Newly published research on household cleaning products is showing a surprising connection to unhealthiness between overusing those products and childhood obesity.

Everyone has heard the claims in commercials.

“It kills 99.9 percent of germs and bacteria.”  

And, there’s the rub.

Overuse of household disinfectants and detergents may lead to childhood obesity by increasing a certain type of gut bacteria called Lachnospiraceae.

Anita Kozyrskyj — professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and contributing author to the study — said gut bacteria is “vital to certain body functions as the production of vitamins and the absorption of food. In infants they’re critical to the development of the immune system.”

Researchers involved in the study collected fecal samples of infants and then compared those against other samples as those same children aged.  

Kozyrskyj said, “Infants living in households with high use of disinfectants had more of the Lachnospiraceae compared to those who lived in households who did not use disinfectants frequently.” 

She added that next steps in the research would include trying to determine specific chemicals present in the cleaners that are responsible for increasing the bacteria