Fw: [Medicalnewscommentaries] IMVA - The End of Antibiotics - February29, 2008

[Guest guest]

- Mark Sircus Ac., OMD

medicalnewscommentaries

Friday, February 29, 2008 7:48 AM

[Medicalnewscommentaries] IMVA - The End of Antibiotics - February29, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

The End of Antibiotics

International Medical Veritas Association

 

 

 

Diseases include measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis,

typhoid fever, pneumonia, influenza, whooping cough, diphtheria and polio. All were in decline for several decades before the introduction of antibiotics or vaccines.

Dr. Lawrence Wilson

 

Antibiotics do not kill yeast but they certainly can kill people on occasion. Not only do some antibiotics increase the risk of sudden cardiac death but sometimes they lead to liver compromise and failure. Despite the ever-widening use of antibiotics the National Center for Infectious Disease and the Centers for Disease Control announced that the U.S. death rate from infectious disease increased by more than 50% between 1980 and 1992, making it the third leading cause of death.

Drug-resistant streptococcus pneumoniae is a leading cause of illness and death in young children and the elderly.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading much faster than medical experts had feared, the World Health Organization said in February of 2008. The rate of TB patients infected with the drug-resistant strain topped 20 percent in some countries, the highest ever recorded, with rates expected to soar even higher.

If the resistant form is contracted two years may be needed to treat with drugs that are 100 times as expensive as the first-line regimen and even then results are less than ideal. The levels of drug-resistant TB are going through the roof surpassing the highest levels that nearly all experts had once thought were possible. Dr. Mario C. Raviglione, director of W.H.O’s tuberculosis program, said "Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable to see rates like this. This demonstrates what happens when you keep making mistakes in TB treatment."

According to the WHO, outbreaks of drug-resistant tuberculosis are showing up all over the world and threaten to touch off a worldwide epidemic of virtually incurable tuberculosis.[ii]

Studies have documented the association between increased rates of antimicrobial use and development of resistant infections thus doctors who prescribe antibiotics irrationally should be rebuked. There is a growing consensus among infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists and control experts from the U.S. and Europe about the dark side of antibiotic use. But most doctors continue to believe that antibiotics have played an important role in staving off bacterial infections and thus continue to prescribe them in obscene quantities.

This chapter is a prelude to the next, which provides real alternatives and solutions in our fight against infections. These pages certainly offer sufficient testimony about our need for radical change in the use of antibiotics and the even greater need to find safe and effective answers that stand a chance of protecting us from the rising rage of super germs. Clearly allopathic medicine’s obsession with antibiotics has had disastrous consequences that few have imagined. Unfortunately antibiotics have become part of our life style so when we talk about health issues one can hardly imagine any adult who has not yet been prescribed a course of antibiotics.

According to several studies, obstetricians and gynecologists write 2,645,000 antibiotic prescriptions every week. Internists prescribe 1,416,000 per week. This works out to 211,172,000 prescriptions annually in the United States, just for these two specialties. Pediatricians prescribe over $500 million worth of antibiotics annually just for one condition, ear infections. Yet topical povidone iodine (PVP-I) is as effective as topical ciprofloxacin, with a superior advantage of having no in vitro drug resistance and the added benefit of reduced cost of treatment.[iii]

Many women find after taking antibiotics, they get vaginal yeast infections (because their normal bacterial balance has been lost). Antibiotics bring on fungal and yeast infections thus will eventually be seen as one additional cause of cancer since more and more oncologists are seeing yeast and fungal infections as an integral part of cancer and its cause. With upwards of 40 percent of all cancers thought to be involved with and caused by infections[iv] the subject of antibiotics and the need for something safer, more effective and life serving is imperative.

It may be some time before we really enter the predicted "post antibiotic era" in which common infections are frequently untreatable.[v] Dr. Marc Lipsitch et al. Harvard School of Public Health

Eventually antibiotics are going to be seen as one of the worst things to ever come out of pharmaceutical science because in the end they have made us only weaker in the face of ever increasingly strong super bugs that are resistant to all the antibiotics doctors have at their disposal. When we look at how deep the rabbit hole goes with antibiotics it will sicken our souls. Antibiotics have fulfilled their anti–biotic anti-life role leaving a long trail of death and suffering in the wake of their use.

Antibiotics kill all bacteria in the body, including the ones we need.

