Infectious Disease: The Problem with Antibiotic Treatments

Most people don’t understand that we are in the midst of an unsettling health epidemic—one that should never have occurred. In 1968, infectious diseases had all but been eliminated, and didn’t even make the list of “top ten killers” in the United States. Yet, in the past 20 years, the re-emergence of these diseases and the rise of strains of super germs have created a problem that we each need to be concerned about.

Towards the end of Louis Pasteur's life, he confessed that germs may not be the cause of disease after all, but may simply be another symptom of disease. He had come to realize that germs seem to lead to illness primarily when the person's immune and defense system (what biologists call "host resistance") is not strong enough to combat them. The "cause" of disease is not simply bacteria but also the factors that compromise host resistance, including the person's hereditary endowment, his nutritional state, the stresses in his life, and his psychological state. In describing one of his experiments with silkworms, Pasteur asserted that the microorganisms present in such large numbers in the intestinal tract of the sick worms were "more an effect than a cause of disease." (1)

With these far-reaching insights Pasteur conceived an ecological understanding of infectious disease. Infectious disease does not simply have a single cause but is the result of a complex web of interactions within and outside the individual.

An analogy to help develop an understanding of the ecological perspective of infectious disease can be developed from the situation of mosquitoes and swamps. It is commonly known that mosquitoes infest swamps because swamps provide the still waters necessary for the mosquitoes to lay their eggs and for them to hatch without disruption. In essence, swamps are a perfect environment for the mosquitoes to reproduce.

A farmer might try to rid his land of mosquitoes by spraying insecticide over the swamps. If lucky, he will kill all the mosquitoes. However, because the swamp is still a swamp, it is still a perfect environment for new mosquitoes to fly in and to lay their eggs. The farmer then sprays his insecticide again, only to find that more mosquitoes infest the swamp. Over time, some mosquitoes do not get sprayed with fatal doses of the insecticide. Instead, they adapt to the insecticide that they have ingested, and with each generation they are able to pass an increased immunity to the insecticide on to their offspring.

Soon, the farmer must use stronger and stronger varieties of insecticide, but as the result of their adaptation, some mosquitoes are able to survive, despite exposure to the insecticide. Similarly, finding streptococcus in a child's throat does not necessarily mean that the strep "caused" a sore throat, any more than one could say that the swamp "caused" the mosquitoes. Streptococcus often inhabits the throat of healthy people without leading to a sore throat. Symptoms of strep throat only begin if there are favorable conditions for the strep to reproduce rapidly and aggressively invade the throat tissue. Strep, like mosquitoes, will only settle and grow in conditions which are conducive for them.

The child with the strep throat generally gets treated with antibiotics. Although the antibiotics may be effective in getting rid of the bacteria temporarily, they do not change the factors that led to the infection in the first place. When the farmer sprays with insecticide or the physician prescribes antibiotics but doesn't change the conditions which created the problem, the mosquitoes and the bacteria are able to return to those environments that are favorable for their growth.

To make matters worse, the antibiotics kill the beneficial bacteria along with the harmful bacteria. Since the beneficial bacteria play an important role in digestion, the individual's ability to assimilate necessary nutrients to his body is temporarily limited, ultimately making him more prone to re-infection or other illness in the meantime.

Marc Lappe', PhD, University of Illinois professor and author of When Antibiotics Fail, notes that, "When these more benevolent counterparts die off, they leave behind a literal wasteland of vacant tissue and organs. These sites, previously occupied with normal bacteria, are now free to be colonized with new ones. Some of these new ones have caused serious and previously unrecognized diseases." (2)

Some clinicians have found that inappropriate antibiotic usage can transform common vaginal "yeast" infections (candida albicans), which are characterized by simple itching, into a system-wide candida infection which can cause a variety of acute and chronic problems. (3) Although the diagnosis of "systemic candidiasis" is controversial, there is general consensus that frequent antibiotic use can also transform bacteria that normally live in our bodies without creating any problems into irritating and occasionally serious infections in the elderly, the infirm, and the immunodepressed. (4)

And of course, the bacteria learn to adapt to and survive antibiotics. Scientists then must slightly change the antibiotics (there are over 300 varieties of penicillin alone), or make stronger and stronger antibiotics (which generally also have more and more serious side effects). Despite the best efforts of scientists, Dr. Lappe' asserts that we are creating many more germs than we are medicines, since each new antibiotic brings to life literally millions of Benedict Arnolds.

