4 Topic Commentaries

Infant infections tied to later obesity

• 

  Brian S. Schwartz, MD, MS

  Environmental epidemiology; population health

  •

  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  Your BMI may be forever altered by the antibiotics you take as a child.

  Source
• 

  Nathan K. LeBrasseur, PhD

  Aging biology; physiology

  •

  Mayo Clinic

  We want to emphasize that this study shows association ― not causation ― of these conditions.

  Source
• 

  Noel T. Mueller, PhD, MPH

  Epidemiology; microbiome and metabolic health

  •

  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  You're essentially free of microbes in the intrauterine environment, and then your first microbial exposure happens at birth. Those microbes teach your immune system and body what's friend and what's foe and participate in metabolism and generation of nutrients.

  Source
• 

  Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, PhD

  Microbiome; microbiology; early-life development

  •

  Rutgers University

  As these infants grow, they have higher risk of obesity, and of modern plagues like diabetes, allergies and asthma.

  Source