ANTIBIOTICS – life saver but also misused!

Antibiotics – saves millions of lives but also causes much damage when overused!

There are good bacteria and there is bad bacteria.

Bad bacteria exist in the body at any given time and often even without causing harm. Or they can grow strong and we suffer the ill effects.

The discovery and introduction of antibiotics was revolutionary and saved and still saves millions of lives per year. Disease and infections that used to be lethal and claim lives can now be treated.

But there is now a serious threat in over usage of anti-biotics. There are two serious issues as a result from that. Firstly it does not give the body a chance to develop its own immunity, and secondly it leads to antibiotic resistance, meaning the bacteria develops a different strain resistant to the antibiotic use and then that particular antibiotic will no longer be effective.

Another issue that takes place when we use antibiotics: it kills the bad bacteria but it also kills many of the good bacteria in our body. Did you know that an average adult has about 2 kg of good bacteria in the intestine. Such good bacteria is now becoming more and more linked to the functioning of our entire body, to heart health, immunity, and prevention of many known serious diseases.

The good bacteria are also called probioticand you often see that commonly on certain food labels etc. for example Dahi is rich in probiotics (however if you use sweetened yoghurt / dahi it will nearly no probiotic cultures alive and is useless from that point of view. And you would also need to consume very large quantities of Dahi, plus it only contains SOME of many important bacterial cultures).

So: when we take antibiotic it wipes out billions of good bacteria as well which are essential for the functioning of the body. Some medical research estimates that it could take as long as 1.5-2 years for the intestinal balance to come back to normal after one single course of antibiotics.

The antibiotic usage in india is today the highest in the world. Nearly 30% higher than in china.

We see parents routinely make their children take antibiotics – some paediatrician friends of mine admit the average school going child would probably take antibiotics at least once maybe twice per year. And most adults same thing… many doctors in india routinely prescribe antibiotics for the smallest issue… and yes, if it is a bacterial infection it is helpful in dealing with that… however the sad part is that in majority of the cases the body would have been able to develop antibodies and fighting it off on its own.

Another scary statistic, according to a times of india survey more than 54% of the subjects were not even aware that antibiotics will not have any impact on a viral infection… and not even doctors will be able to always establish whether it’s a viral or bacterial infection. Still antibiotics are given routinely, just as a precaution. And often, if it’s a viral infection, it’s not even going to help other than wiping out billions of important good bacteria in your body.

My 7 year old has never been given antibiotics. My 10 year old has been given antibiotics once when she had a head injury, as a precaution. And my husband and myself average once or twice per 10 years.

How? We first of all avoid taking it unless it would be completely required. And secondly, we keep our natural immunity so high with the help of basic good food and most importantly quality natural food supplements. As a result we recover and can fight it off without the help of antibiotics.

I will in another writing cover through which foods & supplements you can help your body promote those good bacterias! Its really quite simple.

Be informed!!!