Antibiotics Exposure during infancy associated with Childhood Obesity.

The Request: That I write an article on a 2020 groundbreaking research that revealed that a link was discovered between exposure to antibiotics during infancy and childhood obesity.

The research topic was given to members of my group as part of a project on Google Classroom. I remember handling it as irresponsibly as ever - by just leaving it all until the last minute. It was a risky and admittedly unwise thing to do, but I couldn't do anything more.

The pandemic was doing a lot of terrible stuff to my mental health, and school was becoming nothing more than a pain. Sooner or later, the online schooling system could not be sustained by the school, so it's abandoned, and I was free.

Free to focus on Read.Cash, that is (winks).

Either way, I shouldered the responsibility of writing this because I told my group members I was fairly good at writing articles and projects. And it was also because they were all too lazy to do the research and so agreed to offer monetary compensation to whoever agreed to do it.

I needed the money and I was willing to do it, so I agreed.

If they knew how I risked all their assessment scores, I guess they wouldn't ever entrust something like this into my hands again, but I got away with it this time so I guess it doesn't matter anymore, now does it?

Either way, let's get down to the article

*****

With the global health crisis ravaging countries all over the world, the attention of the healthcare system is often diverted. This has made some countries neglect other illnesses affecting individuals, especially the poor and vulnerable community. Diseases like Malaria, HIV, and AIDS, and Cancer continue to pose threats to the lives of people worldwide. With the sudden surge in cases of Kawasaki disease that causes inflammation in the blood vessels of individuals, the majority being children, there is now a sudden wake-up call. Public health authorities are now paying closer attention to the health of children, who may be more vulnerable than people like to think.

Childhood Obesity is one of the major conditions that lead to fatal diseases. In childhood obesity, a child weighs far much more than they should for their age and height. The condition is one of those that consistently puts a strain on the pediatric practice, as it is a stepping stone to more dangerous conditions. Obesity can lead to the accumulation of fats, especially cholesterol in the blood vessels of a child. This can lead to High Blood Pressure and High Cholesterol levels, which if left unchecked, can result in heart diseases and even heart attacks later in life. Another condition linked to childhood obesity, which is the presence of excess sugar in the bloodstream.

Recently, scientists have been researching various other triggers and causes of childhood obesity. Of course, aside from negligence and simple indiscipline in eating habits, and obsessive-compulsive eating disorders, they are interested in whether there are other physiological or pathological causes of the condition. And this research has paid off in a breakthrough discovery which has been published in the scientific journal, the International Journal of Obesity.

Scientists at various institutions in the country of Singapore have discovered that the use of antibiotics in infancy could set off a series of events that could result in childhood obesity. The institutions include the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, the KK Women's and Children's Hospital, and the Singapore Institute for Clinical Science. These studies were performed using mice and it was found that infantile use of antibiotics could result in metabolic abnormalities that may cause childhood obesity. Limited results pertaining to this research were obtained from human tests, reports state.

The explanation behind the study isn't exactly 'rocket science' so it's pretty simple to understand. The human gut relies on the microbial agents which live in its various organs for various processes of metabolism, which include proper digestion of food particles. Antibiotics do play a good role in helping the immune system fight bacterial infections, but can at times destroy the good microbes within the gut. And the research suggests that this destruction of the microbes at such an early age can play a role in weight gain and the development of obesity around a child's teenage years.

Furthermore, the study states that boys could be more vulnerable to this process, though not stating how. Perhaps further studies could shed more light on this discovery and ways to overcome the weight gain process.

*****

The verdict: My introduction and conclusion could have been better. I didn't really complain, because I literally submitted this a minute before the deadline, so it wasn't my best work. But at least we managed to get a 7/10, so it was satisfactory for my team members.

They would obviously flip if they find out that they could have gotten better marks if I'd been just a bit more serious about this. I pray they don't read this article, lol.

My final words in this? Aside from fiction writing, which is hands down my best area to write about, health-related topics also pique my interest a bit. I',m interested in the body, not necessarily from a medical student aspect, but I'm just intrigued about how the body works and what affects it.

I might have been under a lot of stress when I wrote this, but I did enjoy it for a bit. And I read the articles and researched more after I had submitted them, just to satisfy my curiosity.

I hope it was an interesting read for you too.