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Health Articles

Are Antibiotics Making Us Fat?

Brian Bartholomew - Sunday, December 18, 2011

Farmers have long used antibiotics to fatten up livestock—and now there’s growing evidence that these drugs may have the same effect on people.  What’s more, instead of being miracle cures, there’s now scary speculation that antibiotics could be jeopardizing our health by making us more prone to lifestyle diseases, from type 2 diabetes to heart attacks and fatal strokes. If that sounds far-fetched, consider this: States with the highest rates of antibiotic prescriptions also rank as the least healthy,Wired magazine reported on November 25.

When the nonprofit research group Extending the Cure recently mapped antibiotic prescriptions by state, it found the heaviest use (measured per 1,000 people) in the eastern half of the US, particularly West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama, all of which comprise the so-called Stroke Belt, due to the high rate of stroke fatalities. According to CDC data, Wired adds, these states (and to a lesser extent, much of the eastern US) also have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart attacks, compared to the western US. While these correlations don’t prove that antibiotic overuse triggers these diseases, studies suggest that it could drive up obesity by changing how our stomachs work. Here’s a look at the findings.

Learn how certain foods can help you manage your blood sugar levels.

First shown to cause weight gain in 1954.

More than a half century ago, a randomized study published in Nutrition reported that Navy recruits who were given daily doses of broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as chlortetracycline or penicillin, to prevent strep infections gained 4.8 pounds over 7 weeks, compared to a 2.7 pound gain in recruits given a placebo. 

Eradicating beneficial gut bacteria.

In the early 20th century, helicobacter pylori was the dominant stomach microbe, Dr. Martin Blaser, a microbiologist professor at New York University Langone Medical Center, recently reported in Nature. Today, the average American child receives 10 to 20 courses of antibiotics by age 18, and fewer than 6 percent of US kids carry the organism. While that may not sound like a problem, given that H. pylori raises risk for stomach ulcers and gastric cancer, Dr. Blaser has discovered that killing off this bug dramatically changes how the stomach works, tricking the body into overeating. 

A six-fold rise in hunger hormones.

Normally, after a meal, levels of the hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin drop, signaling that we’re full. However, a 2011 study by Dr. Blaser and other scientists found that after veterans were treated with antibiotics to eradicate H. pylori, they had 20 percent rise in leptin levels after a meal, while levels of ghrelin skyrocketed six times higher. And 18 months after treatment, on average, participants had a 5 percent rise in their body mass index. That would be a 10-pound gain in someone with a starting weight of 200. 

Links to other diseases.

“Overuse of antibiotics could be fuelling the dramatic increase in conditions such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, which have more than doubled in many populations,” reports Dr. Blaser, who was recently awarded a $6.5 million grant from the NIH to study links between disappearing gut bacteria and obesity. Conversely, New York University epidemiologist Yu Chen found that infection with H. Pylori, which typically occurs before age 10, reduced risk for childhood-onset asthma, skin allergies and hay fever.

Find delicious ways to keep cholesterol off your plate and out of your heart.

A biological weapon against asthma and obesity.

Swiss and German researchers have discovered that infecting mice with H. pylori actually prevents asthma, an airway disease that’s reached epidemic levels as the levels of the once common stomach bug wane. Dr. Barry Marshall, the Australian biologist who received the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovery of H. pylori as the cause of gastritis and stomach ulcers, even predicts that one day, a weakened strain of the bacteria will be used to treat both asthma and obesity, according to the New York Times. 

Using probiotics to slim down.

While antibiotics may make us fat, probiotics appear to have the opposite effect. Last year, a randomized study of overweight people with large waists found that those who drank fermented milk containing the probiotic Lactobacillus daily for 12 weeks reduced both belly fat and body weight, compared to a control group who didn’t receive probiotics. A 2009 study found that a year after giving birth, women who took daily probiotic supplements containing Lactobaccillus and Bifidobacterium during the first trimester of pregnancy were much less likely to develop abdominal obesity, the most dangerous type of fat. 

The bottom line.

While research into the link between antibiotics and fat is still ongoing, overuse of these powerful drugs is already widely recognized as dangerous due to the growing threat of drug-resistant superbugs.  Therefore, the best way to protect your health—and perhaps avoid packing on extra pounds--is to only take antibiotics when medically necessary. They don’t work on colds, flu or other viral illnesses.

