Do Antibiotics Permanently Kill Off Beneficial Bacteria?

It’s an accepted concept by now that taking antibiotics in order to quell an infection disrupts the personal microbiome, the population of microorganisms that we all carry around in our guts, and which vastly outnumbers the cells that make up our bodies.

That recognition supports our understanding of Clostridium difficile disease — killing the beneficial bacteria allows C. diff room to surge and produce an overload of toxins — as well as the intense interest in establishing a research program that could demonstrate experimentally whether the vast industry producing probiotic products is doing what it purports to do.

But implicit in that concept is the expectation that, after a while — after a course of antibiotics ends — the gut flora repopulate and their natural balance returns.

What if that expectation were wrong?

In a provocative editorial published this week in Nature, Martin Blaser of New York University’s Langone Medical Center argues that antibiotics’ impact on gut bacteria is permanent — and so serious in its long-term consequences that medicine should consider whether to restrict antibiotic prescribing to pregnant women and young children.

Early evidence from my lab and others hints that, sometimes, our friendly flora never fully recover. These long-term changes to the beneficial bacteria within people’s bodies may even increase our susceptibility to infections and disease. Overuse of antibiotics could be fuelling the dramatic increase in conditions such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, which have more than doubled in many populations.

Among the findings he cites in support: The population-level observation that the incidence of infection with H. pylori, the bacterial cause of gastric ulcers, has declined over decades just as the incidence of esophageal cancer has risen. In addition, he offers his own research group’s observation that children who don’t acquire H. pylori are at greater risk of developing allergy and asthma, and their findings that eradicating H. pylori affects the production of the two hormones, ghrelin and leptin, that play a role in weight gain.

Are antibiotics to blame for the decline in H.pylori? Blaser points out that the organism is vulnerable to the same antibiotics that are prescribed to children for ear infections and colds — and that children routinely receive up to 20 courses of antibiotics before they reach adulthood. In addition, he says, one-third to one-half of women in the industrialized world receive antibiotics during pregnancy.

 Couple that with the increasingly large percentage of children born by Caesarean section — who by skipping their trip through the birth canal miss their first exposure to friendly bacteria — and the result, he says, is that “each generation… could be beginning life with a smaller endowment of ancient microbes than the last.”

Finally, he points to evidence that antibiotic use permanently changes the composition of the gut microbiome, altering the balance of bacterial species and maintaining resistant bacteria in the gut.

The function and influence of the microbiome — in the gut, on the skin and everywhere in the body — is a huge research issue right now, with the founding by the National Institutes of Health of the Human Microbiome Project, not to mention continuing debates over the accuracy of the “hygiene hypothesis” and speculation that altering gut flora could influence everything from obesity to depression.

 This proposal dovetails with those inquiries — and also (you knew I had to get there eventually) with ongoing concern about antibiotic over-use encouraging the emergence of resistant organisms.

It’s understood that antibiotics are already over-prescribed in adults and children; reining in over-prescribing is one of the most difficult tasks in controlling the spread of superbugs. This new hypothesis, Blaser says, ought to put more force behind the push to reduce antibiotic overuse, especially in early life:

We urgently need to investigate this possibility. And, even before we understand the full scope, there is action we should take.

Cite: Blaser MJ. Stop the killing of beneficial bacteria. Nature 476, 393–394 (25 August 2011). doi:10.1038/476393a


NOTE:

Pathogenic Bacteria and Antibiotics:

In an attempt to destroy all bacterial infections antibiotics were created, however they can not selectively kill only the bad bacteria.  Antibiotics are indiscriminate, they kill off the weaker bacteria too, often this is the beneficial bacterial that your body needs to keep the more harmful bacteria in check.

When the beneficial bacteria is destroyed this enables the antibiotic resistant bacteria to replicate without competition from the beneficial bacterial.

Whatever was making you sick before is still bothering you, but now you are also faced with antibiotic risks and the risks of long term antibiotic use.   The antibiotics have caused an imbalance to your body because the antibiotics have also killed the friendly bacteria, creating a bacterial imbalance.

Eventually the more pathogenic bacteria end up resistant to antibiotics.  When normal antibiotic use doesn't completely destroy the bacterial infection, then your body is really out of balance.

Bacteria are a highly intelligent and adaptable life form, like all life forms their goal is to survive.

Some bacteria are naturally immune to antibiotics and others quickly adapt a resistance in order to survive.

