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Health

Antibiotics may make you fat

By Jessica Hamzelou

28 March 2012

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Growing concern

(Image: Mike Kemp/Getty Images)

Editorial:Antibiotics are wonder drugs no more

THE trillions of bacteria that colonise our guts are in jeopardy. Overusing antibiotics has not only led to the development of dangerous superbugs, but has changed the bacteria that live inside us. Now evidence suggests that new gut floras may be responsible for our expanding waistlines.

Antibiotic use has been rising for the past 70 years. They are now often prescribed as a precaution for illnesses when the cause has not been confirmed as a bacterial infection. , a microbiologist at New York University, fears…

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