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Scientists Discover That Antimicrobial Wipes and Soaps May Be Making You Sick

Brian Bartholomew - Thursday, December 01, 2011

Scientists Discover That Antimicrobial Wipes and Soaps May Be Making You (and Society) Sick

By Rob Dunn | July 5, 2011 |  Comments26


A few weeks ago as I was walking out of a Harris Teeter grocery store in Raleigh, North Carolina, I saw a man face a moment of crisis. You could see it in the acrobatic contortions of his face. He had pulled a cart out of the area where carts congregate, only to find that its handle was sticky with an unidentifiable substance. He paused and looked at the handle, as if to imagine the nature of the offense. Gum? Meat juice? Chewed marshmallows? So many vulgar possibilities. Forlorn, he reached for an antibiotic wipe conveniently placed by the door. He scrubbed his hands VERY diligently and then pushed the cart back for someone else to rediscover [1].

Scenarios like this one are playing out all over America. There is an epidemic of sticky, dirty and otherwise gross handles on shopping carts. But it isn’t just carts. Disgusting doorknobs have also been found, as have cryptically damp table-tops in restaurants and even, sad as it is, slimy back rests on the weight machines in gyms! Increasingly, the world seems to be rife with contamination. Fortunately, all of the main companies producing hygiene products have offered a solution–sanitary, antibacterial, antimicrobial, antibiotic, wipes, and soaps to kill anything that dares to creep into our wholesome lives. These salves will cure us of the demons that dare to grow near us.

The really intriguing news–a kind of breakthrough–is that the main compounds in antibiotic wipes, creams and soaps, triclosan and/or the chemically similar triclocarban, have also been sprinkled around our lives more generally. A recent study notes that triclosan is now used to "impregnate surfaces and has been added to chopping boards, refrigerators, plastic lunchboxes, mattresses as well as being used in industrial settings, such as food processing plants where walls, floors and exposed machinery have all been treated with triclosan in order to reduce microbial load." You can now go home, wipe your world down and live a happier life, surrounded by an antibiotic force field. Be especially sure to wipe your children down. Children are just about the grimiest thing in the world.

Yet, although I hesitate to digress or cause trouble, the devil on my shoulder, that voice of so-called reason, is urging me to avail myself of more than the vague suspicion that everything around me is contaminated. Maybe, the devil says, we should glance, just for a second, at what scientists like to call–in their nasally ivory-tower voices–"the evidence." I do not mean anything too fancy… Let’s just take a moment to look at a study here and there that might be relevant as we go about coating our lives–from underpants to kitchen pans–in antibiotic wonder.

For example, what if we just considered whether people who wipe down the world around them with antibiotic soap or wipes are less likely to be sick. Of course, they must be. The world is gross and they are, God bless them, clean, but let’s just check.

OK, we shouldn’t have checked. There are some problems. One is the actual evidence, or just as often, lack thereof. Case in point: along with her colleagues, Allison Aiello, a professor at the University of Michigan, recently surveyed all of the experimental or quasi-experimental studies published in English between 1980 and 2006 on the effectiveness of different hand washing strategies [2]. Aiello focused on studies that compared different strategies, for example the use of normal soap versus the use of antibiotic soap, in terms of their effect on the probability of developing gastrointestinal or respiratory illness. Our intuition is that antibiotic soaps and wipes should make everyone healthier. Aiello’s results were something else entirely.

Aiello’s first result was fine enough, but it set the stage for the trouble to come. She found "the use of nonantibacterial soap with hand hygiene education interventions is efficacious for preventing both gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses." In other words, if you wash your hands with soap (and are educated about washing your hands with soap) you are less likely to get sick. Score one for intuition and grandma’s admonitions. But then things went terribly wrong.

Aiello next considered the antibiotic soaps and wipes now used, in one form or another, by 75% of American households. Odds are that you use them. Go check your labels. Sadly, Aiello and colleagues found that antibiotic soaps and wipes with triclosan were no more likely than good old-fashioned soap to prevent gastrointestinal or respiratory illness. In Aiello’s words, "There was little evidence for an additional impact of new products, such as alcohol-based hand sanitizers or antibacterial soaps compared with nonantibacterial soaps, for reducing either gastrointestinal or respiratory infectious illness symptoms."

