BEYOND ANTIBIOTICS
by Lawrence Wilson, MD
Beyond Antibiotics is the title of a book by two medical doctors, Keith Sehnert, MD and Lendon Smith, MD. These gutsy authors challenge one of the most sacred cows of conventional medicine, the widespread use of antibiotics. I have found antibiotics are very rarely needed, and most often they are very harmful. I have drawn information from the book to write this article.
Doctors prescribe antibiotics at what can only be termed an incredible rate. According to several studies done around the year 2000, obstetricians and gynecologists wrote 2,645,000 antibiotic prescriptions every week. Internists prescribed 1,416,000 per week. This works out to 211,172,000 prescriptions annually, just for the two specialties! Pediatricians prescribe over $500 million worth of antibiotics annually just for one condition, ear infections.
The intent of this article is not to suggest that antibiotics should never be used. They can be life-saving. However, many health authorities are beginning to admit that antibiotics are overprescribed and toxic, creating many subtle problems that are worse than the original condition. Let us examine antibiotics more carefully in light of recent findings.
MYTHS ABOUT ANTIBIOTICS
Among the prevalent myths about antibiotics are the following three:
Myth #1. Antibiotics are responsible for the decline in infectious disease.
The truth is that antibiotics are helpful for many infections. However, antibiotics have not resulted in the elimination of infectious diseases by themselves.
In fact, we now have antibiotic-resistant diseases that are much more difficult to treat as a direct result of the use of antibiotics such as certain strains of gonorrhea and tuberculosis, as well as many others that are less well known such as MRSA, a resistant strain of streptococcus. These cause many deaths, especially in hospitals.
In Beyond Antibiotics, the authors use graphs to trace the incidence of the major infectious diseases from 1900 to 1973. The diseases include measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, pneumonia, influenza, whooping cough, diphtheria and polio.
All were in decline for several decades before the introduction of antibiotics or vaccines. After reviewing the data, researchers John McKinlay and Sonja McKinlay at Boston University concluded that ".. at most, 3.5% of the total decline in mortality since 1900 could be ascribed to medical measures introduced for the diseases considered here". Improved nutrition and improved sanitation and hygiene were far more important than the 'wonder drugs' or vaccines to reduce these diseases.
Myth 2. Antibiotics are useful against colds and flu.
In truth, antibiotics are only helpful for bacterial infections. However, many physicians continue to prescribe them for viral conditions such as colds and flu. The rationale is to prevent secondary bacterial infection. This would be fine, except for myth #3 below, the dangers of antibiotics.
Given the dangers of antibiotics, it is prudent in most cases not to take antibiotics for colds and flus. They can worsen the situation and prolong recovery.
Myth #3. Antibiotics are harmless.
This is the most insidious myth. It leads to overprescribing and blinds physicians and the public to the dangers of antibiotics, described in the next section. Meanwhile, safer methods of avoiding and treating infections are ignored on the premise that the antibiotics will take care of everything.
The Physicians Desk Reference lists the adverse effects of antibiotics. Anyone who is taking an antibiotic (or any other medication) should read about the adverse effects. This can help prevent nasty surprises.
The interaction between antibiotics and other medications should also be noted. In addition to the side effects and cautions described in books, antibiotics present other problems that are described below.
PROBLEMS WITH ANTIBIOTICS
The list of problems with antibiotics is quite long. Some are common and well known. Others are subtle, but no less important. I have divided the adverse effects into nine categories:
1) They contribute to cancer. A 2008 study of 3,000,000 people divided the participants into groups that had taken no antibiotics for the past two years, those that had taken 2-5 prescriptions and those that had taken six or more prescriptions in the same time period. Participants were tracked for six years afterwards. Those who had taken 2-5 antibiotic prescriptions had a 27% increase in cancers compared to those who took none. Those who took six or more prescriptions had a 37% increase in cancers. This was a carefully done study on a large group of people and published in a very reputable journal (Int J Cancer 08;123:2152-2155).
Other studies show the same thing. A National Cancer Institute study in a major medical journal found that the incidence of breast cancer doubled among women who took took more than 25 antibiotic prescriptions or took antibiotics for more than 500 days over 17 years (JAMA 04;291:827-835).
Continued...
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