Guest guest Posted June 24, 2006 Report Share Posted June 24, 2006 How Massive Antibiotic Overprescription & Animal Feeding Practices have JoAnn Guest Jun 02, 2006 14:34 PDT The Antibiotic CRISIS How Massive Antibiotic Overprescription and Farm Animal Feeding Practices Have Backfired - How to Prevent and Treat Infection Naturally Bill Stanton, State-Of-The-Art Health Counselor http://www.camaweb.org./library/infectious_disease/antibiotic_crisis. php --- http://www.camaweb.org./library In 1962, that year's Nobel laureate in medicine, the Australian physician Sir F. MacFarlane Burnet, said that by the twentieth century we will see the " virtual elimination of infectious diseases as a significant factor in societal life. " And that, as he continued, further study and publication of infectious disease research " is almost to write of something that has passed into history. " Seven years later, the U.S. Surgeon General, William Stewart, testified to Congress that " it was time to close the book on infectious diseases. " Close the book? How so? Simply because the Age of Antibiotics had fully arrived, and no disease-producing, infection-producing pathogenic microbe would now ever threaten anyone having access to medical doctors and antibiotics. The Age of Miracle Drugs was here. Yet by 1986, Dr. Marc Lappe, M.D., author of When antibiotics Fail, wrote: " The period once euphemistically called the Age of Miracle Drugs is dead. " What happened? The " Sin " of Medical Arrogance Mankind has always been prone to committing the " Sin of Arrogance. " Give a man a little success, and suddenly delusions of grandeur set in. All-powerful hallucinatory ideations ensue. Overconfidence clouds the lessons of the past. We have all been victims of personal, professional and collective arrogance. As we enter the twenty-first century, we must confront, and resolve this very same arrogance having befallen the American medical establishment and the very system of medicine that has-again paradoxically-backfired and is now threatening our health, not protecting it. An arrogance having evolved from the philosophy of allopathic (i.e., synthetic chemical) medicine. An evolution that has seen astounding and incredible advances in the treatment of sickness and disease, amazing cures, remarkable control over heretofore untreatable and uncontrollable chronic, degenerative diseases, and dramatic advances in emergency and trauma medicine. An evolution of highly advance civilization and of phenomenal scientific medical achievement so effective and superior (as it seemed) to render antiquated, inferior- and even illegal-any past and historical " medicines " of our forefathers. Who now would dare to use echinacea and goldenseal root for infection in the twenty-first century, when such far-advanced and superior technological medical advances in antibiotic technomedicine exist? " The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men... " Dr. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. His discovery launched the era of pharmaceutical, laboratory manmade antibiotics, as well as the Age of Miracle Drugs. Paradoxically, Dr. Fleming's magnanimous discovery, and that of second, third, fourth, etc. generation antibiotics, also seeded an unexpected, Orwellian-like and extremely diabolical biological phenomenon causing drug antibiotic backfire: microbial resistance, and the creation of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic microbes (i.e., the now so-called Superbugs.) 1929 Ironically, one year after Dr. Fleming discovered penicillin, he wrote in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology that numerous bacteria were already resistant to penicillin. In 1930 and in 1945 he warned in a New York Times interview that improper use of penicillin would inevitably lead to the development of resistant bacteria. Even then (1945) 14% of staphylococcus aureus bacteria was resistant to penicillin. By 1950, 59% were resistant, and 1995, 95%! (Buchner, S. H., Herbal Antibiotics (1999)). How profoundly ironic! That, just like Oppenheimer - the inventor of the atomic bomb - warned the world to beware the awesome threat to mankind that his invention had perpetrated upon the world. Fleming had also sounded the same warning regarding the medical overdependence and overprescription of antibiotics leading to another, equally threatening threat to mankind, microbial resistance leading to uncontrollable and deadly Superbugs. 