lesson: never take antibiotics if it can be avoided. most ailments have equally effective non-antibiotic remedies. antibiotics are a great thing, but they are WAY overused nowadays, and this is the kind of thing that will start happening...
I agree. While antibiotics are absolute lifesavers in some situations, their overuse is going to cause humanity some awful problems in coming years.
I also wonder if we aren't also hurting ourselves as individuals by using antibiotics for less severe infections. Does the immune system function as effectively if it never has to deal with infections all by itself?
I just see all these kids who were given antibiotics a lot in infancy and early childhood who seem to catch everything that comes along - not just bacterial infections, but viruses as well - and get sicker and stay sick longer than other kids. I wonder how often their problems with illness are genetic and how often they are caused by an underdeveloped immune system.
Does anyone know if there has been any credible research on this topic?
It's near and dear to me since I have two nieces who definitely fall into the "always sick" category. Multiple cases of strep throat, many ear infections when young, one had chickenpox twice - and I could go on and on.
Good advice but it sort of reminds me of the old driving school advice to drive defensively vs offensively. I don't drive much anymore because most drivers drive very offensively. Like the traffic that comes to a standstill because some driver thinks they are a Nascar driver, expect the aggressive use of antibiotics to continue until they are no longer effective for anyone. In Mexico antibiotics are dispensed like antihistimines.
Muleteam1
Read the label of any product in your household that says "Antibacterial".