Through pharmaceutical use we have created highly adaptable, antibiotic resistant bacteria, they do this through evolutionary trial and error.

Bacteria create new generations 500,000 faster than humans
replicating every 20 minutes.

The pathogenic bacteria become stronger and more resistance to an increasing number of antibiotics, more potent, more dangerous and creating body imbalances that are more difficult to restore.

Learn more:  http://www.natural-health-home-remedies.com/bacteria.html

Incurable Cancer Cured With Natural Remedies/Food

A grandfather, who was told by doctors that his cancer was 'incurable', has been given the all-clear less than four months later - after trying a different diet.

Allan Taylor could have been forgiven for fearing the worst when doctors told him they could do nothing to treat his condition.

But the 78-year-old would not give up, and instead searched the internet for an alternative method to fight his cancer.

His diet included powdered grass, curry spices, apricot seeds and selenium tablets.

Mr Taylor made the changes after he received a letter on April 30, telling them were was no point having any more chemotherapy as it would not cure him and neither would an operation. 

'They said if they cut out the cancer it would just pop up somewhere else,' he told the Sunday Mirror.
'But I was determined to stay positive and decided to find my own cure.

'I was determined to stay positive and decided to find my own cure'

'On August 6 I got a letter from North Tees hospital to say a scan had shown my cancer had gone and "the abnormality is no longer visible". I’m all clear.'
Mr Taylor's ordeal began in February last year when he noticed a two-inch lump in his abdomen. He was sent for a scan and told he had colon cancer.
Last September he underwent an operation, during which a surgeon removed a nine-inch section of his colon, and he began a three-month course of chemotherapy.

But in April this year he was told the cancer had spread to small intestine.

Mr Taylor responded by tapping the words 'colon cancer cures' into an internet search engine.

He used the information, together with advice from his local health food store, to devise his new diet.

He believes that having a teaspoon of powdered barley grass in hot water every morning and night was particularly crucial.  'There is no question in my mind that my diet saved my life,' he said. 'And all it cost was £30 a week.'

How Antibiotics Destroy Your Immune System

Your immune system is constantly on a seek-and-destroy mission status - on the lookout for foreign invaders, naturally occurring cell defects and mutant cells. The immune system has a vast capacity to remember bad guys and deploy tactics that worked in the past to annihilate the enemy. Some of the fastest growing cells in the human body are immune cells.

Over 80 percent of the body's immunity is built in the intestinal tract by the friendly bacteria balance that resides there. The intestinal flora starts building in an infant while in the womb but doesn't really take off until after eight days of age. Starting with the colostrum milk, the gut begins to populate with more bacteria while the infant's immune system starts an inventory of good and bad cells in the body. This inventory is a life-long process and the immune system never forgets an invader.

Where the problem begins
The absolute worst thing to do to any infant is to give them an antibiotic. Antibiotics indiscriminately kill bacteria, both good and bad. One round of antibiotics will permanently change the baby's immune system, and because a majority of neuro-chemicals are also made in the gut, the baby's neurology is also altered. The antibiotics that have been touted as the savior of mankind from disease are costing us in cancer and degenerative, chronic diseases.

Once the very first antibiotic is administered to the infant or child, the bacteria in the gut is wiped out and the immune system is permanently altered in its ability to manufacture appropriate immune cells. Fungus in the gut is now unopposed and begins to proliferate unchecked by the friendly bacteria. After fungus sets up strongholds then parasites move in to share the bounty of food and minerals meant to feed the body. This is the first step for chronic disease and cancer.

The same process happens when an adult takes even one round of antibiotics. Everything changes permanently and takes years of targeted nutrition and probiotic therapies to recover a semblance of normalcy in the body systems.

The role of heavy metals
Over 80 percent of heavy metals are removed from the body via the friendly bacteria in the gut. Certain bad bacteria and fungus actually prefer to retain and move heavy metals into the body and transport these metals to different tissues and organs to weaken them for future invasion. Fungus is a clean-up organism that feeds on compromised tissues. Eventually a bad fungus will invade healthy tissues as it gains strength and your body weakens.

The cancer double-whammy
Once the bad bacteria balance occurs and the fungus sets up shop, the intestinal wall becomes leaky, allowing partially digested foods, bacterium and allergens to cross into the blood. Now the already weakened immune system has double-duty to perform trying to clean up the gut while tracking down these new threats to the body. To think this all started with a well-meaning but seriously wrong pediatrician and misinformed parents.

