The discovery of penicillin in 1929 revolutionized the treatment of infections. This miracle cure saved the lives of many people during and after World War II. A new era in the development of medicine has begun – the era of antibiotics.
– How are you feeling? The patient’s doctor asked.
“Much better, Doctor. I think your medicine helped me. I followed the directions on the bottle very carefully.
– And what was written there?
– “Keep tightly closed.”
Anecdote
The word “antibiotic” comes from the Latin words “anti” – “against” and “bio” – “life”. Antibiotics are substances that selectively suppress the vital functions of certain microorganisms. Currently, more than a hundred types of antibiotics are known, but only a few of them are used in medicine, because antibiotics are poison not only for microorganisms, but also for the human body as a whole.
For a long time, and even now, too, antibiotics were considered a panacea for all ills and were prescribed at the slightest sign of any infection. Today it has already been proven that their effect in our body is akin to the effect of “scorched earth”. In addition to the strongest allergic reactions that occur under the influence of drugs of this group, antibiotics have a detrimental effect on the life and health of patients using them.
Here are just a few examples of the insidious effects of antibiotics:
— streptomycin can cause disorders of the auditory and vestibular apparatus;
— biomycin gives a complication to the digestive system;
— levomycetin inhibits hematopoiesis, which is extremely dangerous for human life, when his body is already susceptible to infection;
– antibiotics actively inhibit the vital functions of cells that produce protein (protein building material of the embryo), and therefore some mothers who used antibiotics during pregnancy gave birth to non-viable babies or freaks.
An already-born infant may also be harmed by receiving antibiotics in breast milk. As it turned out, all drugs of this group, without exception, have a harmful effect on the mother and child.
Here are just a few examples:
– children whose mothers used cyclofsatin, suffer from a violation of the structure of the bones, their softening;
— aminoglucosides and tetracyclines damage the bones of babies and their teeth: they are threatened by gum disease, caries (50% of such people by the age of 30 will have to insert artificial teeth);
– “popular” antibiotic streptomycin, belonging to the same category, acts on the brain activity of the baby and destabilizes speech functions for a long time;
— septran causes a gradual increase in bilirubin in the intestines of the newborn, which can lead to severe intestinal upset, disruption of the digestive system and threatens the life of the baby;
— penicillin causes severe allergies in 16% of newborns, and also disrupts intestinal activity.
But not only are antibiotics harmful to health, their use also causes dependence on them. Once having tried to get rid of pain with the help of antibiotics, a person is no longer able to refuse, addiction to a certain type of drug sets in, more and more potent drugs are used, the body of a completely healthy person can self-destruct.
But that’s not all. “Thanks” to antibiotics, humanity is threatened with multidrug resistance.
Currently, doctors around the world note with alarm that diseases that were under control or on the verge of extinction are returning. Many of these ailments have long been successfully treated with antibiotics. But years passed, and the microbes “adapted” and mutated. The symptoms, the picture of the diseases have changed, and most importantly, they do not respond to even the most powerful antibiotics. Thus, mutated tuberculosis, typhoid fever, meningitis and even pneumonia appeared …
The situation with the use of antibiotics in developing countries and in the republics of the former USSR is especially sad. In some countries, up to 90 percent of the population has acquired drug resistance. The figures in certain regions of Russia and Ukraine are also close to these data. Experts find a direct relationship between them and the irrational bacterial therapy prescribed by doctors, on the one hand, and the uncontrolled use of antibiotics in everyday life, on the other. Foreign doctors are horrified when they see how in our pharmacies it is now possible to buy any, even a very strong antibiotic, without a prescription.
Unfortunately, it has become fashionable to use antibiotics for any ailments (runny nose, cough, headache). Needless to say, what harm does this cause to the human body? With this kind of diseases, it is better not to miss the first antibiotic that comes across, but to turn to preparations made on a plant basis. These broad-spectrum drugs increase the body’s immunity while suppressing infections. It is even better to lead a healthy lifestyle, and then you can certainly forget about antibiotics.
