Antibiotics are wonderful drugs. Used properly, they can help a body rebuild from severe disease that could otherwise end a life. Modern medical procedures include culturing infections to determine if the bacterium involved is gram positive or negative, and its specific make up. This information is a guiding principle in determining the most effective drug. Some bacteria, for example, have particularly strong cell walls, and a certain class of drug targets that strength. It has also been discovered that antibiotics can have reduced or nullified effects if the patient is on the birth control pill or consumes alcoholic beverages. Taking a proper patient history and sufficient lab work is important for proper administration of antibiotics. A quick “I have a sore throat”…”Here, take this” just doesn’t provide the information needed for a good antibiotic match. Each antibiotic that is overused to the point that it is no longer effective represents one missing tool in the arsenal of doctors to combat serious illness.

If these amazing drugs were administered properly, at the right time to those in need, we might be still enjoying their benefits. Unfortunately, for many years these wonder drugs were given to children when they fell ill with viruses: something the drugs have no effect on whatsoever. Their mothers, having heard stories of their great-grandparents’ lives being saved by these new antibiotics would bring the child to the doctor and insist “something be done.” The doctor, to placate the mom and move on with his hectic schedule, would write the prescription. By the time it was filled and administered, the virus would run its course and Mama would laud the effectiveness of the drug to her friends, who would queue up their children at the pediatrician for some of the wonder pills.

Then, these immune-suppressed children would get a case of bronchitis after every cold, so antibiotics would be prescribed early on to “prevent secondary infection.” Sure enough, any cold without these prophylactic drugs would go into bronchitis or pneumonia, further proving their need and desirability. It has not been until the last ten years that doctors have been officially warned to not prescribe antibiotics until they are certain of the need.

As a child, I was beset my a string of infections. Swimmer’s ear would set in, not just when I swam, but every time I got my head wet. Tonsillitis ate away at my throat at the change of every season. All my colds wound down into bronchitis. Never once during my years on antibiotics was I told that I should continue bedrest for the full course of the medication, something many doctors now realize is important to allow the body to rid itself completely of pathogens. As a matter of fact, I was usually released back to school the same day I got my prescription for antibiotics.

During one particularly difficult year in high school, I came down with mononucleosis. As I was recovering, my throat became too painful to even swallow water. Doctor after doctor was mystified as my fever rose above 102° for days on end. I developed an allergic reaction to penicillin, the old standby from my ear infection days, then erythromycin, then tetracycline, then cephalasporin, as each drug was attempted in succession to stem the tide of the hiding infection. Eventually the problem area was discovered: an abscess hiding behind a tonsil. A culture came back: antibiotic-resistant strep.

We had never heard of such a thing. It was only 1973, and the news of antibiotic-resistant strains was just breaking. After a week of hospitalization, trying one drug after another and dealing with the each anaphylactic reaction, my body was close to calling it quits. A new “experimental” antibiotic was tried, which finally worked. I wish I had cared at that point to note the drug that finally brought down the mighty bug, but I was just glad to be eating and drinking again. My case was unusual in those days, but it is becoming a much more common scenario in the 21st century.

Antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria are on the rise worldwide. Even more dangerous than antibiotics being poorly prescribed is the now common practice of antibiotic-laced animal feed. While it’s true that CAFO animals are delicate and are given antibiotics to prevent deadly infection over the course of their short, miserable lives, there is also evidence that these animals are given antibiotic treatment because it makes them gain weight more quickly. And, in a news article from this weekend, a couple cows that could have ended up on your dinner plate were discovered to have been drugged with 129 times the legal limit of antibiotics. Clearly, some of the misuse is not for the good of the animal, but for the good of the profit of the CAFO owner. Up to 70 percent of U.S. antibiotics go to animals raised on industrial farms that aren’t sick.

In a CAFO system, the close quarters, weakened immune system of the animals and poor sanitation all provide perfect breeding grounds for pathogens. Bacteria are tough little buggers and make it their life mission to mutate in order to survive the antibiotics given their hosts. There now exists in the world variants of bacteria that did not exist several decades ago. And the ammunition we use to keep them from killing us is useless against some of these new strains.

Four separate sessions of Congress have addressed this issue repeatedly since 2003, the bill has died as many times. HR1549, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009 is now in committee. Here is a copy of the bill, and a webpage from which you can track the act as it moves (or dies) through the legislative process. I will reserve comment on the bill at this time, but you should go and read through it to see if you think it deserves your support.

In the meantime, there is a great alternative to antibiotic-laced beef, chicken, pork and eggs. Get to know your local meat producers. Go to Local Harvest, your health food store’s manager, a nearby Weston A. Price Foundation leader, a farmer’s market. Talk to people. Tell them you’re looking for clean, grassfed meat, pastured poultry and eggs. Then when you meet the farmer, ask questions. What antibiotics does he use? When? Why? How? Talk. Ask. Decide.

This post is part of Prevention Not Prescriptions.

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