| Back in the 1930s a discovery changed the face of | | | | bacteria from our systems, the good with the bad. The |
| modern medicine for good - antibiotics. Countless lives | | | | abuse of antibiotics has led to bacterial strains that |
| have been saved by them since then but in the 21st | | | | have become resistant to the antibiotics available |
| century antibiotic misuse is making them less effective | | | | today - the so called "super bugs" - and scientists |
| everyday, which could spell big trouble for everyone. | | | | have less and less to work with every day when |
| The problem is that many people, including some | | | | trying to develop new antibiotics to combat these |
| medical practitioners themselves fail to understand, or | | | | threats. |
| have forgotten, what antibiotics can and cannot do. | | | | And it is not only our own ingestion of antibiotics that |
| The drugs kill bacteria. If you have an ear infection, | | | | threaten our health. Increasingly animals are given |
| tuberculosis or any other bacterial infection they can | | | | antibiotics for all kinds of reasons and we will ingest |
| work wonders. But for viral infections (colds, flus etc.) | | | | them once those animals have been slaughtered for |
| they are useless. That fact does not stop thousands | | | | their meat. |
| of patients rushing to their doctor's office demanding | | | | To stem this alarming trend people need to be |
| them at the first sign of a runny nose and sadly many | | | | reeducated about the proper use of antibiotics and |
| times that request is granted. | | | | understand that there are certain things that just |
| Even when taken for the right reasons antibiotics have | | | | cannot be cured by popping pills. The answer to your |
| side effects. Many who take them will experience | | | | child's nighttime cold symptoms cannot be found in a |
| nausea and diarrhea, but if they are doing their job that | | | | bottle of bright pink antibiotic. The simple fact is that if |
| is something that unfortunately the patient has to live | | | | antibiotic abuse continues unchecked then by the timer |
| with. | | | | they grow up they may have far more to worry about |
| But what global effect does the over prescription of | | | | than the common cold as medicine may find itself out |
| antibiotics really have? Antibiotics work by flushing all | | | | of solutions for real bacterial infections. |