NEW YORK, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Overuse of antibiotics to eradicate dangerous bacteria presents the possibility of permanently killing off beneficial bacteria as well, a U.S. researcher says.
Martin Blaser, chair of the department of medicine at New York University's Langone Medical Center, warns the widespread use of antibiotics may be having unintended consequences, causing permanent changes to the body's protective, "friendly" bacteria and harm to the body's natural defense system.
A child in the United States or other developed countries has had an average of 10 to 20 doses of antibiotics by age 18, an NYU release said Wednesday.
Antibiotics have helped improve health and increase life expectancy, but are non-discriminatory and destroy even friendly bacteria, scientists say.
Some of the beneficial bacteria may never recover and such extinctions could lead to increased susceptibility to infections and diseases such as obesity, allergies and asthma, inflammatory bowel disease and type 1 diabetes, they warn.
In a commentary published in the journal Nature, Blaser argues that widespread use of antibiotics should be replaced with narrow spectrum, more-targeted drugs.
"I believe that doctors of the future will be replacing "lost" members of our normal flora in young children to diminish the risk of development of these important and chronic diseases," Blaser said.
