Why are Antibiotics a Serious and Growing Health Risk?
by Donna Gates for SixWise.com
Regular
SixWise.com contributor Donna Gates is an internationally
renowned nutritional consultant, author and lecturer.
Her extensively researched and proven insights have made
her a top consultant to many of today's leading physicians
and other health experts, and her insights have helped
many thousands of people overcome candidiasis and other
immune system disorders. |
Antibiotics, those "cure-all" pills that we've
all been taking since we were kids, are a true double-edged
sword. While they have saved many lives when prescribed for
bacterial infections-things like pneumonia, tuberculosis and
meningitis-antibiotics are vastly overused and wreaking havoc
inside our bodies.
Part of the problem is that, as a culture, we expect our
doctors to prescribe an antibiotic to fix our (and our children's)
cold, flu, earache and more. At the first sign of a sniffle,
many of us still run to our doctor for a prescription, and
some may request-or even demand-one.
But, while some 40 years ago antibiotics were thought to
be the magic miracle pill and doctors prescribed them for
everything from colds to acne, today we know that antibiotics
are useless against viruses.
Viruses are the most frequent cause of infections. Upper
respiratory infections, measles, mumps, chickenpox, shingles,
glandular fever, cold sores, flu and gastroenteritis are common
examples of a viral infection.
Donna Gates, Internationally Known and Respected Dietary
Health Expert, Author and Lecturer
|
The Baby with the Bathwater
Antibiotics, however, do kill bacteria, and they do
this quite well. The problem is that they not only kill the
bad bacteria that may be causing your illness, but they also
kill ALL bacteria, including the good kind in your digestive
tract that your body needs, leaving barren territory for all
sorts of trouble to brew.
You may already know the names of some of the friendly -
acidophilus and bifidus. You can buy these in supplements
called probiotics. Antibiotics upset the balance of these
good bacteria in your intestines, paving the way for an alarming
number of diseases to flourish. One of the most common is
a systemic fungal infection.
Yeast are also a normal inhabitant of your digestive tract,
but when the friendly bacteria are destroyed, they changed
into a pathogenic form and create havoc if left unchecked.
They can move into your bloodstream quickly and cause a very
serious and very common infection called candidiasis.
If your gut is a perfectly balanced, or even fairly well
balanced, environment, you are well on your way to enjoying
a healthy, disease-free life. If, on the other hand, you were
to look inside your gut to see it overridden with pathogenic
bacteria, and yeast with very few friendly bacteria, disease
will be just around the corner.
Antibiotics and the Superbug
How many of you have taken one round of antibiotics, found
that you are still sick, and then taken a second and even
third round?
When antibiotics were first used they could kill off most
any strain of infection-causing bacteria. But all bacteria
are highly intelligent and future strains of pathogenic bacteria
mutated to become stronger and meaner.
These new, genetically changed bacteria are resistant to
even our strongest antibiotics, and newer generations of these
antibiotic-resistant bacteria are multiplying. The result
is that we are now forced to create even more potent antibiotics
to kill these more virile bacteria. In the end we humans lose
the vicious cycle.
Now that we know that pathogenic bacteria have an astounding
ability to adapt and will continue to overcome even our most
powerful antibiotics we must find another way to fight back.
The key to build your own natural immunity and protect against
these pathogens is to change your inner environment so no
unfriendly bacteria would want to live there. And the way
to do this is to make sure you have enough good bacteria present
to keep the bad bacteria at bay.
Traditionally fermented sauerkraut - NOT the kind you'd
buy in most grocery stores but the kind you'd make according
to "Old World" recipes, such as this sauerkraut
made from red and white cabbage -- is an excellent way
to get probiotics into your diet. Traditionally prepared
"kimchi," a very popular food in Korea, is
another excellent probiotic source.
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The intestinal tract should normally be comprised of 15 percent
beneficial bacteria and 85 percent neutral, but with the onslaught
of antibiotics, chlorine in our water, birth control pills
and steroids, all of which upset this balance, most of us
have more like 85 percent bad bacteria and 15 percent good
or neutral.
How to Reduce Your Need for Antibiotics ... and Protect
Yourself in Case You Must Use Them
Fortunately for us, our bodies are remarkably intelligent
and quite capable of keeping us healthy if we give them the
right "tools." The key to fighting off illness within
your body (this includes not only bacterial infections but
also viruses too) is to balance the good and bad bacteria
in your gut.
Probiotic supplements have recently become increasingly popular
in the United States for this reason, but there's another
way to get good bacteria in your system-and it's quite tasty!
Cultured foods, things like kefir (a fermented milk drink
that tastes like tart yogurt) and traditionally fermented
sauerkraut and other vegetables and are the best sources of
probiotics around.
So whichever method you choose (choosing both the supplements
and the cultured foods is best), be sure that your body is
getting a steady source of good bacteria. Once your gut is
balanced and healthy, you'll have to worry much less about
illness in the first place, because at this point your immune
system will be functioning at its optimal, disease-fighting
level.
IMPORTANT NOTE #1: It
is absolutely essential to eat probiotic foods and drink probiotic
beverages like kefir if you must take an antibiotic. They
are a much smarter "antibiotic", as nature, which
is far smarter than humans, has equipped them with the innate
ability to know which bad bacteria to attack, and which bacteria
to leave alone.
If you consume them during antibiotic therapy, they
will continually replace the good bacteria that the antibiotics
wipe out. Then continue eating them for a minimum of three
months to ensure that you renew a new, healthy "inner
ecosystem" in your intestines. Best yet, incorporate
these delicious new foods into your diet forever. You'll be
very glad you did.
IMPORTANT NOTE #2: If
you purchase probiotic supplements like acidophilus
and bifidus from your local health food store, please know
that they are not as hardy as probiotic foods. So take
very large amounts of these supplements if you must take antibiotics.