An antibiotic is a substance produced by certain bacteria or fungi that kills other cells or interferes with their growth. In nature, these substances help some microbes survive by limiting the multiplication of other microbes that share the same environment. Antibiotics that attack pathogenic (disease-causing) microbes without severely harming normal body cells are useful as drugs but there does not seem to be any from the pharmaceutical companies that do not do damage.

Dr. Lisa Landymore-Lin wrote all about this in her book Poisonous Prescriptions asking, ‘Do Antibiotics Cause Asthma and Diabetes?’ We are now even beginning to question the role of antibiotics as a cause of cancer since they do lead to pathogen overgrowth especially in the area of yeast and fungi. Chris Woollams writes, “It is estimated that 70 per cent of the British population have a yeast infection. The primary cause of this is our love of antibiotics. Swollen glands? Take antibiotics. Tonsillitis? Take antibiotics.”

Two studies in the recent past have shown an association between the use of antibiotics with higher incidence of breast cancer.[vi]

In one study the increased risk was small, and the importance of the link has been played down by UK breast-cancer experts, but the findings add weight to recent studies that have found links between antibiotics and other diseases. In the past few years heavy antibiotic use has been linked to the inflammatory bowel disorder, Crohn's disease, and to children developing allergies such as hayfever and asthma. And as we shall see below antibiotics play a hidden role in autism and other neurological diseases.

Nearly 500,000 people are dying yearly in Americadue to infectious disease. It now ranks number 3 behind heart disease and cancer in claiming American lives.

The Journal of the American Medical Association has reported a study on 10,000 women in which women who took over 500 days of antibiotics in a 17 year period (dubbed 25 plus doses) had twice the risk of breast cancer as those that took none at all. Even women taking just one had a statistical risk increase to 1.5 times.[vii] One reason we are losing the war on cancer is that antibiotics are doing their job too well and we are using them way too much. When we look at the available options to their use we discover that it is best to avoid their use except in extreme medical circumstances.

“We know that antimicrobial resistance will follow antimicrobial use as sure as night follows day,” said Dr. John A. Jernigan, deputy chief of prevention and response from the Center of Disease Control. “It’s just a biological phenomenon.” It turns out that the indiscriminate killing of harmless microbes damages the body in complex ways we are only beginning to understand. Powerful antibiotics introduced into the complex environment in our intestines cause mayhem, much like a series of bombs tossed into a market square. Antibiotic resistance is a widespread problem, and one that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls "one of the world's most pressing public health problems."

A 17-year-old St Margaret's College student in New Zealand has exposed multiple antibiotic-resistant bugs in fresh chicken sold in supermarkets? Jane Millar's discovery of a range of resistant bacteria in chickens is an important finding that the bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics not used in the poultry industry but important for treating serious infections in humans.[viii]

We can create resistance to medically important antibiotics by using antibiotics that are presumably safe in agriculture. Jane Millar

Jane bought six fresh chickens - free-range, barn-raised and organic – from a supermarket. She took samples from each bird and grew bug colonies, which she used to test different antibiotics. Apramycin is an antibiotic used sparingly by the New Zealand poultry industry to treat infections. The bacteria of two chickens tested resistant to apramycin. They also proved resistant to another two antibiotics from the same family - gentamicin and tobramycin - used for serious human infections. Gentamicin is not used by the poultry industry; tobramycin is restricted to human use only.

A recent risk assessment study commissioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has estimated that about 8,000-10,000 persons in the U.S. each year acquire fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter infections from chicken and attempt to treat those infections with a fluoroquinolone.[ix]

Every day, new strains of bacteria, fungi, and other pathogenic microorganisms are becoming resistant to the antibiotics that once dispatched them with extreme prejudice.

One of the deadliest germs is a staph bacteria called M.R.S.A., short for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which lives harmlessly on the skin but causes havoc when it enters the body. Patients who do survive M.R.S.A. often spend months in the hospital and endure several operations to cut out infected tissue. Hospitalizations associated with a drug-resistant form of a Staphylococcus bacterium doubled over six years in the U.S. to nearly 280,000 cases in 2005. The death toll rose from 4,700 in 1999 to about 6,600 in 2005. It estimated that 94,000 Americans suffered invasive MRSA infections in 2005 and that about 19,000 died.[x]

Science Source/Photo Researchers

The drug-resistant staphylococcus bacteria called MRSA.

