A new study has found that intake of specific types of antibiotics on regular basis may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

The researchers concluded the major finding after looking at a clinical database of a million people in the UK.

According to the researchers, the people who were prescribed two or more courses of certain types of antibiotics by their doctors for over a certain period of time tend to increase their chances of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in comparison to those who had never been recommended such antibiotics or they had just one course.

For the study, the research group looked at around 200,000 diabetic patients and the history of number of antibiotic prescriptions given to them at least one year prior to their diagnosis with the condition.

The number of antibiotics was then compared with another number of antibiotics that were prescribed to 800,000 non-diabetic people. All the participants belonged to same average age group.

It was found that both groups shared the same ratio of men to women. About 50 percent of the participants were prescribed antibiotics at some point of time during the study period. The researchers found that the chances of developing diabetes grew with the number of antibiotics’ courses prescribed to the people.

The findings have, however, not made clear that how the repeated antibiotics use is associated with increasing diabetes risk.

“An imbalance in gut bacteria has been previously linked to the mechanisms behind obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes in animal and human studies,” said Dr. Ben Boursi, lead study author and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.

The researchers, however, clarified that the study findings do not necessarily suggest that the antibiotics trigger diabetes. But the results do imply that the evident infections triggered by the antibiotics may be an alarming sign of diabetes.

The findings of the study were published in the European Journal of Endocrinology.