OBESITY and weight gain may be a side effect of excessive antibiotic treatment in humans and persistent use of antibiotics in livestock. Some scientists now believe that antibiotics might be fuelling the obesity epidemic by messing with our intestinal bacteria.
Modern research indicates that obesity is tied to the composition of our intestinal bacteria and new theories are linking antibiotics to a sharp rise in obesity.
Antibiotics, by design, disrupt the balance of good and bad bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract, often killing off both beneficial and harmful microorganisms without distinction.
Through this same mechanism, antibiotics may also be causing you to pack on extra pounds.
Antibiotics target “a particular disease the way a nuclear bomb targets a criminal, causing much collateral damage,” says Karen Kaplan in the Los Angeles Times. Incidental victims include a whole host of microbes that actually help us, and our friendly flora never fully recover.
The unintended targets of antibiotics might also include our waistlines. The latest obesity science suggests antibiotics may lead to weight gain in the following ways:
> They may alter your gut bacteria and interfere with important hunger hormones secreted by your stomach, leading to increased appetite and body fat.
> They may change the way food is absorbed in your intestines, making more calories available to your body.
That may be one of reasons why antibiotics is used as a growth promoter in for animals. 70% of our antibiotics are used in animals.