese people need antibiotics,” says Hicks. “But it also could be that antibiotic use is leading to obesity.”
To further prove her point, Hicks says that prescribing rates for antibiotics around the world vary widely, with Europeans using less antibiotics than Americans. Sweden, for instance, uses antibiotics only 53 percent as much as Americans, and boasts one of the lowest obesity rates in the world, only outmatched by Korea, Japan, and Norway. In contrast, the United States has one of the highest obesity rates worldwide–and that number continues to increase.
“Prescribing rates for outpatient antibiotics vary markedly, not only within the United States, but also around the world,” says Hicks. “Antibiotic prescribing in Europe is generally lower than in the United States, and Ternhag and Hellman indicate that Sweden’s rate is 53% lower than the U.S. rate. Unlike in Sweden, initial analyses to understand the variation in prescribing rates according to geographic area in the United States do not suggest that population density is playing a role.”
To make matters worse, this hasn’t been the first time antibiotic use has been correlated with a higher obesity rate. In an earlier study this year, a study presented at The Obesity Society Annual Scientific Meeting showed that babies given multiple antibiotics were 20 percent more likely to be obese toddlers.
As for the reasons why, researchers could only speculate–but did find that babies put on certain medications were more likely to have asthma, which can also increase a child’s risk of obesity.
Bottom line? Antibiotics can ruin your slim figure–even if you’re trying to eat right.
Readers: Do you take antibiotics regularly or not?
Sources:
Study: Antibiotics Linked to Obesity in Infants – MedScape.com
Study: Obesity and Antibiotics Linked in Several States – NEJM.org
Midwest and South Home to Obesity, Antibiotic Overuse – KansasCity.com
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