For example, in a study Aiello reviewed that was conducted in Pakistan, gastrointestinal illnesses were reduced by half when people washed their hands with soap and by a little less than half when they washed their hands with antibiotic soap [3]. What is worse, perhaps the most comprehensive study of the effectiveness of antibiotic and non-antibiotic soaps in the U.S., led by Elaine Larson at Columbia University (with Aiello as a coauthor), found that while for healthy hand washers there was no difference between the effects of the two, for chronically sick patients (those with asthma and diabetes, for example) antibiotic soaps were actually associated with increases in the frequencies of fevers, runny noses and coughs [4]. In other words, antibiotic soaps appeared to have made those patients sicker. Let me say that again: Most people who use antibiotic soap are no healthier than those who use normal soap. AND those individuals who are chronically sick and use antibiotic soap appear to get SICKER.

Here, then, is the evidence we need, evidence very clearly at odds with our intuition to scrub and scrub. Yet hardly anyone has followed up on Larson’s study and no one has reexamined what happens with chronically sick patients and antibiotic soaps. The truth is that few biologists are studying what antibiotic soaps do to us. Still, the evidence indicates that when confronted with a dirty grocery store cart handle, we should just wash with soap and water like our great grandmothers would have done (if they had had grocery carts). At the very least, antibiotic wipes do not appear to help us and, it may be that they are actually hurting us.

The devil on my shoulder suggests we need to take the radical step of actually thinking for a second about what happens when you wash your hands, or whatever other part. This is a step almost never taken in the study of illness. Our skin (just like Lady Gaga’s skin) is covered in bacteria species. More than a hundred species of bacteria (not to mention fungi and other kinds of organisms) can be found on a single hand of any given adult [5] or for that matter belly button, forehead or other part, at any given moment (Image of some of the more abundant bacteria in the author’s belly button:http://www.wildlifeofyourbody.org/?page_id=8 ). It appears that those species include two main groups. There are the "native" species, our own bodily citizens that have evolved to live in peace on our skin and, in doing so, benefit us by acting as a kind of defensive layer. Then there are the tourists. It is these tourists that cause us harm, the tourists who bear chemical knives.

When you wash your hands, the goal is not to kill all the microbes. As Larson and a group of colleagues put it in a 2003 paper "Handwashing with a non-antimicrobial soap does little to modify the natural [citizen] flora. In fact, such an effect would be undesirable." What is desirable is, instead, to kill the tourists who have just turned up but not yet established, or at least the dangerous among those newly arrived species. Kill the tourists is a reasonable hand washing motto (although the truth is we still know surprisingly little about the citizens; they are the neglected serfs of our bodies). Soap is thought to be effective at killing the tourists, not always, but at least often, although this hypothesis has never been directly tested.

But what do antibiotic wipes and soaps do? Amazingly, no one really knows. In the vacuum of a laboratory they can kill both viruses and bacteria, but what about on the jungle of our bodies? It seems possible that they are able, in some cases, to kill both some of the tourists AND some of the citizens. Perhaps (which is to say, I am mostly guessing for the rest of this paragraph) when we are mostly healthy, this doesn’t matter; the bacteria regroup and recover or our body in other ways defends. But when we are already unwell, it may be that this is enough to make us more unwell by killing both natives and tourists and, in some cases, allowing the weediest tourists to recolonize first. Maybe, but this is just my scientific intuition which, let’s be honest, needs to be as carefully doubted and picked at as with our intuitions more generally.

What we do know is that the influence of these wipes and salves does not end with our hands, but instead spreads from them down our drains and out into society. What happens when antibiotic soaps and suds go down drains? To find out, a group of scientists recently made artificial drains clogged with bacteria (oh, the difficulties of science) and then subjected them to low and high doses of triclosan (similar to what happens when your detergent goes down the drain). Even at high concentrations, triclosan appears to have no effect on the number of bacterial cells in our drains. BUT, it does affect which species are found there. Triclosan kills "weak" bacteria but favors the tolerant, among them species of bacteria that eat triclosan [6]. Yes, I said eat triclosan. Triclosan may also favor lineages of bacteria that are also resistant to the oral antibiotics used in hospitals and elsewhere [7], though how often and consistently is, as of yet, unclear. Nonetheless, the hint of the tougher future triclosan might be favoring is, perhaps, a bit troubling.

Nor are drains the end of the story. Triclosan continues its journey, the little chemical that could, on to sewage treatment plants and into water supplies. In many municipal water supplies triclosan can now be found in relatively high concentrations. Those high concentrations affect the microbes that are always present in water, but also appear to act as endocrine disrupters in fish. For example, fish exposed to triclosan have lower sperm counts than those that are not [8]. Even if you don’t care about the sex lives of fish, this might still worry you, given the great similarities, on evolutionary grounds, between the hormones of fish and humans [9].

