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Antibiotics: Misuse puts you and others at risk

By Mayo Clinic stuff

Antibiotics overuse

If you think antibiotic resistance isn’t a problem or doesn’t affect you, think again. A prominent example of the dangers of antibiotic resistance is the spread of MRSA — or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. MRSA was once a concern only for people in the hospital, but a newer form of MRSA is causing infections in healthy people in the community.

Antibiotic resistance occurs when antibiotics no longer work against disease-causing bacteria. These infections are difficult to treat and can mean longer lasting illnesses, more doctor visits or extended hospital stays, and the need for more expensive and toxic medications. Some resistant infections can even cause death.

Dispute over rules for approving new drugs stalls production even as concern rises over deadly resistant bacteria

August 06, 2010|By Trine Tsouderos, Tribune reporter

Drug companies are abandoning the antibacterial business, citing high development costs, low return on investment and, increasingly, a nearly decade-long stalemate with the Food and Drug Administration over how to bring new antibiotics to market.

Soon, doctors fear, we could be defenseless against bacteria that can resist all existing antibiotics, which would mean more victims like Simon, dead from a staph infection that drugs used to conquer easily.

Dr. Brad Spellberg, an expert on antibiotic resistance, called the situation “catastrophic.”

The debate over setting new guidelines for antibiotic clinical trials has lasted almost a decade. In two years there have been at least nine meetings among the FDA, pharmaceutical industry scientists and physicians, academics and infectious-disease doctors, but the group has agreed on little besides the dire need for new antibiotics.

For years, new antibiotics often were approved based on clinical trials that didn’t have to show the new drug was better than an old one. Instead it had to fall within an acceptable margin of efficacy, which meant it could test somewhat worse and still be considered a success.

Some are suggesting that for community-acquired pneumonia, antibiotics trials might require as many as 10,000 patients at a cost of about $50,000 a patient, or $500 million. “Cubist barely makes that much a year,” he said.

“Nobody can run those trials,” said Shlaes. “They live in a different world. Their world is numbers and logic. It is not patients and life.”

And in my opinin that is the root of the problem. Big Pharma concerned about profits, not patients and life.

When is it appropriate to use antibiotics?

Antibiotics are effective against bacterial infections, certain fungal infections and some kinds of parasites. Antibiotics don’t work against viruses. Taking an antibiotic when you have a viral infection won’t make you feel better — and can contribute to antibiotic resistance.

Ways to avoid antibiotic resistance

Wash the right way. There is some concern that the triclosan in antibacterial soaps could lead to resistance, and it’s not clear whether they’re any more effective than scrubbing for 30 seconds with regular soap and water. Alcohol is also effective surface cleaner that don’t create resistance.

Buy organic. The antibiotics in the feed of some nonorganic farm animals may contribute to antibiotic resistance. Check your local farmers’ markets

Don’t take an antibiotic unless you absolutely have to. “We could probably cut our antibiotic use by 70% if people only took them when they are absolutely necessary,” says Louis Rice, MD, an expert on resistant bugs and chief of medical service at Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. With some illnesses that typically go away on their own, like ear infections and sinus infections, you can practice “watchful waiting”—get the prescription, but don’t fill it unless the condition persists.

Ask for the shortest course of antibiotics. “The optimal length of antibiotic use for most illnesses may be much less than the current recommendations,” Dr. Rice says. “There might be a three-day course or a seven-day course that is equally effective as a longer one.” For example, when doctors studied treatments for urinary-tract infections, they found that 87% cleared up with a single dose of antibiotics and 94% were cured with a three-day course.

Strengthen your immune sysytem wit proper food and natural supplements.

Teach others how to avoid antibiotics

Time Magazine issue July 19 2010

By Bryan Walsh

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A new study has linked chocolate with depression once again. The article merely tells us what our intuition already knew-chocolate helps us feel better. But how? Chocolate works on the same receptors as marijuana, too. Smoking a joint fills the receptors reserved for endocannabinoids, and the sole other ways in which to fill these receptors are through chocolate and exercise. Throw a very little caffeine for further dopamine and chocolate is the right mood enhancing substance for anyone needing a boost.

Chocolate improves your mood

By Rachelle Holmes of Chicago Breast Augmentation and Chicago Liposuction Center, MetropolitanMDs

Acupuncture is one of the oldest forms of health care and treatments on the planet, but it still serves its purposes even today. Now, while inserting dozens of needles into your body doesn’t seem like the most fun way to treat ailments, acupuncture is a tried and true therapeutic practice that has helped people deal with pain for centuries.

By inserting needles into various pressure points around the body, physical pain and stress can be relieved and even treated using acupuncture. For most, it’s funny to think that sticking needles into the pain areas and pressure points of the body would be the answer, but when it comes to people who suffer from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, it might just be that.

New studies have shown that that acupuncture in certain areas of the body releases adenosine, which is a natural pain killer that is usually released after an injury. This allows people who are suffering from constant fibromyalgia to gain some much-needed relief.

By releasing adenosine, pain signals can be blocked from ever reaching the brain thus helping sufferers deal with their pain problems. This brings up a lot of questions about how much acupuncture has to do with adenosine release and if this is the reason that so many benefit from it. Yet, whatever the reason, studies have shown acupuncture to be great at treating the condition and helping the people who suffer from it.

From the fatigue angle, the study also went on to show that adenosine released from acupuncture has a lot to do with the regulation of the sleep cycle. By being able to regulate sleep correctly, chronic fatigue syndrome may be able to be properly treated and even fixed.

Acupuncture paired with the correct medicine can help both constant pain and fatigue, as new studies have gone on to show. This is good news for sufferers of both ailments, and goes to show that this ancient art of health may still have some new tricks to share.

“About $60 billion is spent annually on defensive medicine, and many physicians feel they are vulnerable to malpractice lawsuits even when they practice competently within the standard of care,” study co-author Dr. Tara Bishop, an associate general internal medicine, said in a Mount Sinai news release.
“The study shows that an overwhelming majority of physicians support tort reform to decrease malpractice lawsuits and that unnecessary testing — a contributor to rising health care costs — will not decrease without it,” she added.