Giving antacids and antibiotics to babies can lead to allergies

Follow me on Twitter @drClaire Allergies are on the rise, especially food allergies. While nobody knows for sure why this is happening, a leading theory is that we may be doing things that mess up our natural microbiome. Our microbiome is the trillions of organisms that live on and in our bodies, such as bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses. We generally think of these organisms as “germs” that can cause illness — and while they can, in some situations it turns out that the right organisms in the right balance actually help keep us healthy. Our microbiome affects how we digest foods, stay at a healthy weight, fight infection, and stave off diseases like diabetes. Through its link to our immune system, our microbiome is thought to be linked to our risk of allergic reactions. Two common types of medications, antacids and antibiotics, can mess up our microbiome. Antibiotics do it by killing not just the bacteria that make us sick, but also the bacteria that help keep us healthy. As for antacids, by making the stomach less acidic they make it more likely that bacteria from the mouth (that are normally killed by the acid in the stomach when swallowed) make it down into the intestine. Those mouth bacteria can crowd out the bacteria that our intestines need to function normally. In a study published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers studied almost 800,000 children from birth to about 4 years of age. They looked to see if the children got antacids or antibiotics in the first six...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Allergies Children's Health Parenting Source Type: blogs