1999 It has now taken well over fifty years of total and complete medical antibiotic dependency for the scientific and medical establishments to even begin to realize the catastrophic antibiotic-induced consequences that has befallen American and western populations having been " fed " this steady diet of antibiotics, of new classes of antibiotics, of now even twenty-first century antibiotics. And of the equally devastating consequences of feeding antibiotics to cows and pigs JUST to increase their slaughterhouse weight. How devastating? According to Dr. Jack Dillenberg, Director, Arizona Department of Health Services: " The super bacteria explosion is a public health crisis of the first order. If left unchecked, we face potentially devastating consequences including widespread sickness and death from once- curable diseases. " And Dr. David Bell, M.D., of the Centers for Disease Control, an expert on microbial resistance: " What's different now is that we've reached a situation where it is no longer an isolated problem (i.e., resistance) of this bug or that bug. Virtually all important human pathogens have developed some resistance. " And the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics recently stated publicly that " The antibiotic resistance problem is a problem which kills almost two people in the U.S. every hour! " To deal with this problem, the medical establishment has been warning all doctors for some years to curtail antibiotic prescriptions. Doctors are prescribing less antibiotics. Curtailing antibiotic prescriptions may slow down the development of microbial resistance, but IT WILL NOT STOP IT! Not any more. The problem is not how many prescriptions doctors write, but rather what they are prescribing. For it is now scientifically well-established that synthetic chemical antibiotics quickly confer resistance to microbes. As it turns out, bacteria are actually quite smart, and possess the genetic and evolutionary capabilities to develop antibiotic resistance - at least to single chemical synthetics. A pure example of Darwinian survival of the fittest. The current " strategy " in place now to deal with this new man-made threat is to continue to develop newer and newer antibiotics in an effort to stay " one step ahead " of these super smart microbes. But the microbes are clearly outsmarting man. And in fact, one of the newest antibiotics -Synercid™- has already generated resistance to some bacteria. The New Livestock Feeding Programs - Strictly an Economic Advantage Approximately half of all the antibiotics manufactured (some 20 million pounds) are fed to farm animals because the animals experience faster growth. This has been going on for a couple of decades, unbeknownst to the general public, and has produced dire consequences. The World Health Organization, after critically examining all world evidence related to feeding antibiotics to livestock for strictly growth-promoting reasons, in 1997 recommended that " the use of antimicrobial agents for growth promotion should be terminated if it is: 1) used in human therapeutics and 2) known to select for cross-resistance to antimicrobials used in human medicine. " The WHO found absolute scientific evidence that resistant strains of bacteria generated in animals is being transferred into humans. However, to date, the practice of feeding antibiotics to farm animals to increase yields continues unabated in the U.S. Thus, almost all commercial animal food not only contains synthetic antibiotic-induced resistant microbial strains, but also significant trace amounts of the antibiotics used. These are all ingested daily by the tens of millions of Americans and other nationalities. What are the consequences of a person continuously eating low levels of various known resistance-conferring antibiotics in all the various commercial animal foods for two years - ten years - a lifetime? Where are all the necessary scientific studies to prove this practice is safe, and without deleterious consequences? What about other drug and chemical residues present in commercial animal food in addition to antibiotics? The government has classified them to be perfectly safe? Are they safe for human consumption and the environment? In this evolution of modern, " civilized " medicine into synthetic chemical medicine is there an environmental impact when forty million pounds a year of " spent " antibiotics enters the environment via human and animal waste and accumulate in our soil and water? Are we creating long and short term lethal consequences upon the environmental ecosystem and ALL life forms? E. coli 0157:H7 - Making a Monster Out of a Good Bacteria E. coli is a good bacteria. Yes, a good bacteria. One that naturally resides in the intestinal tract of both humans and animals. That is it used to be a good bacteria - up UNTIL the Age of Miracle Drugs. Now, after fifty years of the fearless, uncontrolled use of synthetic chemical antibiotics, E. coli has mutated into many now untreatable lethal super strains! E. coli 0157:H7, for example, has killed scores of people, especially children, and causes thousands of acute-onset, potentially deadly illnesses every year. Antibiotics and the Destruction of the Human Ecosystem The human intestinal tract is a highly complex living ecosystem. The adult human intestines contain 3-4 pounds (several hundred strains) of good bacteria and yeast. These inherent trillions of intestinal