But I apologize. All of this was a diversion from the original story of the man with the cart, the man wringing his hands. This story digressed from his story, just as the consequences of his choice appear to cascade away from him out into the world.

The man continued on into the store, pausing only briefly to look at me, as if maybe he knew me. Then I saw that he was looking at my son. I looked at my son too, which is when I saw his marshmallow covered hands. I mouthed sorry back to the man, having realized, of course, that it was my cart he had first taken. My son would have mouthed sorry too, if he talked yet, and if his mouth wasn’t so gummed up with marshmallows.

"Sorry…," I was going to mouth again, but then he was gone and we needed to be going too, to get home and eat, after washing our hands, but just with good old fashioned soap. I’ll abandon the antimicrobial soap, detergent, and wipes. And I am pretty sure that I have never purchased the other antimicrobial products, whether the counter tops or underpants. This may seem sad, as though we have lost the war on the bad bacteria and viruses, those tourists with their counterfeit visas. If it does, I extend my apologies to you too. What is worse is that we seem to have lost it at a terrible time, what with all of the gross shopping carts and, more seriously, the reality that last year 2 million people died of respiratory infections. The good news, though, is that scientists have figured out a way to reduce the frequency that people get sick by as much as forty percent.

It turns out that although we know that washing our hands prevents a range of illnesses and are incredibly eager to buy products marketed to kill germs, we don’t actually take the simpler measure of washing hands in the first place. A study of nearly eight thousand individuals in five U.S. cities found almost half of the participants failed to wash their hands after going to the bathroom. In this light, no mystery salve is necessary, no miracle cure, special wipe, or magic. We need to wash our hands, because soap does the body good, at least in all the ways studied so far. It is not fancy. It is not expensive or heavily marketed and yet it works, as it long has, even though as of yet, no one can conclusively, unambiguously, tell you why.

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[1] Those who are ignorant of cart history are doomed to repeat it.

[2] Aiello AE, Coulborn RM, Perez V, Larson EL. 2008. Effect of hand hygiene on infectious disease risk in the community setting: a meta-analysis. Am J Public Health 98:1372-1381.

[3] Luby SP, Agboatwalla M, Painter J, Altaf A, Billhimer WL, Hoekstra RM. Effect of intensive handwashing promotion on childhood diarrhea in high-risk communities in Pakistan: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2004;291:2547–2554.

[4] Larson EL, Lin SX, Gomez-Pichardo C, Della-Latta P. Effect of antibacterial home cleaning and handwashing products on infectious disease symptoms: a randomized, double-blind trial. Ann Intern Med. 2004;140:321–329.

[5] Fierer, N. M. Hamady, C.L. Lauber, R. Knight. 2008. The influence of sex, handedness, and washing on the diversity of hand surface bacteria. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci, USA. 105: 17994-17999.

[6] McBain, A. J.; Bartolo, R. G.; Catrenich, C. E.; Charbonneau, D.; Ledder, R. G.; Price, B. B.; Gilbert, P. Exposure of sink drain microcosms to triclosan: Population dynamics and antimicrobial susceptibility. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2003, 69, 5433−5442.

[7] Aiello AE, Larson EL. Antibacterial cleaning and hygiene products as an emerging risk factor for antibiotic resistance in the community. Lancet Infect Dis.2003;3:501–506.

[8] Raut, S. A., and R. A. Angus 2010. Triclosan has endocrine-disrupting effects in male western mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis. Environ Toxicol Chem 29: 1287–1291.

[9] Rees Clayton, E.M., Todd, M., Dowd, J.B., Aiello, A.E.† (2010) The impact of bisphenol A and triclosan on immune parameters in the US population, NHANES 2003-2006. Environmental Health Perspectives

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Beyond Antibiotics Ways to Safely, Naturally and Sanely Help

Brian Bartholomew - Wednesday, November 02, 2011
BEYOND ANTIBIOTICS
by Lawrence Wilson, MD
© December 2009, The Center For Development

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 Cancer08;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).

            2. Allergic Reactions.  I used to worry every time I prescribed penicillin when I was a medical intern.  It had been explained that rarely  a patient would have a fatal allergic reaction to it.  I was taught that if I practiced medicine long enough someone would die in my office after a shot of penicillin.
                  While this is uncommon, other allergic reactions to antibiotics occur frequently.  Not only can the drug cause a reaction, but most antibiotics contain chemical colors, sugar and other additives that can trigger a reaction in sensitive individuals.  

