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In the end, it may be bacteria that get us
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A medical researcher has some bad news for humans: Bacteria may some day win the battle over mankind, and we have mostly ourselves to blame.
Lester Mitscher, writing in Journal of Natural Products, said antibiotics used in animal feed supplements invites development of resistant strains of bacteria, which ultimately means humans get infected. Nearly half of antibiotics produced worldwide are used in animal husbandry, he wrote.
Plus, overuse of antibiotics by the medical community hasn’t helped.
While drugmakers have developed antibiotics to fight more resistant strains, it kills only a portion of the bugs.
“… But then the survivors multiply quickly — an they are less sensitive to antibiotics,” Mitschner wrote in the journal article, “Coevolution: Mankind and Microbes.” The journal is published by the American Chemical Society.
“The sensitivity goes all the way from requiring a longer course of therapy or a higher dose, to being totally unaffected by the antibiotic,” he wrote.
One such “super bug” is Methacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a modern-day scourge in hospitals.
He called the development “an important phenomenon that needs to be addressed more carefully in the past.”
Drug companies should develop antibiotics with the potential to kill microbes and inhibit their abilities to mutate, he said. Unfortunately, drug companies have de-emphasized antibiotic research because of “increasingly diminishing returns,” he wrote.
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Antibiotics in animal feed and doctors over prescribing antibiotics aren't the only reasons that bacteria have become so resistant.
People that don't finish all their antibiotics as prescribed contribute to the problem also.
When they take half the presription it kills some of the bacteria but the surviving bacteria just get stronger and more resistant to the antibiotic.
I have family and friends that do this and it drives me crazy.They take antibiotics until they feel better then stick the remainder in the medicine cabinet .If someone they know gets sick they pass the leftover antibiotics to them.
Telling them the the consequences of doing this is a waste of time.They don't listen (or don't care) and just do it anyway.
Exact frustration I have. I can't figure out why so many are so noncompliant with their medicines.
I haven't eaten meat in 45 years but, because of kidney transplant, my immune system is purposely reduced. I've been in the hospital 4 times recently for infections that don't affect the average person.
Excellent point, getreal.
I tend to think that over-use of antibiotics, combined with folks only taking medicine until they feel better instead of until it's completely out of their system are primary culprits.
First, my bride, Amy, and I rarely take any allopathic medicines... for anything. And we definitely don't take anti-biotics for flu bugs. Anti-biotics are for bacteria and not for viruses... both of these being complete different critters.
But then, we rarely get sick (knocks on his head). We did both have an upper-respiratory infection earlier this year, for about a day, which we knocked out with an herbal compound I mixed up and made a tea from, and though we got rid of it within a day, we still drank my tea for 10 days afterward. Prior to this year's "cold", last time we were sick was Jan. 1, 2005, and that was because of something we ate on Dec. 31st, 2004... that was gone in a day, too.
Secondly, as an herbalist and an eclectic follower of homeopathis philosophy, I use natural remedies which attack the problems rather than merely masking symptoms or acting as a placebo.
When time comes that I might find myself or my bride really needing some strong anti-biotics to combat some serious bacteria, I'll fix my own... naturally.
Plain.
Simple.
Common Sense.
Capt. Leonardo Ortiz (USMM)
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