Antibiotics: The Unfortunate Truth
Are they important? Yes. Do they save lives? Absolutely. Am I against them? Only when they are incorrectly prescribed. How often does this happen? MUCH TOO OFTEN.
Now, lots of people think that Naturopathic Doctors are against pharmaceuticals. That is far from the truth. Many pharmaceuticals are critical and save lives daily. Still, there is always a risk-benefit discussion that needs to occur with your prescribing doctor anytime a medication or supplemental product is recommended.
Did you know that about 90% of the winter illnesses you experience do not warrant an antibiotic? Yes. Viruses and not bacteria cause most of the diseases we experience.
***Antibiotics treat bacteria and bacteria only***
A virus most commonly causes many illnesses we experience, such as the flu, common cold, sinus infections, bronchitis, and middle ear infections. And even in cases of some bacterial infections, your body can clear it without an antibiotic such as some strep throat cases.
We see antibiotic resistance increase at an alarming rate, and doctors and patients continue to propagate this public health concern. Why?
Most of the issue lies in lack of testing in acute illness causing antibiotic RESISTANCE.
Let’s have a little scenario. You develop a cough and then a fever and now feel lethargic. You decide to go into an urgent care facility to get it checked out to make sure it isn’t severe. The doctor will ask you specific questions and perform certain physical exams on you to make an educated decision on whether the illness is viral or bacterial in origin. If the doctor feels the infection *could* be bacterial, they will usually prescribe a broad-spectrum antibiotic without testing and send you home to rest and recover. Broad-spectrum means that the medicine would cover the most number of bacteria that cause the type of symptoms you have. So, ultimately, this equates to a well-thrown crapshoot.
The problem with no testing is that you still do not know what the cause of your symptoms are and if the antibiotic you were given even treats it. Most of the time, a broad-spectrum antibiotic is prescribed without knowing the reason is that many bacterial infections can cause, but not always, life-threatening complications. Now, if a virus causes your cough and the doctor prescribes you an antibiotic, you will likely STILL get better after 3-5 days regardless of taking the antibiotic. Was the antibiotic worth it? We would never know because you were not tested!
So lets test! Well, it is not that simple either…
Luckily, today we have some rapid testing for illnesses such as strep throat, influenza, urinary tract infection, and mononucleosis to help a clinician get answers within minutes in-office to guide a treatment approach. However, these still do not solve many of the issues with only testing for one or two organisms when there are MILLIONS of organisms out there that can infect us.
Testing for all other viruses and bacteria is not a rapid in-office where you can get answers in minutes. Most doctors will not swab until a failed attempt at a broad-spectrum antibiotic. If a doctor suspects a bacterial infection, they have to get a swab of your spit or boogers and send it to the lab. Bacteria require time to sit on a Pitre dish to grow and then examined through a microscope to determine what the bacteria is. This process can take anywhere from 3-20 days, depending on the bacteria. Even after this process, the lab sometimes needs to expose the bacteria to different antibiotics to watch to see if it affects the bacteria, which takes even MORE time. Wow- time is not on our side, especially when it comes to feeling crummy.
Different bacteria respond to different antibiotics.
There are many different types of antibiotics. Beta-lactams, penicillins, aminoglycosides, fluoroquinolones, macrolides, and tetracyclines, are all antibiotics, to name a few. So which do we use? Until a doctor actually takes a swab of your saliva or nasal discharge to grow out the bacteria and identify it, again, you will never know.
So this is where we are at today. Unfortunately for us, bacteria and viruses are very smart. They evolve just like we do, but they are evolving faster than we can keep up; therefore, the broad-spectrum antibiotics I mentioned are no longer as useful as they used to be.
Will a bacteria or virus be the next natural disaster that wipes out most of our population? Who knows but what I do know is this: if we do not stop over-prescribing antibiotics right now this will be an even bigger problem in the not so distant future.
YOU can do something about it. All doctors mean well, I mean, they are in healthcare to care for people, but that does not mean you do not have the right to ask about your risks and benefits to taking the medication prescribed for you. Here is a list of things to ask your doctor the next time you are prescribed any drug, not just an antibiotic:
Is this treatment medically necessary?
Is this medicine treating the condition I have?
What are my risks if I do not take this medication?
What are my alternatives?
What are the side effects or adverse effects of taking this medication?
If, after asking the above questions with your doctor leads you to take an antibiotic, then you are doing the right thing for your body and your health.
Many of my patients call and tell me they ended up having to take an antibiotic and want to know what they need to do afterward to get back to being as healthy as possible. Easy! Many antibiotics leave your body depleted of certain nutrients, and your gut bacteria all wiped out.
Things to do after taking an antibiotic
These are a few things to do to replenish the nutrients you lost from taking an antibiotic:
Probiotic: This will replenish the good bacteria the antibiotic just wiped out of your body. (yes, we NEED good bacteria to survive too) If you have not taken a probiotic before, start low and work your way up in dosage. If you take a probiotic while taking an antibiotic, be sure to ingest it as far away from the time you ingest your antibiotic.
B vitamins: many B vitamins are depleted with most antibiotics
Vitamin K: after use of amoxicillin, penicillin, cephalosporin or trimethoprim
Calcium and Magnesium: after use of tetracycline or neomycin/gentamycin antibiotics
This list is not exhaustive and not extensive. If you took an antibiotic and do not feel the same after antibiotic use, please consult your doctor as you may not have treated the root cause. It is possible to have another underlying infection or illness, or the antibiotic did not handle all of the bacteria.
Now, if you have an illness caused by a virus and want naturopathic medicine support, you are in luck! Click HERE for part 1 and HERE for part 2 (part 2 has all of the goodies :)
Here to empower you with the knowledge of happiness and healthiness,
DR. MEG
DISCLAIMER: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. There are no financial ties to any supplement companies, pharmaceutical companies, or to any of the products mentioned in this post. This post is not meant to treat, cure, prevent, or diagnose conditions or diseases and is meant for educational purposes. As always, please consult your doctor before trying any new treatments or supplements.