            3. Destruction Of Beneficial Bowel Flora.  Like pesticides, antibiotics kill good bugs along with the bad ones.  Wide-spectrum antibiotics are notorious for this.  The human intestine has a somewhat delicate ecology in which certain bugs help digest food, produce certain vitamins, and maintain a balance of organisms that prevents harmful bacteria and yeasts from multiplying.              
                  Wide-spectrum antibiotics derange the normal ecology of the intestine.  This can cause parasitic infection, vitamin deficiencies, loss of minerals through diarrhea, inflammation of the gut, malabsorption syndromes and development of food allergies due to defects in intestinal function.

            4. Development Of Resistant Species Of Micro-organisms.  An article in Science Magazine, August 1992, stated, "Doctors in hospitals and clinics around the world are losing the battle against an onslaught of new drug-resistant bacterial infections including staph, pneumonia, strep, tuberculosis, dysentery and other diseases that are costly and difficult, if not impossible, to treat".    
                  Bacteria have a certain ability to mutate.  Antibiotics kill bacteria that are susceptible to their action, but this leaves the field open for mutant strains to multiply even more.  It is a case of survival of the fittest.  The use of antibiotics actually encourages the development of the mutant, drug-resistant super-bacteria.

            5. Immune Suppression.  This may sound odd, as the purpose of antibiotics is presumably to help the immune response.  However, evidence indicates that people treated with antibiotics have more repeat infections than those who are not treated.  This is especially true of children whose ear infections are treated with antibiotics.  Vitamin A and C and the use of simple herbs such as echinacea and astragalus, for example, are much safer and often equally effective.
                  In fact, antibiotics do not aid the immune system.  They replace one of its functions.  Antibiotics act by inhibiting certain enzymatic processes of bacteria, and by changing mineral balances.  Normal cells, however, are also affected.  This may be one reason why antibiotics weaken the immune response.  Other toxic effects of antibiotics, such as the effect upon the normal bowel flora, may also be a cause.      
                  AIDS research indicates that a risk factor for AIDS is an impaired immune response.  This can be due to a history of repeated antibiotic use.  Perhaps it is no accident the same group with the highest incidence of AIDS, male homosexuals as of 2009,  is also a group that uses more antibiotics than other groups in America.

                  The link between antibiotic use and increased cancer rates can also be explained this way.  This topic is discussed in the paragraphs above under #1.

            6. Overgrowth of Candida Albicans And Other More Dangerous Intestinal Infections.  Normally, candida albicans, a common yeast, lives peacefully in our intestines and elsewhere, in harmony with other flora that keep the yeast in check.  Take an antibiotic and all of this changes.  By suppressing the normal flora, candida takes over and problems begin.  In its mild form the result is diarrhea or a yeast infection.               
                  Far more serious is the growing problem of chronic muco-cutaneous yeast infection.  This is described in books such as The Yeast Connection and The Yeast Syndrome.  It is a major iatrogenic illness today, and a very debilitating and potentially fatal condition.  One of the prime risk factors for chronic candida infection is repeated antibiotic use.
                  Even more dangerous is that antibiotic use opens the intestines to infection by other species of pathogenic or disease-causing bugs, parasites, yeasts and other types of organisms ranging from amebas to far more toxic ones that can cause all types of systemic damage, as well as damage to the intestinal lining and related areas.   

            7. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  This is another 'new' health plague.  It is associated with chronic viral illness and a weakened immune system.  While its exact origins are not clear, one of the major risk factors for chronic fatigue syndrome is - you guessed it - repeated antibiotic use.

            8. Nutrient Loss And Resulting Deficiency States.  Nutrient loss from antibiotics is due in part to diarrhea, which causes a loss of essential minerals.  Destruction of friendly bacteria in the intestines can also impair the synthesis of certain vitamins in the intestines.  While not a major cause of malnutrition, antibiotic usage may be another factor contributing to poor nutrition and thus a weakened body chemistry.

