Antibiotics are Evil

So I am not really very good at posting at regular intervals, but I try and remember to do it every once in a while.  After all, if I go to long without posting no one will remember to even read it, and that would make me sad.

Today I was reading an article about the dangers of antibiotics.  It is a long article, I think everyone should read it, but since I am sure that you will skip over parts of it (I know I did) and I don't want you to miss what I thought were the "highlights" of it, I will make you a handy-dandy list of why you should avoid antibiotics whenever possible.  It also gives me a chance to do fun stuff with bullets.  For some reason I love formatting :) 

• Antibiotics bring on fungal and yeast infections thus will eventually be seen as a major cause of cancer since more and more oncologists are seeing yeast and fungal infections as an integral part of cancer and its cause.
• Two studies in the recent past have shown an association between the use of antibiotics with higher incidence of breast cancer.  The Journal of the American Medical Association has reported a study on 10,000 women in which women who took over 500 days of antibiotics in a 17 year period (dubbed 25 plus doses) had twice the risk of breast cancer as those that took none at all. Even women taking just one had a statistical risk increase to 1.5 times.
• Pediatricians prescribe over $500 million worth of antibiotics annually just for one condition, ear infections. Yet topical povidone iodine (PVP-I) is as effective as topical ciprofloxacin, with a superior advantage of having no in vitro drug resistance and the added benefit of reduced cost of treatment.
• According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, taking properly prescribed medical drugs was listed as the third leading cause of death in the U.S. Antibiotics
  were listed in this category because antibiotics can be deadly.
• One out of every 20 patients contracts an infection during a hospital stay in the US. Hospital infections kill an estimated 103,000 people in the United States a year, as many as AIDS, breast cancer and auto accidents combined. The dangers of infection are worsening as many hospital infections can no longer be cured with common antibiotics.  More than half the time, doctors and other caregivers break the most fundamental rule of hygiene by failing to clean their hands before treating a patient.  Frequently, stethoscopes, blood-pressure monitors and other equipment are contaminated with live bacteria. Yet doctors and nurses almost never clean the stethoscope before listening to a patient's chest.
• Antibiotic use is known to almost completely inhibit excretion of mercury in rats due to alteration of gut flora. Thus, higher use of oral antibiotics in the children with autism may have reduced their ability to excrete mercury. Higher usage of oral antibiotics in infancy may also partially explain the high incidence of chronic gastrointestinal problems in individuals with autism.  Children with autism had significantly (2.1-fold) higher levels of mercury in their baby teeth.  Children with autism also had significantly higher usage of oral antibiotics during their first 12 to 36 months of life.  More than two-thirds of youngsters with the condition received four or more antibiotics in their first year, a British survey has revealed. It is thought the drugs weakened their immune systems, leaving them unable to withstand the impact of the triple jab.
• Antibiotics are making antibiotic resistant bacteria. 

Basically when you take antibiotics for your sore throat that MIGHT be strep and MIGHT not clear up on its own, you are making bacteria resistant strands such as MRSA, which according to one statistic in the article seems to kill like 20% of people that get it.  Or antibiotic resistant strands of TB. 

I have read (can't remember where) that a good portion of antibiotics are prescribed for VIRAL infections.  Antibiotics have no effect on viruses.  Its just to shut the patient (or more likely patient's parents up)  Oh and it clears up in a week or so, and they think the doctor is awesome.  But it was a virus, and would have cleared up in a week anywatys.

Next time you (or your kids) are prescribed an antibiotic, make sure the doctor knows its really a bacterial infection.  And make sure its not something that will go away on its own, or is easily cured through other means.

I also suggest limiting the use of antibacterial soaps, gels, lotions, etc.  It does the same thing, making resistant bacteria.  Again, no source, I have just read it before.