HEALTH: Early Antibiotics Exposure Ups Risk Of Allergies Later In Life.

The researchers selected 22 studies involving 394,517 patients to study eczema risk and 22 studies involving 256,609 participants to study hay fever risk. Twelve of those studies (64,638 patients) had observational data on both conditions.

On analysis, it was found that when children are exposed to antibiotics in early life, the risk of eczema heightened, with a 15 to 41 percent increase. Early life antibiotic consumption also resulted in an increased risk of hay fever by 14 percent to 56 percent. The risk of eczema and hay fever were found to be higher when the children were given two or more courses of antibiotics for the conditions.

Though the reason behind the findings is unclear, the researchers suggest that the antibiotics could be altering the immune system of young children by disrupting the microorganisms in the gut.

The human gut is a mini-biosphere inhabited by microorganisms which impact the health of the rest of the body — and we still don’t have enough understanding of how it all works.