Antibiotics are used heavily in the U.S. They are used routinely by Western Medicine Doctors to treat bacterial infections such as ear infections and UTI’s as well as more serious infections like skin infections or strep throat. Unfortunately, they are also routinely prescribed for ear infections that are viral (which according to the Mayo clinic is most ear infections), colds, bronchitis, flu, coughs, stomach flu, and sore throats. All these conditions are viral and antibiotics have no effect on them. Too often Americans go to the doctor expecting to leave with a pill to make them feel better and in response doctors have been generously prescribing antibiotics.
According to the FDA, antibiotics are also routinely used by virtually all large scale livestock operations throughout the world (except Europe which has banned this practice). The antibiotics are given routinely by injection to livestock to make them grow unnaturally large. This is in addition to the growth hormones they are routinely given.
The overuse of antibiotics by most Americans mixed with the consumption of antibiotics through our meat is creating a widespread problem known as Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). This is when overexposure to antibiotics causes bacteria in your body to resist the antibiotic, making it ineffective. Effectively leaving you out to dry should you need treatment for a serious or life-threatening bacterial infection. AMR is also causing antibiotic resistant strains of viruses to develop, most famously the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) you hear it pronounced as Mersa on the news. Currently, there are no treatments for antibiotic resistant disease.
This problem has sparked the CDC (Center for Disease Control) to form the Interagency Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance and the European Union to form the Transatlantic Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (TATFAR). It has also caused the CDC to put pressure on physicians to limit their use of antibiotic prescriptions. The FDA has unveiled a plan to force livestock producers to phase out the routine use of antibiotics and to make their use only allowed under veterinarian supervision.
Which leads me to these thoughts…
With all the effort the CDC and scientists put into preventing disease it seems disease continues to outsmart science. Almost as if nature is far more intelligent than we are… hmm.
It turns out that animal meat is made up of what the animal consumed… antibiotics, growth hormones, corn, and whatever else these animals are being subjected to living in close quarters with other animals. And just think… we are what we eat… therefore (stay with me) we are what the animals we eat eat.
This proves that there are long term consequences to everything that we put inside our body. Just because an antibiotic makes us feel better when we have a bacterial infection doesn’t mean that the antibiotic just exits our body after doing its job… it remains and do I dare hypothesize causes damage?
We know that antibiotics work by killing all bacteria in the body, good and bad. So what about the good bacteria that we need to stay healthy? Is everybody replenishing that with high potency probiotics after a round of antibiotics? I’m guessing the answer is no.
This is just one more example of how our attempts to outsmart nature and work against it by putting inorganic matter (drugs and byproducts) into our bodies (organic matter) is causing long-term damage. When will we realize that our bodies are part of nature and therefore our best friend in fighting disease exists in nature? We should work with our bodies, not against them.
A selection of my sources:
FDA Calls to Regulate Antibiotic Use in Livestock
CDC Antimicrobial Resistance
Mayo Clinic: Use of Antibiotics
World Health Organization: Antimicrobial Resistance
Holistic Mama 