Posted on 04/30/2014 9:41:21 PM PDT by neverdem
You never get something for nothing, especially not in health care. Every test, every incision, every little pill brings benefits and risks.
Nowhere is that balance tilting more ominously in the wrong direction than in the once halcyon realm of infectious diseases, that big success story of the 20th century. We have had antibiotics since the mid-1940s — just about as long as we have had the atomic bomb, as Dr. Martin J. Blaser points out — and our big mistake was failing long ago to appreciate the parallels between the two.
Antibiotics have cowed many of our old bacterial enemies into submission: We aimed to blast them off the planet, and we dosed accordingly. Now we are beginning to reap the consequences. It turns out that not all germs are bad — and even some bad germs are not all bad. In “Missing Microbes,” Dr. Blaser, a professor at the New York University School of Medicine, presents the daunting array of reasons we have to rethink the enthusiastic destruction of years past.
First and foremost, the war has escalated. Imprudent antibiotic use has resulted in widespread resistance among microbes; infectious disease doctors (I am one, as well as a casual acquaintance of Dr. Blaser’s) now operate in a state of permanent near panic as common infections demand increasingly powerful drugs for control.
Second, as always, it is the hapless bystanders who have suffered the most — not human beings, mind you, but the gazillions of benevolent, hardworking bacteria colonizing our skin and the inner linings of our gastrointestinal tracts. We need these good little creatures to survive, but even a short course of antibiotics can destroy their universe, with incalculable casualties and a devastated landscape. Sometimes neither the citizenry nor the habitat ever recovers.
And finally, there is the...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Kitchens have gone from having sanitary procedures to practicing full-blown sterilization, resulting in weakened immune systems. Also, the 'anti' chemicals used for such practices can and do cause health issues themselves.
Guess I’ll throw in my 2 cents as well. Another issue is that when people take anti-biotics, they don’t actually take the full course. This allows the bad stuff to gain immunity by not killing it all off.
Antibodies - Use them or lose them.
Don't you mean triple negative?
Don't you mean triple negative?
plus lots of good sauerkraut and plain yogurt - yum
Number 5 might now be:
‘Obama’s going to be the death of me - - -’
I know - I’m reachin’ - -
Sauerkraut - yes - a good fermented food.
Yum - you bet. Organic yogurt from Trader Joe’s.
Anyone who “fears” (oh, scary!) limits on antibiotics is simply uneducated about Phages.
I looked at the ingredients in Trader Joe’s organic plain yogurt and was surprised to see so many unncessary things. I stick with Dannon Plain lowfat or full milk yogurt as it has none of that extra stuff. Then, when I make my taziki sauce, I drain a couple of cups of the yogurt in cheese cloth over night - voila! Thick greek-style ready to go.
When I was a child in the 1940’s we had an elderly woman physician. When I had a head cold she would dip swabs in something called Argerol and stick them up my nose for about 20 minutes while I lay on my back. I suspect this was to prevent strep throat. I wish I could find some now. Health food stores do have coloidal silver that can be used for better health. Read labels.
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