“We’re at the point where the antibiotic cupboard is almost bare. We are victims of our own blindness. We have been taking too many of them and new, deadlier organisms, like the powerful drug-resistant tuberculosis strain, have been emerging as a result.”
Jeffrey A. Fisher, M.D.“
The Plague Makers”
Study says doctors overuse antibiotics
AP: Doctors wrote 12 million antibiotic prescriptions in a single year for colds, bronchitis and other respiratory infections against which drugs are almost always useless, a study found. Such indiscriminate use of antibiotics has contributed to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, a growing problem in the United States.
BACTERIA FACTS
The Dutch merchant and amateur scientist Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) was the first person to observe bacteria and other microorganisms. Using single-lens microscopes of his own design, he described bacteria and other microorganisms (calling them "animalcules") in a series of letters to the Royal Society of London between 1674 and 1723.
Bacteria are generally classified into three groups based on their shape. They are described as spherical (coccus), rodlike (bacillus), or spiral or corkscrew (spirochete [pronounced SPY-ruh-keet] or spirilla). Some bacteria also have a shape like that of a comma and are known as vibrio.
Bacteria most commonly reproduce by fission, the process by which a single cell divides to produce two new cells. The process of fission may take anywhere from 15 minutes to 16 hours, depending on the type of bacterium.
A number of factors influence the rate at which bacterial growth occurs, the most important of which are moisture, temperature, and ph.
Most bacteria require a pH of 6.7 to 7.5 (slightly more or less acidic than pure water). Other bacteria, however, can survive at a pH more severe than that of battery acid.
Many people go to their doctors and request antibiotics when they have a cold. Antibiotics have no effect on the vast majority of colds that are viral in nature and toxic side effects often occur.
Taking antibiotics for colds are is not only dangerous, but also a tremendous waste of time and financial resources, a fact that has been repeated by many leading scientists and health care authorities.
The livestock industry is a major source of the antibiotic overuse that has led to bacterial resistance. IT ALONE PURCHASES OVER ONE-HALF OF ALL ANTIBIOTICS SOLD. The drugs are incorporated into feed in order to kill bacteria that stunt the growth of animals. However, this gives resistant bacteria the opportunity to develop and multiply. As a result, when you eat these animals, you become infected with the resistant strains. Cooking the meat will kill the bacteria, but the antibiotic remains in the flesh and is absorbed into your bloodstream when the meat is consumed.
“Infections caused by resistant microorganisms often fail to respond to conventional treatment, resulting in prolonged illness and greater risk of death. About 440 000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) emerge annually, causing at least 150 000 deaths.”
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
“Adverse events from antibiotics cause an estimated 142,000 emergency department visits per year in the United States.”
SCIENCE DAILY
“Penicillin-resistant pneumonia is on the rise and most cases have occurred in people who have had recent antibiotic therapy. In 2010, deaths from pneumonia outnumbered those from automobile accidents.”
Antibiotic therapy is not an effective treatment against otitis media (ear infection) and rates of recurrent infection are significantly higher in children who have been treated with antibiotics.” 8
Journal of the AMA
“Chronic middle ear problems in children have not diminished, despite the number of antibiotics being used to treat them. We have created a whole new kind of ear problem. We have used antibiotics so excessively in the 1st year of life that we have depressed the development of the child’s immune system” 9
Walter Belenky, M.D.
When antibiotics are given early in life, the recipient has a greater chance of becoming obese. Researchers discovered that when antibiotics were given during a critical part of early development, the bacteria or microbes in the digestive system were reprogrammed
Scientists say that disrupting the bacterial make-up of the gastrointestinal tract could affect the way the body’s metabolism works. A slower metabolic lead to obesity, because the body does not burn calories as quickly.
Childhood obesity creates a substantial increase in family expenses with the price tag coming out to $19,000 per child,according to researchers from Duke Global Health Institute and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in who published their findings in the journal Pediatrics.
“Infancy is a time of growth and development where stem cells are dividing —they’re choosing if they’re going to become muscle or fat or bone. There have been other studies that show changes early in infancy can impact body composition later on. We know microbes can affect metabolism, so potentially these metabolic early life interactions could be either speeding up a child’s growth or not.”
Laura Cox, Ph.D.
Childhood obesity
Our bodies contain complex and powerful disease-fighting weapons, consisting primarily of the immune system which works 24 hours a day attacking and destroying foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses. When this system is functioning at an optimum level, the body can best combat invading microbes. Many of the characteristic symptoms of illness, such as fever and swollen glands, are signs that the immune system processes are proceeding on schedule.
Medical science is beginning to realize that the key to fighting and preventing illness is by strengthening the degree of natural immunity, the natural body defenses and the overall vitality of the individual
Whenever the immune system deals successfully with an infection, it emerges from the experience stronger and better able to confront similar threats in the future. Our immune system develops in combat. If, at the first sign of infection, you always jump in with antibiotics, you do not give the immune system a chance to grow stronger.”
ANDREW WEIL, M.D.
“In a state of health, people are shut off from the invasion of germs.”
Louis Pasteur