And the story only gets worse. "Recently there has been an alarming epidemic caused by community-associated (CA)-MRSA strains, which can cause severe infections that can result in necrotizing fasciitis or even death in otherwise healthy adults outside of healthcare settings," is the word coming from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) research team, headed by Dr. Michael Otto.[xi] Necrotizing fasciitis is the so-called flesh-eating disease that can destroy healthy tissue.[xii]

One out of every 20 patients contracts an infection during a hospital stay in the US. Hospital infections kill an estimated 103,000 people in the United States a year, as many as AIDS, breast cancer and auto accidents combined. The vast majority of lethal cases occur in hospitals and nursing homes, where open wounds and punctures provide the opportunistic staph a ready path to the bloodstream and organs. The dangers of infection are worsening as many hospital infections can no longer be cured with common antibiotics.

When the peaceful activities of a normal microbial population are disrupted, malevolent bacteria may take full advantage of the opportunity to strike. The intestinal infection C. difficile colitis, now rampaging through hospitals around the world, is one of the worst such complication of antibiotic use. Clostridium difficile was first recognized as a hospital microbe in 1978. By 1996 it had increased to 31 cases per 100,000 people discharged from U.S. hospitals. In 2003, the most recent year for complete statistics, prevalence had risen to 61 per 100,000. C. diff is part of the natural flora, or bacteria, in the colon. "We're seeing all of the warning signs that this is the next MRSA," said former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, a Manhattan-based nonprofit. "It spreads like wildfire in hospitals."

Clostridium difficile is a spore-forming toxin-producing bacterium that is overtaking peoples’ large intestines from which it mounts an attack on the bloodstream. One case had been treated by a dermatologist for an ingrown hair on his back and prescribed an antibiotic. He took only a few pills, but quickly became ill. Based on what his doctors told him, the short course of antibiotics proved sufficient to destroy virtually all the natural bacteria in his intestine - except C. diff, which was freed to ravage his colon. In emergency efforts to save his life a surgeon removed the entire large intestine to prevent overwhelming infection.

“It strikes precisely those hospitals which are more ‘high-tech’, and handle more serious illnesses. Applying more disinfectant is not the answer; some strains of germs have actually been found thriving in bottles of hospital disinfectant! The more antibacterial chemical ‘weapons’ are being used, the more bacteria are becoming resistant to them, “writes Dr. Carl Wieland.

Lessons from Autism

Medical scientists at Arizona State University tell us that antibiotic use is known to almost completely inhibit excretion of mercury in rats due to alteration of gut flora.[xiii] Thus, higher use of oral antibiotics - in children destined to contract autism - may have reduced their ability to excrete mercury. Higher usage of oral antibiotics in infancy may also partially explain the high incidence of chronic gastrointestinal problems in individuals with autism.

Many physicians are unaware of lasting adverse effects caused by routinely prescribed medications such as antibiotics. Antibiotic therapy for minor colds and runny noses is a common practice. People routinely receive multiple courses of broad-spectrum antibiotics throughout life or are injected with long-acting corticosteroid medicine for joint or muscle pain. Once established, sub-clinical colonization with yeast in the body may persist unrecognized for many years. Antibiotics, such as tetracycline, can greatly increase yeast in the colon after only a few days.

The extensive use of antibiotics will make the condition of Candida much worse because it reduces heavy metal excretion.

Normally, candida albicans lives peacefully in our intestines and elsewhere, in harmony with other flora that keep the yeast in check. Take an antibiotic and all this changes. By suppressing the normal flora, candida takes over and problems begin. In its mild form the result is diarrhea or a yeast infection. Dr. Elmer Cranton says that, “Yeast overgrowth is partly iatrogenic (caused by the medical profession) and can be caused by antibiotics and cortisone medications. A diet high in sugar also promotes overgrowth of yeast. A highly refined diet common in industrialized nations not only promotes growth of yeast, but is also deficient in many of the essential vitamins and minerals needed by the immune system. Chemical colorings, flavorings, preservatives, stabilizers, emulsifiers, etc., add more to stress on the immune system.”