            9. Treating Effects, Not Causes.  Antibiotics only address the end-stage result of a weakened body chemistry - bacterial invasion.  The bacteria may only be there to "mop up" the biological debris that are present because the body is too weak to eliminate the poisons.
                   Fever is one way the body burns up toxic substances.  Providing it does not get out of hand, the infectious process can serve a useful purpose.  Cutting short the process with antibiotics aborts the cleansing function of a fever and impairs long-term health.
                  Not true, you might say.  However, I believe it is true in some cases because on tissue mineral tests, there are clear indicators of increased susceptibility to infections.  The indicators are: 1) a low energy level, 2) a low sodium/potassium ratio, 3) toxic levels of mercury, copper, or cadmium, and 4) low zinc.
                  In hundreds of cases, when these imbalances are corrected, the tendency for infections decreases drastically.  In other words, healthy people do not get as many infections.  Infections do not strike randomly.  There is a logic to infections, and the underlying causes can be addressed.              
                  This line of reasoning traces back to the famous debate between Pasteur and Beauchamp.  Dr. Pasteur insisted that germs are the cause of disease.  His colleague, Beauchamp, insisted that the health of the host was more important than the germs.
                  On his death bed, Pasteur was said to have declared that Beauchamp was correct - "the host is everything, the germs are nothing".  Orthodox medicine, however, embraced Pasteur's view, and ignored Beauchamp.  It is time to focus more on the person, and less on the germs.

            10. High Cost.  While the cost of a single antibiotic prescription may not be extremely high, newer ones are somewhat costly.   The costs are high when the side effects are considered, along with the sheer numbers of prescriptions that are written around the world each day , month and year.
                  Millions of doctor visits and prescriptions for antibiotics add up to a major expense.  While penicillin is not expensive, other newer antibiotics are quite costly.
                  These newer antibiotics are used more frequently today due to the presence of penicillin-resistant strains of bacteria. We must also include in the cost of antibiotics the cost of allergic reactions, candida albicans infections, repeat infections, development of resistant organisms and immune suppression.               
                  The cost is justified if life is at stake.  However, if less toxic and less costly alternatives can be used, shouldn't these be tried first?  Bringing health care costs under control is not just a matter of eliminating waste and inefficiency.  We need methods of healing that build up the health of the people, not tear it down.

REDUCING THE NEED FOR ANTIBIOTICS                

                  Steps to avoid the need for antibiotics can be divided into two areas: prevention of infection, and alternative treatment of infections.

Preventing Infections:               
                  Preventing infections is a part of taking back control over your life and health.  You can do a lot to prevent infections.  Much of it involves common sense. 
     

            1. Diet, Rest and Sleep.  Rest and sleep are of utmost importance to avoid infections of all kinds.  In addition, a healthful diet is also most critical.  Adequate intake of nutrients including vitamins A, C, E, selenium, and zinc are important for the immune system.  

                  Fresh, natural, unsprayed foods contain much higher amounts of nutrients than the processed and artificial 'junk' foods so commonly eaten today.  Do your best to find meats that are antibiotic-free and hormone-free.  
                  Drink water that is as pure as possible. Unlike some health authorities, I use bottled water although it is packaged in plastic.  I believe this is better than taking a chance on tap water in most locations.  The best is usually spring or distilled water.
                  Also, healthful eating habits are almost as important as what you eat.  Eat regular meals, slowly, in a relaxed manner, chew thoroughly and rest after the meal at least five or ten minutes before resuming your regular activities.  Do not eat on the run, but sit quietly without talking on the telephone or driving a car while eating.

            2. Reduce Toxic Exposure.  Reduce or eliminate your exposure to toxic chemicals from food, air, water or through direct contact with your skin or elsewhere (such as mercury amalgam dental fillings). 

                  Also, breathe air that is as pure as possible.  We realize that in cities this is impossible.  Air purifiers in the home can be helpful in this regard.  
                  Don’t store toxic cleaning agents, solvents and other toxic chemicals inside your home, and look for less toxic alternatives.  Have your silver amalgam dental fillings replaced, if possible, with composite or other, less toxic alternatives. Mercury used in amalgams is known to inhibit the immune system.

            3. Attitudes. Your thoughts and attitudes affect your immune system more than you may imagine.  Fears, anger, worries and resentments tend to weaken the immune system.  

                  Positive, inspiring thoughts have a beneficial effect on the body.  Spiritual thinking, which is thinking about positive subjects and that God or the high self is present and loving, can even be helpful when  one is ill or to help prevent getting an infection.  However, this is not substitute for cleanliness and the other suggestions in this article.

                  Positive thinking not enough.  While thinking correctly is a key, never avoid doing the physical suggestions here to prevent and get rid of infections, believing you can just think yourself well.   Some people can do this, but most cannot or will not have the discipline to do it correctly.  Since infections are always potentially life-threatening, always do all you can to care for them properly.
                  Deep breathing, which helps oxygenate the blood, has a very beneficial effect upon the immune system.   
                  Saunas, steam baths, yoga, and other natural health practices may also help prevent infections, providing you do not overdo on anything.