Just 15-20 years ago penicillin was virtually always successful in treating gonorrhea. Now there are gonorrhea bacteria which have learned to resist penicillin, and these bacteria have now been found in all fifty states as well as throughout the world. From 1983 to 1984 alone the number of cases in the U.S. with resistant strains of gonorrhea doubled. (5)

Alexander Fleming, the scientist who discovered penicillin, cautioned against the overuse of antibiotics. Unless the scientific community and the general public heed his warning, Harvard professor Walter Gilbert, a Nobel prizewinner in chemistry, asserted, "There may be a time down the road when 80% to 90% of infections will be resistant to all known antibiotics." (6)

The scientific community and the general public have ignored the insights of the late Pasteur and have ignored the importance of host resistance in preventing illness. Most scientists broadly accepted the germ theory, while only rare individuals have since acknowledged the importance of the ecological balance of microorganisms in the body. But the wisdom of Pasteur remains relevant, and more and more scientists are beginning to acknowledge the importance of alternatives to antibiotics. Even an editorial in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine affirmed the need for the treatment of infections with "less ecologically disturbing techniques."

So what are “less ecologically disturbing techniques”?. First of all, we need to understand the importance of keeping the friendly bacteria levels filled up so that all of the parking places that should be inhabited by these immune boosting micro-organisms are occupied. If the friendly bacteria are destroyed by antibiotics or other factors like stress, alcohol, smoking etc, then pathogenic bacteria can fill those parking places and start a tailgate party that will keep you sick in bed while they have a great time. The key to this silly analogy is to take a probiotic (friendly bacteria) supplement on a daily basis. It is important to look for a supplement that contains stabilized bacteria. This is bacteria that have been researched to prove its effectiveness.

Here are some of the reasons for the problem: In 1970, histamine blockers were created to supposedly help with poor digestion (indigestion) problems. These drugs--including Zantac, Pepcid AC and Tagament along with antacids like Tums and Rolaids—have created considerable side effects, because they are designed to stop or greatly reduce the hydrochloric acid (HCL) in the stomachs.

HCL has two main purposes in the body. First, it destroys bacteria that we ingest every time we eat, drink or eat; HCL acts as our first defense against infectious disease. Second, it lowers the pH level in the stomach so that enzymes can be activated and can, therefore, complete the process of digesting our foods.

This practice, of taking products and preparations that stop HCL (and thus leave us defenseless against the bacteria that cause infectious disease) is so prevalent that it has created a huge health problem. In fact, infectious disease is now ranked number three as one of the top killers in our society today.

Since indigestion, and the need to address those symptoms, was the root problem, we should look at what causes the non-digestion of foods in the first place. Enzymes are protein molecules that are present in raw food. These enzymes digest the food and deliver the life-giving nutrients to the body on the cellular level. When we cook foods over 118 degrees Fahrenheit we denature the food and destroy the enzymes, making foods difficult for the body to digest and causing indigestion to occur.

Then, when these symptoms show up, we take antacids and acid blockers—which only lead to other side effects and increased problems. The best way to combat this problem is to enhance digestion by eating more raw food. In addition, when we eat food that is cooked or processed, enzymes (which we chose to take out of the food when we cooked it!) should be added back to the body in supplemental form.

We have a major problem by combining acid blockers with the infectious disease epidemic caused in part by the abuse of antibiotics. As we mentioned antibiotic abuse is so widespread that it is breeding new strains of germs, known as “super germs.” Antibiotics are being too freely prescribed, and the public does not understand the recourse when the antibiotics don’t destroy all the germs they were meant to kill. A lot of times the antibiotic only destroys the weak germs and the strong ones live to become even more resistant to future doses of antibiotics. Recommended dosages and potencies are then increased—and, yet, we are still losing the battle.

The Director for the Center for Disease Control recently stated, “We are losing the battle with super germs.” The antibiotics are not only breeding super germs but they are creating an environment for the pathogenic bacteria to implant and grow. This is because the antibiotic (against-life) is also destroying our friendly bacteria which are needed in our intestines. This friendly bacteria (pro-biotics) is critical to the strength of our immune system. When probiotics are growing and flourishing in the body the super germs or pathogenic bacteria have no place to implant and grow. If our probiotic levels are up, then the pathogenic bacteria have to go right through our system without doing any damage or making us sick.

In order to address this major health problem, it is crucial that we add back enzymes and friendly bacteria on a daily basis. In addition, we need to replenish vitamins and minerals to help with this problem. This is because, when our bodies are depleted of enzymes and probiotics from over-consumption of cooked food, our system becomes more acidic. The lack of vitamins and minerals in these foods and the acidity they create just feeds our already existing problem. Taking a whole food vitamin and chelated mineral supplement is essential for creating a balance in the system.

REFERENCES

1. Rene Dubos, Mirage of Health, San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1959, 93-94.
2. Marc Lappe', When Antibiotics Fail, Berkeley: North Atlantic, 1986, xii.
3. William Crook, The Yeast Connection, New York: Vintage, 1986.
4. Lappe', xiii.
5. Lappe', xvii.
6. R. Cave, editor. "Those Overworked Miracle Drugs," Newsweek, August 17, 1981, 63.