Heavy use of antibiotics may increase patients’ risk of developing diabetes, according to a large study released yesterday.
The drugs could wreak collateral damage on “friendly” gut bacteria that play an important role in regulating the body’s energy consumption and immune system, scientists suggested.
The number of people in the UK with type 2 diabetes has risen by almost 60 per cent over the past decade to 3.3 million. The disease costs the NHS almost £10 billion a year, about a tenth of its budget. While experts point to the rise of obesity as the chief cause, scientists are also looking for other factors.
Academics in Denmark examined the antibiotic prescriptions for 1.5 million people, 170,000 of whom had diabetes, over 17 years. On average each diabetes patient took 0.8 prescriptions a year, compared with 0.5 for those without the disease. Crucially, people who developed diabetes during the study tended to have started to take significantly more antibiotics up to 15 years beforehand.
Kristian Hallundbaek Mikkelsen, of the University of Copenhagen, who led the research, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, said it was hard to prove that intensive antibiotic use caused diabetes but his team had found a strong link. Earlier studies have shown that the drugs alter the balance of bacteria in the gut, possibly affecting the rate at which the body processes sugar.
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“Diabetes is one of the greatest challenges facing modern healthcare,” he said. “Further investigation into long-term effects of antibiotic use on sugar metabolism and gut bacteria composition could reveal valuable answers about how to address the public health crisis.”
Dr Mikkelsen also suggested that doctors might be able to gauge their patients’ risk of developing the disease better by tracking antibiotic use.
It is possible that patients with the early symptoms of the disease simply suffer more infections.
The results appear to confirm the findings of a study of more than 200,000 British patients in March, which also revealed a strong link between the drugs and the disease.
Mark Wilcox, professor of medical microbiology at Leeds General Royal Infirmary, said: “It is plausible that the detrimental effects of antibiotics on the bacteria in our gut can lead to diseases that are due to malfunctioning of body control mechanisms. Experiments in animals have shown that antibiotics can affect weight and blood pressure.”