Cancer is a disease of inflammation. The gut compromises and leakage of particles into the blood causes inflammation throughout the body. Chronically inflamed organs become targets of heavy metals, viruses, bacterium and fungus. But the damage doesn't stop there as the highly processed foods we eat cross the now compromised gut barrier; causing pancreas stress and trouble. Chronic stress weakens organs to make them more susceptible to disease and cancer.

Where it ends?

It ends with you making informed decisions before submitting to any medical treatment, including taking antibiotics. You are the one who gleans the benefits or suffers the consequences - not the doctor who collects your co-pay up front and makes you sign "informed consent" papers before treatment.

Americans Want Meat Without Antibiotics

Many U.S. grocery stores now offer at least some meat or poultry that is raised without antibiotics, sometimes even at below-average prices for all meats of that type, but shoppers must become savvy about reading labeling to get products that live up to “no antibiotics administered”-type claims, according to new research from Consumer Reports.

The declining effectiveness of antibiotics has become a national public-health crisis, leading doctors and scientists to call for much more careful use of antibiotics so that disease-causing organisms don’t become immune to them.

But since approximately 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used by the meat and poultry industry to make animals grow faster or to prevent disease in crowded and unsanitary conditions, both supermarkets and consumers can have a major impact on this problem through their purchasing decisions.

To determine whether supermarkets are making products raised without antibiotics available to their customers and how consumers feel about them, we polled consumers, contacted companies directly, and in March and April 2012 sent 36 “secret shoppers” into 136 grocery stores in 23 states.

The shoppers reported back on more than 1,000 raw meat and poultry products that carried a claim about antibiotics or were labeled as organic. Just to be clear, shoppers’ findings represent a snapshot of offerings on the day they visited a particular store, and may not be indicative of products offered on other days or at other branches. We also conducted additional labeling research in 2011 and continue to analyze the claims in the market.

What shoppers found:

Big differences among retailers. Whole Foods, for example, guarantees that all meat and poultry sold in its stores is never treated with antibiotics. Shoppers also found wide selections of meat and poultry raised without antibiotics at Giant, Hannaford, Shaw’s, and Stop & Shop. At the other extreme, shoppers at Sam’s Club, Food 4 Less, Food Lion, and Save-A-Lot stores could not find any such meat or poultry.

What our poll found:

In a nationwide poll conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, 57 percent of consumers indicated they had meat and poultry raised without antibiotics available at their local supermarkets. In that poll, 61 percent of consumers also indicated they would pay 5 cents or more a pound extra; and 37 percent indicated they would pay a dollar a pound or more extra for meat and poultry raised without antibiotics.

Fix Food – Fix Antibiotics – Meat Without Drugs

NOTE: What the wording, that's where the deceptive advertising and claims get you. While your intention is to buy meat that has never had any antibiotics from day of birth to appearing on the supermarket shelf, the reality is quite different. The only way you can be completely certain is that you are buying directly from a credible source or local ranch.

Grassland Beef offers you quality, grass fed poultry, beef, lamb and pork. Nothing tastes so delicious, just like your grandmother used to enjoy on the farm!

Antibiotics Blamed For Skyrocketing Mental Illness

bacteria9 210x131 Antibiotics Could be to Blame for Skyrocketing Mental Illness RatesA new report published in the popular journal Nature has revealed that antibiotics are permanently destroying beneficial bacteria within the gut, a condition scientists link to mental illness. While it has been known for some time that antibiotics contribute to the development of drug-resistant superbugs and certain gut problems, the link between antibiotic use and mental illness through the permanent destruction of beneficial bacteria only further tops the pharmaceutical paradigm. In fact, the pharmaceutical paradigm set in place by drug makers is so vast that it actually offers drug-based ‘solutions’ to the very problems that drugs originally created!

After kids are given excessive amounts of antibiotics that lead to the destruction of their gut health and the subsequent onset of mental illness, they are then given deadly antipsychotics and other psychiatric drugs to ‘treat’ the condition that originated from pharmaceutical drug use. It is a system that, whether purposeful or not, generates large profits for many prescription-happy doctors and drug manufacturers alike. Perhaps the most troubling part of this system is the massive fraud committed by financially-invested corporations to stop the truth about these drugs and other mainstream medical ‘treatments’ from getting to the general public.