According to scientists from the Research Institute of Pediatrics of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, with acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI) in children, antibiotic treatment is required in only 6-8% of cases. This is explained by the fact that with a viral infection, antibiotics are at least useless, and most likely harmful due to the colonization of the respiratory tract with an unusual flora, usually intestinal. Unfortunately, the frequency of prescribing antimicrobial drugs in children with ARVI is very high: in polyclinics, 65-85% and in hospitals, 98% of children are prescribed antibiotics.
The use of antibiotics can be considered reasonable when it comes to a really serious, life-threatening infection. In all other cases, it is advisable to use other means.
I would like to note that the entire spectrum of the “harmful” action of antibiotics has not yet been fully studied, and it is likely that in the near future we will learn about any more dangerous characteristics of antibiotics for human health.
But, be that as it may, so far it will hardly be possible to do without antibiotics. And if you really use them, then you need to do it correctly. And this is sometimes hampered by the myths about the use of antibiotics, which are given below.
Myths about the use of antibiotics (based on the journal “Health”)
Antibiotics should be discarded altogether
Unfortunately, there are a number of diseases that can currently only be cured with the use of antibiotics. This is a microplasma infection of the lungs, chlamydia, infective endocarditis and many others. According to doctors, one cannot do without these drugs for pyelonephritis, angina, pneumonia, otitis media, sinusitis, abscess, phlegmon, sepsis. If these diseases are not treated with antibiotics, then there can be very serious complications, for example, from an acute form of pneumonia and sinusitis pass into chronic, tonsillitis “turns” into rheumatism or nephritis.
Antibiotics treat any infection
This is wrong. You should not even try to treat ARVI, flu, rubella, hepatitis and many other diseases with antibiotics. They are caused by viruses that these drugs cannot fight. If there is an improvement while taking antibiotics, then you can not take them any further. It so happens that some people independently refuse antibiotics after several days of treatment, having barely felt an improvement, believing that this will reduce the side effects of these drugs to a minimum. In fact, the drugs must be taken exactly as prescribed by the doctor, otherwise the disease may recur. In addition, with the subsequent administration of the same antibiotics, it may turn out that they no longer work, since foreign microorganisms during the first “collision” with drugs have learned to fight them.
All antibacterial drugs are antibiotics
From a scientific point of view, drugs produced by microorganisms, or the so-called semi-synthetic, are considered real antibiotics. The drugs that are called sulfonamides (biseptol, furacilin, furazolidone, and also metronidazole, palin, nitroxoline, nevigramone) do not belong to antibiotics. They differ in a different mechanism and a different effectiveness of action on bacteria and the human body.
Antibacterial drugs are more effective and safer than antibiotics
This is not entirely true. The effectiveness of the drug depends on how well it is selected, and on the individual characteristics of the organism. As for safety, in some cases, the abuse of antibacterial agents leads to an allergic reaction, or dysbiosis, much more often. And in some cases, such drugs are more toxic and have a more negative effect on the liver and kidneys than antibiotics.
Antibiotic allergy is inherited
This is just an assumption, which is most likely far from reality. At the moment, there is no scientific evidence to support the notion that antibiotic allergy is inherited.
The more expensive the antibiotic is, the more effective it is.
This is not always true. The price of medicines depends on many factors, primarily from the country of origin and when they were developed and marketed. Examples can be cited when, in certain cases, antibiotics of the first generation, which include, for example, penicillin, are very effective and act no worse than expensive antibiotics belonging to the fourth generation. For example, the bacterium Streptococcus pneumonia, which causes otitis media – inflammation of the middle ear – quickly becomes resistant to newer drugs and dies when treated with drugs that have been used since the mid-80s. These are the results of research by American scientists presented at the annual scientific conference of the American Society of Microbiology held in late September 1998 in San Diego. Michael Jacobe, head of the Department of Clinical Microbiology at a hospital in Cleveland, together with his colleagues studied 1,5 strains of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumonia and found that more than half of them are still susceptible to penicillin, more than 90 percent die from moxycillin oramoxicillin / clavulanate combination antibiotics prescribed to patients since the mid-80s. But when exposed to the latest and stronger antibiotics – zithromycin and clarithromycin, only one third of Streptococcus pneumonia strains die.
Mazurkevich S.A.
Encyclopedia of delusions. My health. – M .: Publishing house EKSMO – Press, 2002
Most importantly, consult your doctor before deciding on any medication.