Children with autism had significantly (2.1-fold) higher levels of

mercury in their baby teeth but similar levels of lead and similar

levels of zinc. Children with autism also had significantly higher usage

of oral antibiotics during their first 12 to 36 months of life. [xiv]

Reporting in the July 11, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers say the use of antibiotics boosts risks for drug resistance while doing nothing to shield kids from future urinary tract infections (UTIs). Prior use of antibiotics to prevent infection did boost the likelihood of developing a drug-resistant infection by nearly 7.5 times.

In 2005 a study the antibiotic Augmentin TM has been implicated in the formation of autism. The study strongly suggests the possibility of ammonia poisoning as a result of young children taking Augmentin. Augmentin has been given to children since the late 1980's for bacterial infections.[xv]

Many physicians seem to be unaware that birth control pills comprised of the hormones estrogen and progesterone can also make the body more susceptible to fungal infections. If antibiotics are prescribed it acts as a double whammy to ensuring a fungal infection will take hold by diminishing the protective bacteria in the intestines. Many pregnant women seek medical treatment for minor problems and are indiscriminately given antibiotics and this begins a long decline into problems that are complicated at each turn by OBGYN doctors at birth and by pediatricians who just love to poison children with the toxic chemicals found in vaccines. In many places in the world they still give mercury containing Hep B shots at birth.

Antibiotics may be to blame for hundreds of children developing autism after having the controversial MMR jab. More than two-thirds of youngsters with the condition received four or more antibiotics in their first year, a British survey has revealed. It is thought the drugs weakened their immune systems, leaving them unable to withstand the impact of the triple jab.

Antibiotics are mostly derived from fungi and are therefore classified as mycotoxins. Mycotoxins Are Poisons

Mark Sircus Ac., OMDDirector International Medical Veritas Association http://www.imva.infohttp://www.magnesiumforlife.comhttp://www.winningcancer.com/

Ray WA, et al. (2004). Oral erythromycin and the risk of sudden death from cardiac causes. New England Journal of Medicine, 351(11): 1080–1096. A recent large study indicates that people who take erythromycin along with certain common medications may increase their risk of sudden cardiac death.

[ii] Health care officials are increasingly concerned about emerging new forms of drug-resistant TB. An October 1997 survey by the WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease estimates that 50 million people are infected with a strain of TB that is drug-resistant. Many of those are said to carry multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis-incurable by two or more of the standard drugs.

[iii] Evaluation of topical povidone-iodine in chronic suppurative otitis media; Java C et al; Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2003 Oct;129(10):1098-100 ; Entrez Pubmed

[iv] A major U.S. scientist says cancer – always believed to be caused by genetic cell mutations -- can in reality be caused by infections from viruses, bacteria, yeasts, molds and fungus parasites. "I believe that, conservatively, 15 to 20 percent of all cancer is caused by infections; however, the number could be larger -- maybe double," said Dr. Andrew Dannenberg, director of the Cancer Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center." Dr. Dannennberg made the remarks in a speech in December 2007 at the annual international conference of the American Association for Cancer Research.[iv]

[v] Marc Lipsitch, Randall S. Singer, and Bruce R. Levin. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115; Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61802; and Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322

[vi] http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/Antibiotics

[vii] Feb 18th 2004; 291; 827-35

[viii] http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/marlboroughexpress/4302406a6422.html

[ix] Food and Drug Administration. Center for Veterinary Medicine. (2001) The Human Health Impact of Fluoroquinolone-Resistant Campylobacter Attributed to the Consumption of Chicken (Food Drug Admin., Washington, DC).

[x] http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_7595287[xi] Study reveals how superbugs trick immune system; Reuters; Published: Monday, November 12, 2007; http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=b89e31f0-d0ec-4b38-9ee7-05fec7cdd331 & k=31111

[xii] The team found that some strains on MRSA secrete a compound called phenol-soluble modulin or PSM. It attracts immune system cells called neutrophils, the researchers found, and then blows them up in a process called lysis. Neutrophils are key immune cells involved in clearing bacterial infections, so destroying them would allow the bacteria to thrive almost unmolested. "In the United States, CA-MRSA is now the cause of the majority of infections that result in trips to the emergency room. It is unclear what makes CA-MRSA strains more successful in causing human disease compared with their hospital-associated counterparts," the research team added.

[xiii] http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=5661650

[xiv]J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2007 Jun;70(12):1046-51. Mercury, lead, and zinc in baby teeth of children with autism versus controls.

[xv] Medical Hypotheses, (2005 64, 312–315) http://press.arrivenet.com/health/article.php/551918.html

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