ALTERNATIVES FOR INFECTIONS
        
                  Never ignore any infection!  Even a simple cold, ear ache, or infected cut can turn into a serious problem. 

                  1. First, always rest a lot more, preferably in bed.  Stay home from work or school and give the body a chance to fight the infection.

            2. Eat very lightly and drink more distilled or spring water only, or mild teas made with this water only.  Do not drink fruit juices or other sweetened beverages.  Sugar makes many infections worse.  Eat very simply such as chicken soups, vegetables and perhaps a little chicken or eggs, but not a lot of grains, and no dairy and no red meat until you feel better.  More can complicate your recovery.  A little vegetable juice is excellent, such as carrot juice. 

                  When high fever is present, fasting on water, teas or dilute vegetable juices alone for a day or two only may be very helpful.  This is especially true if the infection affects your digestive tract.

                  Also, there is no reason to wait even a day to apply natural methods.  Simple measures can be surprisingly effective.

            3. Colloidal Silver.  This is one of the most effective and safest substitute for an antibiotic.  It works on a wide variety of organisms, including fungus, virus, many bacteria and some parasites as well.  Use as directed.  
                  The usual dosage for an average-sized adult is between one teaspoon to one tablespoon three times daily, away from any food or drink, including water.  The dosage depends on the age and weight of the person and on the strength of the preparation of colloidal silver. 
                  We often prefer the lower dosage product, which seems to work as well as others, yet carries less possibility of toxicity or of damaging the ideal intestinal flora.  We like a brand of colloidal silver called Arabesque.  It is available from this website (click here) or from (480) 354-1565.

                  4. Bee Propolis.  This is another excellent natural remedy with very low toxicity.  It is not quite as potent as the others, but is excellent support for any infection.  It comes in capsules, tablets or thick liquid that stains anything it touches. Take at least three capsules or up to 9 tablets daily for an infection.

                  5. Vitamins A and C.  Vitamin A I(from fish oil, and not beta-carotene) is a little-known immune stimulant that often works extremely well and carries very low toxicity if taken for a short time, say a week or so.  The dosage for an adult is about 50,000 iu (international units) three times daily.  It may be taken with or without food or water.
                  Vitamin C in doses of up to 20 grams daily by mouth or even more intravenously for a few days can also do wonders to reduce infection.  Children need less.  If you take too much by mouth, the only side effect is diarrhea and in this case, just reduce the dosage.
                  If an infection is not responding to colloidal silver, bee propolis and vitamins A and C, it is time to check with a physician or use other methods described herein.

Physical methods are also powerful and safe

                  6. Sauna Baths.  Sauna therapy is very helpful for some infections caused by heat-sensitive microorganisms ranging from fungus and viral to parasitic.  It is also superb for acute sinus infections, for example, in many instances.  For acute infections, a number of short sauna sessions is often best, with each session no more than 10-20 minutes each.  One may take three or four sessions daily, preferably when most relaxed such as upon awakening and before bedtime. To read more about sauna therapy, click here. 
            7. Coffee Enemas and/or Colon Cleansing.  This may seem like an odd treatment for infections of all kinds, but they are quite effective in some cases.  They will also lower a fever in most cases.  Toxins in the intestines and constipation make the job of fighting infection much more difficult. 
                   Especially if an infection is severe, make sure the bowels move.  If not, clean them out with an enema or colonic irrigation.  Coffee stimulates bile release and adds to the effect of an enema.  One or two per day is excellent for treatment or prevention, for that matter.

                  8. Vitamins and herbs.  Many other remedies can stop or reduce an infection. For adults, take vitamin A, about 100,000 iu per day.  Also take vitamin C, about 3 to 6 grams per day.  If it causes diarrhea, reduce the dosage.  
                  Herbs such as garlic, echinacea, golden seal, and astragalus may also be helpful and are quite safe.  Another simple remedy that works well on some topical infections are packs or poultices made with ordinary clay or even mud.  This can be life-saving in an emergency situation. 

                  Also, discontinue your regular food supplements in almost all cases.  The exceptions are the digestive aids if you are eating, and products with just vitamins A and C, which you might actually increase.
                  Other anti-microbials include grapefruit seed extract and oregano oil.  However, these are somewhat more toxic in our experience, so they are not our first choice.  However, they may be combined with the remedies listed above these. 
                
