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Taking too many antibiotics could damage your liver and raise your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. A new study that was  published in Gastroenterology, which is an official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute made it known that antibiotics are the single largest class of agents that cause idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (DILI). DILI is the most common cause of death from acute liver failure and it is caused by a wide variety of prescription and non-prescription medications, nutritional supplements as well as herbal drugs.

“DILI is a serious health problem that impacts patients, physicians, government regulators and the pharmaceutical industry,” said Naga P. Chalasani, MD, of the Indiana University School of Medicine, who is also the lead author of the study.

Supporting this claim, Medicinet, which is an online health journal cited a popular antibiotic Augumentin saying it can cause cholestasis, a liver condition that occur when the excretion of bile from the liver is interrupted.

“Augmentin-induced cholestasis is uncommon, but has been implicated in hundreds of cases of clinically apparent acute liver injury. Symptoms of cholestasis like jaundice, nausea, itching usually occur about 1-6 weeks after starting Augmentin, but the onset of liver disease can occur weeks after stopping Augmentin. Most patients recover fully in weeks to months after stopping the medication, but rare cases of liver failure, cirrhosis, and liver transplantation have been reported." The report also said "Other antibiotics have been reported to cause liver disease. Some examples include minocycline, which is an antibiotic related to tetracycline, and Cotrimoxazole, which is a combination of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim)."

In a similar development, another research showed a clear link between antibiotics and diabetes. The researchers, whose findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, conducted their studies on 1.3 million Danish people without diabetes and 170,404 with the disease.

The study found that people who received five or more antibiotic prescriptions over a period of up to 15 years were associated with a 53 per cent increase in risk of developing type 2 diabetes, in comparison with those given antibiotics just once, or never.

The researchers discovered that while antibiotics are designed to kill the bacteria that cause infections, the drugs also kill off some of the good bacteria in the gut, which are known to influence digestion and metabolism.

The study author, Dr Kristian Mikkelsen, who is from Gentofte Hospital in Hellerup, Denmark, said: ‘In our research, we found people who have type 2 diabetes used significantly more antibiotics up to 15 years prior to diagnosis compared to healthy controls. “Although we cannot infer causality from this study, the findings raise the possibility that antibiotics could raise the risk of type 2 diabetes. An alternative explanation could be that people with as-yet undiagnosed diabetes may be more prone to infection. Another equally compelling explanation may be that people develop type 2 diabetes over the course of years and face a greater risk of infection during that time.”

The experts suggest that doctors who repeatedly over-prescribe the drugs should be sanctioned.