Many Americans are great believers in the power of prescription medications. Individuals over the age of 60 might remember loved ones dying from simple infections that can now be treated.
However, sometimes we pressure our doctor to prescribe an antibiotic when one isn’t needed. Using antibiotics as a cure-all is happening so often that our overuse of them is actually making antibiotics less effective when they are needed.
Antibiotics fight bacteria. Anti = against; biotic = bacteria. So if you have a virus, antibiotics will not cure your infection, nor will they make you feel better.
According to a November report by the Centers for Disease Control, antibiotics are overprescribed by many doctors. As the saying goes, too much of a good thing can turn bad.
An antibiotic can only be used so much before the bacteria — which is a living organism — begins to develop a resistance to it. This means that bacteria mutates into new forms that our current antibiotics cannot kill. So science develops new antibiotics, which cause more bacterial mutation, and so on.
Around 70 percent of all antibiotics are used on livestock for the purpose of weight gain or to treat illnesses. The overuse of antibiotics on livestock can be harmful to humans because it creates an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can be transferred several ways, such as in raw meats.
In addition, the manure from food-producing animals can also contain antibiotic-resistant bacteria and is sometimes stored in lagoons. The manure is often applied to farm ground as fertilizer and can contaminate the crops and water with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
“We have more than enough scientific evidence to justify curbing the rampant use of antibiotics for livestock,” according to David Aaron Kessler, former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “yet the food and drug industries are not only fighting proposed legislation to reduce these practices, they also oppose collecting the data.”
The take away? Stop demanding antibiotics every time you feel sick. When antibiotics are prescribed, stop the further spread of bacteria by carrying out the full treatment.
Ann Cochran is the Health Navigation Coordinator at the Dallas County Public Health Department.
Much the same can be said concerning the use of anti-bacterial products in the home.