Superbugs could kill us all if we're not careful

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

You may not see it on the surface, but there’s an arms race happening at your local pharmacy. Every day, antibiotics are handed out to countless sick people around the globe. They’re our best weapon against many types of bacteria, and they’ve worked well for us for a long time. That’s beginning to change.

Life finds a way, and bacteria are no different. We developed drugs to kill them off in ourselves, our animals, and even in the food we eat, but it was only a matter of time before such microorganisms found ways around them. Today, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are already claiming lives, and a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that as many as four people are killed by these new “superbugs” every hour in the United States alone.

The report doesn’t mince words, and the language the CDC is using is appropriately frightening. The agency says that there’s no more need to beat around the bush and speak as though antibiotics will fail in the future. They’re already failing today, and modern medicine is failing to catch up.

The group cites 18 pathogens that it feels are the biggest threat, breaking them down into groups based on the threat they are likely to pose. The report includes five types of infection that are thought to be the most urgent, with another 11 pathogens deemed “Serious Threats.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/healthtrending/superbugs-could-kill-us-all-if-were-not-careful/ar-BBWRTnR?li=BBnb7Kz

[Iwasthere]

1. We brought this on ourselves so much antibiotic use we've lost immunity

The very reason they are resistant And killing us off?; Over prescribing! Most docs only have 10 minutes with you in the exam room, which is just enough time to write a prescription. We did this to ourselves. Build UP your immunity folks. Whole food diet, no processed junk.

[Ms. Toad]

6. Ths problem has nothing to do with antibiotics making us lose immunity.

They don't. Period.

What antibiotics - overused, or misused do - is expose bacteria (not us) to the antibiotics in non-lethal doses so that enough bacteria survive - and evolve into bacteria that are invulnerable tot eh antibiotics.

No amount of whole foods (or absence of processed junk), or avoidance of prescriptions (in the abstract) will prevent the bacteria from surviving an antibiotic attack, thriving, and evolving into more powerful bacteria that (in larget quantities) can survive such antibiotic attacks in the first place.

One risk comes from taking antibiotics when they are not needed - for example for a cold or influenze (both of which are viral).

The riskiest period for creating antibiotic resistent bacteria is when you first start taking the antibiotic - and when you stop. Each of these times provides a period when any bacteria hanging around your body is exposed to a non-lethal dose of the antibiotic. So taking antibiotics when they are absolutely useless creates two periods when you risk creating antibiotic resistant bacteria with absolutely no health benefit.

Skipping doses creates additional risky periods - when you skip doses, the antibiotic level in your blood serum decreases. If it decreases enough, it become non-lethal - again, creating exposure bacteria can survive and "learn" from.

Finally, stopping antibiotics when you feel better - rather than taking the full dose - leaves more bacteria in your body who have survived exposure to the antibiotic, and potentially learned how to defeat it, living to pass that "knowledge" on to their offspring.

None of this is impacted by eating a whole food diet or avoiding processed junk. (Both worthy practices - just completely unrelated to the threat of superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics.)

- Mom of a child at particular risk because there are very vew antibiotics she can tolerate, so she depends on the rest of you being smart about not helping bugs learn to defeat the few antibiotics she can take.

[Blue_true]

10. How does the body's own immune capacity play into this? It seems diet would positively or

negatively affect that area.

[mopinko]

2. we have to stop feeding antibiotics to animals. now.

i dont have any specific knowledge, but knowing how research into the human biome has advanced in the last decade+, i would put some fast money on probiotics instead of antibiotics. part of the health improvements from grass fed beef and free range chickens has to do w dirt and bacteria.

probiotics have been around in animal management for a long time, but i know that products for humans have taken a huge leap in recent years.

someone w a good product could prove it out quick w some poultry trials. if you outlawed antibiotics, it would be adopted reeeeeeeeeal quick.

[yellowdogintexas]

3. bacteria and viruses are probably the fastest evolving organisms

on the planet. They change to preserve their species through their own immune system.

It's scary as hell.

Give this podcast a listen: "This PodCast Will Kill You" Each episode focuses on a particular dread disease or condition. Examples include: Spanish Flu, Cholera, Plague, Rabies, Polio, Syphilis, Diptheria, and more. These are very scientific yet not in the least boring to listen to. Also, each program has a special cocktail which in some fashion connects to the disease discussed. It is called the Quarantini. Non alcoholic version is the Placeborita.

They discuss vaccinations, immunity and more

[coti]

4. To help prevent antibiotic resistance, they need to be creating antibiotic cocktails of 5 or 6

separate antibiotics and only using those, so that whenever antibiotics are used everything gets killed dead (yes even the good stuff, unfortunately); then, they need to be rotating individual antibiotics out and others in for many years at a time so that half of our antibiotic arsenal isn't being used at any given time.

[Ms. Toad]

7. Not really -

We just need doctors who are smarter about antibiotics (not handing them out like candy to satisfy demanding patients), and better educated patients so we don't demand antibiotics for a cold, the flu, a sinus infection that hasn't been cultured, etc.

You are correct that the key is to killing the exposed bacteria, because it is those that survive that become resistant. That doesn't mean using antibiotic cocktails - it just requires choosing an appropriate antibiotic - only when antibiotics are necessary - and using it properly (taking the full presription, taking it when directed (even if inconvenient).

[coti]

11. By our family's experience, we're pretty much at the point where doctors don't want to give out

antibiotics for anything, including bacterial infections. We haven't been able to get a doctor to prescribe an antibiotic in years.

[Ms. Toad]

12. That's generally a good thing -

especially if they were prescribing them for colds, the flu, uncultured sinus infections.

When a bacterial infection is confirmed by testing, likely based on circumstances (i.e. pre-treatment for dental visits; surgery; UTIs), or life-threatening if not treated immediatlely (cellulitis), they should be prescribed.

But way too many people beg their doctors for antibiotics when they are not warranted - and way too many people have treated antibiotics as essentially sugar pills rather than fight a battle wtih patients who can get very demanding if they don't get the antibiotics they believe they need.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. And this is hardly breaking news.

I think I've been reading about this for at least twenty years now.

[NightWatcher]

8. Unless you've got an autoimmune system so strong that it ends up attacking itself.

Ha ha. Lupus Power!!!

I'll outlive you all...

... until the lupus kills me (damn).

[redqueen]

9. Not breaking news - but getting critical now.

Overprescribing antibiotics to people and livestock, as well as the countless 'antibacterial' products on the market (mostly using triclosan) have crippled our best weapons against these bugs.

Welcome to the future.

[appalachiablue]

13. Kick