Although the link has been widely accepted, no major study has ever confirmed that the drugs – coupled with a ‘clean’ environment – are a major cause of the rising epidemic of IBD, especially in the US and Europe.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School compared around 24,000 new IBD patients against 28,000 of their siblings and 117,000 healthy controls. Those who had taken antibiotics were twice as likely to have CBD than someone who had never taken the drugs.
Although antibiotics are a major cause, IBD is also linked to ‘cleaner’ environments, including increased sanitation.
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(Source: Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 2020; doi: 10.1016/S2468-1253(20)30267-3)