microbes have many essential functions, including proper digestion, absorption of essential nutrients, the manufacture of essential nutrients, generating normal intestinal immunity (around two-thirds of the body's immune system lines the entire intestinal tract), generating natural antibiotics and ensuring overall proper gastrointestinal functions, including normal elimination. Many essential strains of intestinal bacteria have been identified and studied since Eli Metchnikoff first identified, studied and wrote on the subject one hundred years ago. Metchnikoff's discovery of the human intestinal ecosystem and " good " intestinal bacteria is one of the seminal medical discoveries of all time. Yet, a full century later, his landmark medical discovery, with all its profound medical implications, has, like so many other essential medical discoveries of the past, fallen on deaf medical ears. This particular " medical deafness " has caused untold millions of human deaths, injuries and chronic illnesses and ruined lives. These essential intestinal bacterial and yeast strains are critical to the insurance of good human health. Normal, chemically undisturbed gut functions are the quintessential requirement of good human health. Chemical drug antibiotics kill off these quintessential gut bacteria, thereby disturbing and disrupting normal gut ecobalance. This is the inevitability of using antibacterial antibiotics. In order for an antibiotic to kill off an invading pathogenic bacteria, it must also - by definition - kill off billions of " good " bacteria. This is the first and foremost " hidden " danger of medical antibiotic therapy - the killing off essential " good " bacteria. Many people go through the continuous administration of an antibiotic with multiple rounds over many years not realizing they kill the good guys. The medical " side effects " of such kill-off of " good " bacteria are; recurrent infections, particularly fungal and " resistant " bacterial infections, chronic intestinal syndromes and diseases, chronic immunosuppression, liver damage and long-term liver stress and liver toxicity, kidney damage, intestinal lining damage leading to " leaky gut syndrome " and systemic autoimmune diseases, chronic psychiatric depression and other neurological brain disorders and chronic gut dysbiosis, causing chronic constipation and/or diarrhea. These devastating antibiotic-induced medical disorders - known as iatrogenic (i.e., doctor-caused) diseases - are poorly elucidated and are not understood or treated by modern medicine. In the aftermath of antibiotics, many people have become chronically ill, but have failed to get a proper diagnosis or treatment, other than possibly more prescription drugs to treat the end-stage symptoms of these multiple, eco-destructive effects of the host of metabolic dysfunctions induced by antibiotics. Yet never adequately addressing the core medical diagnosis: antibiotic-induced intestinal ecodestruction, with resultant gut dybiosis - resulting in the above-mentioned chronic diseases and syndromes. Current Medical Infection Protocols ... Hazardous To Your Health! It is of utmost importance to all Americans that a paradigm shift in the current medical infection protocols be instituted. Are we being victimized by the medical establishment's antibiotic medical dogma and their total reliance upon chemical antibiotics to treat illness and infection? The total and complete medical reliance upon chemical antibiotics solely to treat illnesses and infection in the last sixty years; and the still continuing reliance upon the same now in the twenty-first century; has, particularly in recent years, carelessly and irresponsibly overlooked several critical medical issues that now " cry out in the night, " as the rank and file are forced to continue to be victimized by the medical establishment's " set in stone " antibiotic medical dogma. Issue #1 It is now absolutely scientifically established - and perfectly scientifically clear that the massive use of and sole reliance upon chemical antibiotics has caused, and continues to cause, the Darwinistic mutation of pathogenic and benign bacteria into chemical antibiotic-resistant strains of " Superbugs " now even deadlier; causing far more unnecessary deaths and now much, much more difficult to treat. In the U.S., and other Western countries that have relied solely upon chemical antibiotics to treat infection and infection-related illnesses, a latter-day silent and growing epidemic of both acute-onset and chronic (i.e., sub-clinical, low grade) resistant bacterial infections has ensued. A silent, major epidemic. The acute-onset infections are killing a huge number of people outright, due to resistant infections surpassing current antibiotics. And the future outlook of this acute-onset resistant bacterial infection pandemic is bleak, based upon the current, standard, historical medical dogma treatment paradigm of