Antibiotics have been in use since the early 1900’s and although considered as one of the greatest inventions in modern medicine, there are growing concerns due to their proliferative use in prescription drugs, over-the-counter topicals, agriculture and farming. The emergence of superbugs also known as drug-resistance bacteria is becoming so rampant, many are calling for a ban on the use of antibiotics in animal farming and our excessive antibiotic use especially in young children.
Antibiotics are commonly used in farming to promote animal growth. Many reported cases of severe human infections or even fatalities are caused by animal contact or consumption of animals, related to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Infections are becoming increasingly severe and difficult to treat. Bacteria continually mutate to increase their resistance, making them stronger and more difficult to eradicate. As a result, more powerful antibiotics are then compounded to combat the growing problem, but this only fuels the problem further.
Antibiotics that use to be considered as being very potent a decade ago are now just common antibiotics. It is very common now that a patient with a common upper respiratory tract infection or urinary tract infection to be prescribed multiple antibiotics and even require hospitalization. There is also the problem of antibiotics being over-prescribed even to very young children. How often does someone go to see the doctor for a cold or sore throat, and be prescribed an antibiotic? Many of these common infections can be dealt with by the body’s own immune system effectively. But instead of allowing the body to deal with the infection, we have become increasingly drug reliant, which makes the immune system even weaker and less able to deal with common infections.
Antibiotics also eradicate the body’s probiotics or good bacteria, which constitutes an extremely important part of our natural immunity. People become more susceptible to yeast, viral and bacterial infections after taking antibiotics. There are many “natural antibiotics” and immune boosters that can be considered for common infections. The benefit of natural agents is that they rarely eradicate our probiotics and it is much more difficult for microbes to develop resistance to them. Next time you get an infection, try natural options before considering an antibiotic.
