Antibiotics

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

The below article will be interesting to some folks here .. but not to

all. However, I am using it to point out something I (and many others)

have written on this and other lists for many, many years .. that is

that the frequent or indiscriminate use of antibiotics does have a down

side .. and that's why many folks come on these lists and complain of

problems that won't go away. In most cases, those bacterial problems

WILL go away if one uses an essential oil that has proven ability to

combat a particular problem .. essential oils are NOT antibiotic .. they

are (with some exceptions) pro biotic.

 

In addition to having personal experience in this regard, I have many,

many, testimonials from others who finally learned these lessons. Since

1995 I have not taken an over the counter or prescription medication of

any type. If I run into a life threatening situation and the medics

recommend that I take commercial medications .. I'll make a decision at

that time .. and I do not criticize others who have already made such

decisions .. but I still recommend folks proceed with caution and make

informed decisions regarding their own health.

 

Check the paragraph that I have bracketed with ++++++++++ below.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

-------------------------

 

No Agreement on Role of Abortion Pill in Fatal Infections

 

Call for limits on RU-486 labeled premature at hearing

 

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Scientists disagreed Thursday over whether the

abortion pill RU-486 played any role in the deaths of four California

women who died from a rare bacterial infection.

 

One researcher said he believes RU-486 enabled the deadly bacteria, and

another scientist recommended use of the pill be reduced or eliminated.

But other experts at a scientific meeting exploring the cases

emphatically challenged those conclusions, calling them at best premature.

 

" I don't think there's a consensus " among medical experts, said Dr.

Sandra Kweder of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

 

The possibility of RU-486 being a cause of death has stirred political

interest too, with some anti-abortion groups calling for pill sales to stop.

 

" Healthy women who have taken these pills have already died, and

hundreds more have suffered serious adverse events. What further

evidence do we need to tell us this drug is not safe and ought to be

pulled from the market? " Randall O'Bannon, director of education and

research for National Right to Life, said in a prepared statement issued

after the meeting.

 

The scientists had gathered to explore emerging bacterial infections,

including a possible link between RU-486 -- also known as Mifeprex or

mifepristone -- and a bacterium known as Clostridium sordellii.

 

C. sordellii has been linked to four abortion pill deaths in California

and one in Canada since 2000. In each case, the women took RU-486 in

combination with another drug, misoprostol.

 

The abortion pill may suppress the immune system, which would increase

susceptibility to bacteria already present in the vaginal canal, said

Dr. Ralph Miech an associate professor of pharmacology at Brown

University, one of the featured panelists.

 

Another panelist -- Dr. James McGregor, an obstetrics professor at the

University of Colorado Health Sciences Center -- said the risk of death

from medical abortions, 1 in 80,000, is significantly higher than the

1-in-1 million risk from surgical abortions. RU-486 appears to be a

contributing to that statistical difference, McGregor said.

 

" I recommend we reduce or eliminate mifespristone, or at least consider

that, " McGregor said.

 

Others at the conference said such a statement was premature. They said

that if Meich's hypothesis were correct, why didn't other, more common

infections plague the women instead of C. sordellii?

 

Some raised questions about misoprostol, which causes uterine

contractions to help the woman expel the aborted fetus. The contractions

help draw bacteria into the uterus, and that may also be a contributing

factor, said Kweder, deputy director the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation

and Research's Office of New Drugs.

 

More question marks: The nation has a better system for reporting

bacterial infections related to taking pharmaceuticals than it does for

bacterial infections in general, and it's possible there are many more

C. sordellii infections that have no connection to medical abortions.

 

One researcher, Dr. Dennis Stevens of the Veteran Affairs Medical Center

in Boise, Idaho, presented information on 43 cases of patients with C

sordellii, 31 of whom died. About half were women, including five who

had pill-induced abortions, but there also were nine who apparently

developed the infection after delivering a baby. The male cases included

a 4-year-old boy who died after C. sordellii infected his broken arm.

 

Researchers at the conference focused largely on another bug,

Clostridium difficile, also known as C-diff. The colon-dwelling germ is

spread by spores in feces.

 

C-diff is becoming a regular menace in hospitals and nursing homes and

was blamed for more than 100 deaths over 18 months at a hospital in Quebec.

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Most patients sickened by C-diff took antibiotics first, and researchers

believe the medicines suppressed other bacteria and allowed the more

harmful C-diff to proliferate.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

But C-diff also has been seen in patients who are not in hospitals and

not on antibiotics. Late last year, the CDC reported that cases were

reported in 33 otherwise healthy people since 2003. Most said they

hadn't been to a hospital within three months of their illness, and

eight said they hadn't taken any antibiotics in that span.

 

One of the 33 patients died -- a Pennsylvania woman who was 14 weeks

pregnant with twins when she first went to the emergency room with

symptoms. Researchers say they've been investigating other cases of the

bacterial infection in pregnant women.

 

Researchers said two antibiotics used to treat C-diff have met with

mixed success. Other treatments are under development, including vaccines.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also

investigating cases of C-diff in pigs and cattle that have important

similarities to versions found in humans. However, investigators have

not yet linked human C-diff illnesses to tainted food, said Dr. L.

Clifford McDonald, a CDC epidemiologist.

 

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

 

Find this article at:

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/05/11/abortion.pill.hearing.ap/index.html