Denmark researchers found an association between antibiotic usage and later development of type 2 diabetes. Just because there’s a linkage between antibiotics and type 2 diabetes doesn’t mean there is a direct causal relationship.
One possible way that antibiotics could cause diabetes, however, would be through alteration of gut germs (aka microbiome). An antibiotic may do a great job curing your urinary tract infection, while at the same time eliminating millions of certain gut bacteria and allowing other species to have a population explosion. One of the most fascinating fields of medicine now is trying to figure out if and how the billions of bacteria in our intestines might influence health and disease. F’rinstance, gut bacteria may influence whether we are fat or slim.
I bet if you graphed antibiotic use and incidence of type 2 diabetes over the last 50 years, they would trend together pretty well. Any volunteers to do that?
Steve Parker, M.D.
Paleo Diabetic 