Tag: antibiotic resistance

It’s cold and flu season; do you really need that antibiotic too?

It’s cold and flu season; do you really need that antibiotic too? Antibiotics were wonder drugs when introduced years ago, although their overuse in the USA and had a side effect; resistant bugs. From ear infections, to upper respiratory infections, doctors for years have recommended an antibiotic to help you recover. Since antibiotics only work on bacterial infections, you may have recovered naturally anyway.   Their rampant overuse caused secondary infections in the ear, yeast infections and long term gut dysfunction. Other countries culturally used these drugs differently and in some countries, you do not even need a prescription for the Read More »

A new method for developing antibiotics from dirt may solve the global antibiotic problem

A new method for developing antibiotics from dirt may solve the global antibiotic problem It’s no secret that antibiotics, while saving and changing many peoples lives over the past 50 years have also been overused, and now we as a society are finding more of them do not work anymore due to resistant bacteria. Too much of a good thing has led us to rethink how we use antibiotics to treat illness and fatten up cattle. Some recent research has shown that it also has the side effect of fattening us up as well and may be part of our Read More »

Antibiotics; is this why we are fatter, are less healthy and having more allergies?

Antibiotics; is this why we are fatter, are less healthy, and having more allergies?   Last night, I was watching Bill Mahr who was on Real Time on HBO. He was interviewing Dr. Martin Blaser (check out the episode here)who is a Pultizer Prize winner and researcher for 30 years of human microbes. While most of us are familiar with the idea of antibiotic resistance, most of us never heard his concept of an antibiotic side effect of obesity and the permanent changes to the natural human flora that exists in our digestive tracts that help food digest and become assimilated Read More »

Antibiotics in animals and the risk of human infection; the NY Times explores.

Antibiotics in animals and the risk of human infection; the NY Times explores. Antibiotics have been used for years as a supplement to animals to help improve the yield of meat on farms. Apparently, this practice has gone on for years and has rarely been questioned. Apparently, there are side effects to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics which apparently include more antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria which we as a species are affected by. The effect is that as more bugs become resistant to antibiotics, stronger and newer antibiotics are necessary to combat their infection. We have addressed the usage Read More »