Antibiotic Overuse Is A Serious Health Threat

How many times have you gone to your doctor with a standard ‘cold’ and have been prescribed a dose of antibiotics?  For a long time, that seemed to be the de facto treatment protocol for a patient that visits their doctor looking for relief.  The immediate irony in this is that most common colds are actually viral in nature (rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, etc.) and are virtually unaffected by antibiotic drugs.  Sometimes, secondary bacterial infections can occur, but it’s definitely not the norm.  In case you’re not aware, antibiotics are used to eradicate bacterial infections.  However, they are indiscriminate as they wipe out all the bad and good bacteria in your body.

At this point, there are two issues: 1) Doctors are unnecessarily overprescribing antibiotics, 2) Antibiotics kill good bacteria, which can compromise your immune system and make you susceptible to other pathogens (eg – have you ever had a yeast infection after a round of antibiotics?).

(Sidenote: Prescription drugs in general are abused.)  Wait, it gets better.

Factory farming is a process that multinational agriculture conglomerates use to grow the cheapest crop or bring livestock to market in a timely fashion (you know, to maximize profits and all that corporate mumbo jumbo).  The problem with this is that the animals on these large farms are fed grains leftover from other manufacturing processes as opposed to their natural feed.  They are also not allowed to roam freely in their natural habitat, which means they stay couped up in close quarters with other animals.  This recipe is a breeding ground for disease, and because they are so close together, the diseases can proliferate pretty quickly.  As you might have guessed, sick meat isn’t good business for these factory farms.  To combat this, they started using antibiotics to stave off any potential outbreak.  This continues as the status quo today.  While no official studies have been conducted, some scientists believe that traces of these antibiotics are still present in the meat when it arrives at your local supermarket.

By now, you’re probably asking “What’s your point?”  I’m glad you asked that because it means that you’re paying attention (and you’re still here).

As you may know, MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) has been in the news the last several years because patients admitted to hospitals all over the country have literally been dying because their bodies have become resistant to the current antibiotic drugs that are used today.  As a result of the over prescribing and residual traces in factory farm meat, antibiotic resistance is a real threat.  Don’t get me wrong, antibacterial drugs have merit in acute cases such as injuries or surgery.  The problem is that by the time some patients reach this point, their bodies are already resistant (as is normally the case as our bodies adapt to synthetics drugs), so they succumb to preventable bacterial infections in the hospital.

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded the alarm that cases of infectious diseases that should be responding to antibacterial drugs are on the rise.  The only thing missing now is the causal link between the drugs and human resistance.

Facts:

• Antibiotics are over prescribed
• Antibiotics are pervasive in factory farming
• Resistant strains of bacteria are becoming a big problem

Essentially, you have two options: 1) Only use antibiotics when absolutely medically necessary, 2) Consume antibiotic and hormone-free meat every chance you get.  While there are no official studies that have followed a resistant strain of bacteria from farm to fork, overwhelming evidence exists.  Feel free to wait for multinational agribusiness and Big Pharma to lobby Congress and publish their own studies refuting this claim, despite the obvious conflicts of interest.  But if you wait, your cells will continue to evolve and this includes developing resistance to certain drugs.  As we all know, Mother Nature is unforgiving if you make bad decisions with your health.  And, we only get one chance to get it right.

The choice is yours.

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