chemical antibiotics. Just witness the current U.S. hospital-induced infection fiasco (i.e., nosocomial infection). The American news media in July 2002 reported that new official medical statistics show that over 100,000 people a year are dying from hospital-acquired infections. Untreatable (i.e., allopathically) infections, resistant infections, caught from the hospital itself. Many who do survive such acute-onset infections, and particularly resistant infections (probably because their immune response was better than those who succumb, and whose metabolic detoxification capacity could better handle and detoxify the massive drug therapies) now must deal with resultant chronic, low-grade infections of all types, and the resultant new chronic illnesses generated thereof. These people represent the chronically unwell subset of the population. A subset for whom no current medical diagnosis nor medical treatment exists. But, nevertheless, a subset who have been repeatedly ecologically challenged and altered from chronic exposure to ecodestructive chemical antibiotics, chemical antibiotic residues in human animal foods, various other ecodestructive medical drugs and over-the-counter drugs, and massive (but low-level) environmental xenobiotic (i.e., man-made chemical) exposures of all classes of both industrial and military toxins. These chronic, low-level, long-term antibiotic, drug and industrial/military environmental toxin exposures have and are causing a host of poorly medically elucidated chronic human illnesses due to the disruption and alteration of both human gut flora and systemic biological ecobalance, chronic immunosuppression and total load exposures of drugs and chemicals. Issue #2 The now long-term, completely irresponsible extension of the antibiotic medical dogma into the chemical antibiotic " feedings " of all U.S. food farm animals has further unnecessarily contributed to our current antibiotic-resistant infection pandemic. Issue #3 The almost complete and total medical disregard for both the role the human immune plays out in preventing, controlling and conferring short- and long-term immunological resistance against all infection; as well as the essentiality of immunologically stimulating the immune system concurrent to antimicrobial therapy; is academically inexcusable. As both commonsense and current immune-based science dictate, healthy people just don't get sick, and/or recover quickly without medical intervention. Health human immune systems confer super health to the individual, quickly destroying invading pathogens, especially including antibiotic-resistant microbes. The proper treatment protocol of any infection, acute or especially chronic, must necessarily require specific immunostimulation utilizing natural, scientifically (and historically) elucidated biological immune stimulants in conjunction with antibiotic/antimicrobial therapy. This blatant, long-term medical omission is a fatal flaw in the current allopathic treatment protocol for infection. Use logic. The only reason to treat with antibiotics is because an individual's immune system has already failed to respond adequately. Thus it is both logically and medically necessary to treat both the failed immune system concurrently with antibiotic treatment. Millions have died of immune failure, not antibiotic drug failure. Many could have been saved, and many can still be saved, with concurrent, safe, biological immune therapies. Issue #4 Further complicating the lack of proper immune system treatment in immunocompromised " infected " individuals is the very immune suppressive nature of the very chemical antibiotic(s) being used. All drugs are more or less immunosuppressive to some extent, depending upon the specific drug, or combination of drugs, as well as the individual's particular liver genetics (or pharmacogenetics: the infant science of pre-identifying medical drugs or chemical exposures such individual cannot either genetically or phenotypically detoxify, leading, of course, to a severe or deadly reaction). The last thing a sick or very sick person needs,especially older people, is the administration of any immunosuppressive drug (s), particularly if such individual cannot genetically or phenotypically (i.e., current lifestyle and environmentally-induced, genetically altered state) detoxify the drug(s). And in point of a fact, the current drugs-only, antibiotics-only treatment protocols are killing and injuring hundreds of thousands of hospitalized patients yearly, according to the medical establishment's scientifically documented and peer-reviewed published medical studies. This then leads to increased hospital stays, further reducing quality of life, with medical costs over one hundred billion. Issue #5 The determination and remediation of specific vitamin/mineral deficiencies as it relates to loss of immune competence in the throes of an acute or chronic infection is an essential but still