            To reduce fever, sponge the person with water or a mixture of water and alcohol.  Do not use aspirin or Tylenol, if possible, to reduce a fever.  Sponging allows the fever reaction to proceed in a healthful manner.   It is also possible to place a person in a warm bath and slowly reduce the temperature by adding cool water.  This is quite safe for children, as well.  A coffee enema is also excellent  at times to reduce a fever.  Repeat these procedures several times daily, if needed, to keep the fever within a safe range such as 103-104 F.  It is not necessary to reduce a fever to normal.
                 Tylenol or aspirin slows the fever reaction and can prolong the illness.  It also introduces another toxic drug.  Bed rest is also very important when a high fever is present, along with drinking plenty of spring or distilled water!  Children who are sick should not be sent to school.
                  These simple measures for infection are often forgotten in the belief that the 'wonder drugs' will take care of everything, and that rest is not important.  This is a common cause of complications or slow recovery. 
                  Complications of drug therapy for infection are so common the problem is overlooked.  In many instances, the infection is stopped, but not completely eradicated.  Many people carry residues of their bacterial and viral infections for years. They followed “doctors orders” instead of using natural methods and allowing the body to overcome and eliminate the infection at its own pace.

OTHER IMPORTANT HINTS FOR FIGHTING INFECTIONS
               

Use natural remedies aggressively and faithfully.  This is a very important point.  Do not skimp on the dosages of vitamins and herbs, for example.  Taking a little more will not usually hurt you, but taking less may make them less effective. 
Patience and persistence are essential with any serious infection.  Of course, each person and each situation is different.  It is not a problem, however, if healing an infection naturally takes a week or even two or three, provided you are slowly getting better.  It is not necessary or helpful to abandon your methods just for this reason.  Drugs may speed up your progress, but leave you weakened and toxic.
Always act quickly with all infections, even a cold.  I hear of many people who do not want to take antibiotics or other drug remedies, but who fail to apply the natural remedies quickly or at all.  This is not wise as any infection can be very dangerous for one’s life, in fact.
Start natural treatment at the first sign of infection.  This will increase their effectiveness and prevent complications that occur due to waiting.  Waiting with infections is always a bad idea, as it can allow the infection to take hold more firmly in the body. You never know when complications will set in quickly and be life-threatening.
If one method is not working at all after a few days, add another one or two. Also, realize that at times results are slow because it is a serious infection and not because your methods are not working.
You may combine all the natural methods, and you may use them along with antibiotics or other medication if you wish, unless told otherwise.  The natural methods do not, to my knowledge, interfere with antibiotics and, in fact, will make them more effective by replacing nutrients in the body.
If you are not succeeding within a few days to at least feel a little bit better each day, always consult a knowledgeable health practitioner.  Rarely, an infection will require medical or other intervention.
                  Sinus infections. Many are fungal in origin and will not respond to antibiotics for this reason.  Antibiotics are actually fungal-based drugs and can make them worse.

                  If a sinus infection responds slowly, it may be fungal in origin. These respond very fast with the use of two unusual-sounding methods:

                  1. A single red infrared heat lamp (250-watt bulb sold at Home Depot or other hardware store)  shined on the sinuses for 5 minutes every hour is superb.  
                  2. Colloidal silver can also be sniffed or inhaled into the sinuses with excellent results.  Do this several times per day.  It should also be used systemically, several teaspoons or up to two tablespoons by mouth, at the same time.  Preferably take colloidal silver 20 minutes away from all food an drink, both before and after taking it.

                  Toothaches.  Always visit a dentist.  However, on a nutritional balancing program, tooth flare-ups occur commonly and usually go away on their own.  You may shine a single red heat lamp on the jaw near the tooth 5-8 times daily for 5 minutes each time, as hot as you can stand it.  Also, you can place a tablespoon of colloidal silver in the mouth and tilt the head so the solution covers the affected area, and these methods can help in a pinch.  Always consult a knowledgeable person if you are not sure what to do.

CONCLUSION                            

                  Antibiotics are an interesting class of medications that can save lives.  However, antibiotics are overprescribed and toxic.  They should be used as a last resort, not the first.  Very often, simple, inexpensive natural methods described here work better with far fewer adverse effects.

                  Infections are always serious conditions, even seemingly mild ones.  Therefore, take care of all infections rapidly, and aggressively.  Natural remedies often work superbly.  Finally, always ask for help if you are not sure how to use simple, natural methods or if an infection is not beginning to get a little better, at least, after two or three days, at the most. 
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