I agree. While antibiotics are absolute lifesavers in some situations, their overuse is going to cause humanity some awful problems in coming years.
I also wonder if we aren't also hurting ourselves as individuals by using antibiotics for less severe infections. Does the immune system function as effectively if it never has to deal with infections all by itself?
I just see all these kids who were given antibiotics a lot in infancy and early childhood who seem to catch everything that comes along - not just bacterial infections, but viruses as well - and get sicker and stay sick longer than other kids. I wonder how often their problems with illness are genetic and how often they are caused by an underdeveloped immune system.
Does anyone know if there has been any credible research on this topic?
It's near and dear to me since I have two nieces who definitely fall into the "always sick" category. Multiple cases of strep throat, many ear infections when young, one had chickenpox twice - and I could go on and on.
I also wonder about that. My 2 year old daughter is constantly coming down with ear infections, viruses (sp?) etc. I'm also catching a lot of stuff nowadays. I do know that without the antibiotics, I believe she and I both would be in BIG trouble right now. It seems I catch at least 1 or 2 bugs every year that just won't go away on their own.
>>>It's near and dear to me since I have two nieces who definitely fall into the "always sick" category. Multiple cases of strep throat, many ear infections when young, one had chickenpox twice - and I could go on and on.>>>
I think it isn't as much over use of antibiotics as under ingestion of antioxidants. Snack foods, junk food, canned and over processed vegetables (when they are eaten because they certainly aren't pushed in school) are affecting our children one generation at a time.
Unfortunately I haven't seen much credible research on the subject. I imagine this is from a combination of reasons, one of which, yes, is that big companies fund a lot of research, and big pharmaceutical companies are probably not going to do backflips over funding research into avoiding taking pharmaceuticals.
That's certainly not the only reason, though. It seems likely that studies on this topic would have to be over the course of years, and hence very expensive and difficult to control.
This is frustrating to me, and probably to other people, because these arguments that taking a lot of anti-biotics is a bad thing make a lot of sense to me but I have no way to back it up. The best I can do is say that I know a few professional organic chemists and they all say to try to avoid taking anti-biotics if you can. I know that doesn't hold weight with anyone who doesn't know the same people, but it's the only real argument I can give other than that it just seems right.
It's more work to avoid anti-biotic remedies, to be sure, but I think it's usually worth it in the long run.