undealt with aspect of proper medical treatment of infections. Specific nutrient deficiencies have for years been scientifically proven to increase the onset of, progression of and virulence of an infection. Ironically, a huge amount of published research on this particular aspect of immune deficiency/infection rate exists, but, inexcusably, the medical establishment has chosen to continue to ignore this critical link to the proper medical treatment of and control of all infections. Sadly, the politicoeconomically-derived past nutritional and dietary supplement medical dogmas have railed incessantly against the absolute essentiality of restoring proper nutritional health as a factor not only of the successful treatment of infection, but also of the successful treatment of all disease. Regrettably, the medical establishment's insistence upon preserving its U.S. medical monopoly precludes it from either admitting to or utilizing any viable but uncontrolled treatments - even scientifically proven, even proven superior to current protocols - which involve any medicine or treatment not strictly, legislatively and congressionally controlled exclusively for medical doctors only. How to Safely Treat and Prevent Infection WITHOUT the Use of Chemical Antibiotics PREVENTION 1. Eat 100% organic food, or approximation thereof. 2. Avoid all commercial meat, chicken, turkey, lamb, calves liver, eggs, dairy and milk products -- ALL of which contain antibiotic residues (as well as estrogenizing prescription drug residues and other deliberately administered drugs and chemicals). 3. Eliminate all processed, packaged refined foods, commercial vegetable oils, sugar, soft drink, diet soft drinks. 4. Eat fresh food, especially vegetables, dark green leafy vegetables, blueberries, raspberries and unrefined olive oil. 5. Avoid all medical drugs, including over-the-counter drugs, whenever possible. 6. Seek available natural and less toxic alternatives to all prescribed medical drugs, especially drugs prescribed indefinitely and/or for a lifetime. 7. Eliminate all household chemicals, including chemical cleaners, bug sprays, air fresheners, perfumes, hair dyes, nail polish, lipstick, various chemical cosmetics. 8. Install HVAC air purification system. 9. Drink purified water. 10. Take high quality, potent multiple vitamin/mineral. 11. Avoid constipation. 12. Restore intestinal flora with daily, high potency probiotics (acidophilus and bifidobacteria, etc.) and probiotics (i.e., FOS, or fructooligosacharides) or use daily organic unsweetened yogurt or kefir. TREATMENT A. Natural Antibiotics 1. Colloidal silver 2. Olive leaf extract-18% or more 3. Grapefruit seed extract (GSE) 4. Goldenseal root (or bayberry root, oregon grape root) 5. Usnea (especially urinary) 6. Uva Ursi (especially urinary) 7. Cranberry extract or 100% cranberry juice (for E. coli urinary infection) 8. Essential oils of oregano, thyme, cumin 9. Raw garlic (also dried garlic, but less potent) 10. Licorice (especially viral) 11. Sage 12. Curry powder, chili powder, allspice 13. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) food grade, or stabilized oxygen (less potent) 14. Elderberry extract or juice concentrate (viral) 15. Isatis (Chinese herbal antibiotic) 16. Andrographis 17. Transfer factor (antigen infused) 18. Colostrum (especially intestinal infection) 19. Lactoferrin B. Natural Immune Stimulants 1. Echinacea (classical) 2. Andrographis 3. Transfer factor 4. Arabinogalactin (i.e., larch) 5. Medical mushroom extracts, particularly maitake, maitake " D " fraction, maitake " MD " fraction, shitake, blends. 6. Active Hecose Correlated Compound (AHCC) a Japanese Mushroom Extract 7. Natural vitamin A, high dosage (mucous membranes) 8. Zinc (including zinc lozenges for colds, virus) 9. Selenium (especially viral) high dosage 10. Cod liver oil 11. Venus flytrap extract 12. Licorice 13. Vitamin C, high dosage 14. Probiotics 15. Thymus, spleen freeze-dried grandulars 16. Astragalus, ligustrum (Chinese) 17. Colostrum NEWSFLASH! Aug., 2002 The U.S. news media has just reported the identification of newly-discovered antibiotic-resistant strains of salmonella. Salmonella is a nasty, highly toxic and already potentially lethal food-borne bacterial contaminant of foods, particularly commercial eggs, unrefrigerated mayonnaise, egg salad sandwiches. These newer, chemical-antibiotic-created resistant strains, are super-lethal. --- ----------- Bill Stanton is well known as one of Atlanta's avant-garde dietary supplement/natural medicine experts and has appeared on CNN as well as local networks. He owned and operated Aris Health Market and Bill Stanton's Health Market for 17 years and is now in private practice offering consultations and state-of-the-art natural medicines. We thank World Health News for permission to re-print this article from their publication. JoAnn Guest mrsjo- www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.