No Wonder Folks Warn About Superbugs…

About a month ago, my 1 year old came down with a fever, so my wife and I took her to one of those quick care clinics to get her checked out.  After the doctor took a look at her, he said that she was probably dealing with a bacterial infection and gave us the prescription you see above.  The Motrin was to bring her fever down.  We decided that we would hold off for a moment just because we didn’t necessarily feel right about the whole antibiotic prescription.

My wife took her to her pediatrician within the next day or two, and the pediatrician confirmed that our child indeed did not have a bacterial infection.  She had a common childhood viral infection called “Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.”  The infection commonly affects kids under five years old, and the pediatrician basically just told us to take good general care of her until her immune system took care of the virus.

Did you notice my emphasis on the words “viral” and “virus?”

Here’s the thing.  The doctor who gave the initial prescription relatively quickly diagnosed our child with a bacterial infection after he examined her, but as I said earlier, she was dealing with a virus, not bacteria.  Let me throw some simple math on you real quick…

VIRUSES ≠ BACTERIA

This is extremely important for you and I to understand.  Why?  Because antibiotics treat bacterial infections and not viral infections.

This means that if we’d filled the prescription for our baby and given her the antibiotic, she would have taken it without even needing it.  “Big deal,” some might say.  And yes, it is a big deal.  Here’s why.

The Very Real Superbug Threat

It is absolutely true that superbugs, or bacteria and other microbes that are resistant to the drugs we’ve used against them, are a real threat.  The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a 2014 report that antimicrobial resistance is no longer a future prediction.  It is happening right now in all parts of the world.  Let me include a quote here from the WHO about how dangerous this is:

Without urgent, coordinated action, the world is heading towards a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries, which have been treatable for decades, can once again kill. – World Health Organization, 2014, emphasis mine

One of the main reasons for this resistance is, according to the WHO, the “use and misuse of antimicrobial drugs.”  Now, consider how our society is now.  Until relatively recently, antibiotics were widely used in the meat that you and I eat daily, which means that by eating that meat, we were consequently taking antibiotics as well.

Also, in general, we take antibiotics for everything.  Granted, sometimes folks are dealing with bacterial infections where antibiotics are warranted and do help, but think about the example of my daughter.  She would have been taking antibiotic drugs for a viral infection.  It wouldn’t have helped her one iota, and I know that this scenario has to replay itself in thousands of clinics around the world every single day.

We have folks taking antibiotics for colds and such, but again, a cold is caused by a viral infection and not a bacteria.  It’s this kind of unnecessary misuse that puts not just the individual, but all of us, at risk of dealing with infections that can’t be treated with any drug.  This is not a minor issue by any means.

Let me give some credit to doctors while I’m at it.  While some doctors might be too quick to prescribe antibiotics, on the other hand, we as patients are sometimes too quick to ask for them.  I can imagine that doctors might feel that we will be appeased they prescribe antibiotics for us, even if we don’t really need them.

The Other Consequence

Another consequence of taking antibiotics (which I’ll cover in a future post) is the fact that, when you take them, you destroy the bad and the good bacteria in your body.  Your stomach has (or should have) millions of bacteria cultures inside that help your digestion and keep your body healthy.  Bottom line, when you destroy those, you have problems.  There have been links to digestive issues and allergies from the excessive use of antibiotics in our society.

So if you’re dealing with an infection in the future, before you go ask your doctor for an antibiotic, find out if you’re dealing with a bacteria first of all.  Secondly, understand that it will be wise for you to consider repopulating your stomach with beneficial bacteria by taking a probiotic (more later) since many of them are killed off by antibiotics.  Finally, understand that your body’s immune system can actually fight off viral and bacterial infections.  Sometimes all your body needs is the right food and lifestyle conditions so that the immune system can do what it was made to do.

Your health depends on minimizing antibiotics.  All of our health depends on it.