Repeated courses of certain antibiotics associated with increased diabetes risk

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

Repeated use of penicillins, cephalosporins, quinolones, and macrolides may increase people's risk of developing type 2 diabetes by changing their gut flora, a recent study published in the European Journal of Endocrinology has shown.

Researchers from the Departments of Gastroenterology and Medical Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, analyzed data from over 200,000 diabetics in the UK prescribed antibiotics in the years before diagnosis and compared the number of antibiotic prescriptions to the number prescribed to 800,000 non-diabetics.

Results showed that patients who were prescribed at least two courses of penicillins, cephalosporins, quinolones, and macrolides were at an increased risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Researchers also found that the risk increased with repeated antibiotic courses. The researchers suggest that the association between antibiotic use and diabetes may be due to antibiotics altering the diversity of gut bacteria.

Researchers found no that suggests anti-virals or anti-fungals increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and minimal evidence to support a link between antibiotics and an increased risk of type 1 diabetes.

The findings emphasize the necessity to decrease the number of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.