“War on Bacteria is Wrongheaded”

Author: [Cerebrl] | Category: Biology, Health and Medicine | 11-20-08
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Snipped from LiveScience.com.

Okay, I am posting this, so I do not have to repeat myself ever again! Yes, antibiotic medication, antibiotic soap, antibiotic laundry detergent, antibiotic toy cleaner, antibiotic hand wipes, antibiotic hand lotion and antibiotic antibiotics … let me make this very clear … are ruining you, and our environment! Stop trying to sterilize everything, just stop it!

I was out of town this last weekend for a wedding of a friend of mine. Since he knew I was in the process of studying medicine, he pulled me to the side asking me what I knew about Clostridium difficile. He has this GI infection that is giving him problems, so he went to the doctor. Can you guess what the doctor gave him? Antibiotics.

You may say, “So, that’s what they are supposed to do. You have a bacterial infection, treat it with antibiotics, right?” You would think, but that is because you are “brain trained” (yes, that is copyrighted by me) into thinking that bacteria are bad.

What you don’t know is 99% of bacteria are actually harmless, and many of them are beneficial. By antibioticizing the bacteria out of you and your environment, you are killing all of them, even the ones that help you live. This assists any bad bacteria that may enter your system because it has less competition to survive.

Plus, you are encouraging evolution. You are allowing some to become antibiotic resistant. Even worse, they have recently found bacteria that can feed off of antibiotics. And here I thought I wouldn’t write much for this article …

So, what should we do? Double up on the good bacteria. Use the bacteria that nature put on us and in us to out compete the ones we don’t want. What I am talking about are probiotics, and there have already been clinical trials that have shown probiotics for preventing all kinds of things, but that is another story.

Now that I have spent more writing than I originally wanted, here is a small portion of the article:

Pity the poor bacterium, the Rodney Dangerfield of the unicellular world. It eats our trash, makes soil fertile, turns the food we swallow into useful vitamins, and yet it gets no respect. Most people, when you get right down to it, are just plain bacteria bigots. They want to run all 2,000-plus species of bacteria out of town just because of a few ornery germs that can harm us.

And now, it seems, our pursuit of a bacteria-free world is making us sick. Got antibacterial soap? It could be doing you more harm than good.

A study published this month in Chest (trust me, it’s a medical journal) finds that antibiotic exposure during infancy is associated with asthma. This follows a string of studies from the past few years, such as those from the Immune Tolerance Network, revealing that early exposure to harmful bacteria builds a healthy immune system. Kids exposed to endotoxin-releasing bacteria, for example, are less likely to be allergic to dogs and cats.

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  • Tomac -- I agree that antibiotics have their use, but it should remain rare and one of the last measures of choice. When the bacterial infection is "out-of-control," I don't have a problem with the use of antibiotics. Fortunately, an "out-of-control" infection is rare in the average human as most infections are managed by our immune system, but antibiotics are being prescribed like candy. Here are some of situations where early prescription (or prevention) is good:

    -Those with chronic respiratory conditions (eg. asthmatics) with upper respiratory infections.
    -Those that are post-operational.
    -Those with compromised immune systems.
    -The very young and the very old.
    -Those with fevers greater 103 for a prolonged period.

    Since this does not describe the masses, we have a problem. I remember a friend of mine brought his 5 year old child in to the doctor's for poison ivy and walked out with an oral antibiotic. He said, "just in case he infects his scratch." This is ridiculous. We have to stop thinking that antibiotics don't have any side effects or consequences to their use.

    [Getting off soapbox]

    Thank you for your comment Tomac. We hope to hear from you again.
  • Tomac
    I think you are perhaps underestimating the degree to which an out-of-control bacterial colony can wreck up a human body. sometimes the only option is carpet-bombing, as it were. I agree that they are severely overused.
  • Hey Kilgore, I am hanging in there, how are you?

    The treatment of livestock is a pretty disgusting thing, I don't know if you have actually researched some of it, but most, you don't want to know about. But, hey, the FDA says there's no difference between milk from cows or chickens shot up with everything under the sun, and organically fed and treated cows. So, I am sure there is nothing wrong with it ... right?

    It's good to hear from you, don't be a stranger.

    [Cerebrl]
  • First off, HEY!!! long time no talk. How are ya?

    I agree that this is an important issue, another part that I'm sure you're very aware of but wasn't mentioned is the insane amounts of antibiotics used with, I almost said farm animals but those aren't farms anymore, livestock.
    I've never heard of probiotics before but the concept is interesting. Although I guess the basic concept is already starting to go mainstream with things like that Yogurt with extra microbes.
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