Antibiotics Fail

colleenspencer · September 2009

I refuse to buy antibacterial anything, lol.

bel138 · September 2009

J&K - That is what was previously believed. Studies are now coming out that prove the exact opposite. People have been so cautious in the past few generations that allergies are sky rocketing. How many people over 60 do you know with, say, peanut allergies?There was actually a very interesting study with babies and some type of worm larvae. I wish I could remember which type, I'll google it. Basically, they injected the kids with these worms (which cannot grow to maturity in humans, only pigs). But the worms essentially gave these kids' immune system something to do for a while and strengthen. There were significantly fewer allergies (significant in the scientific meaning of the word) in the injected children than the controls.

anna.oskar · September 2009

That ticks me off too Colleen. If you're doctor says you're supposed to take a pill for ten days, why on earth do people think "it's been 6 days and I'm better. I'm smarter than a doctor, i'll just stop taking them"?

J&K10910 · September 2009

Huh, that's really interesting Bel! If you can find the study online, I'd love to read it. I love reading stuff like that. I'm a nerd

mocha beans · September 2009

"Human kind is going to kill itself off. I wonder how many people have antibacterial soaps, dish soaps, cleaners etc in their houses? We are making it so that our natural immune system is not going to be able to fight off anything" I agree with you 100% Colleen! Plus, the over-precription of antibiotics for things that our bodies can naturally fight off if left to their own accord. I'll ditto this too. We don't give our bodies nearly enough credit or time to fix itself. We got along just fine for millions of years without all the drugs and carb/fat/protein fears.Controversial I know, but I feel all the diseases that we fight off so hard are just nature's form of population control. We're at the top of the food chain, nothing to keep us in check, except viruses and bacteria.And I feel the same way about allergies. Expose kids to anything and everything, let them get sick, be uncomfortable. They'll thank you for it when they're older and not laid up with allergies and the cold every 6 months.

J&K10910 · September 2009

Ooh, I have one. I have asthma. For awhile it prevented me from exercising because I was scared I'd have an attack. Well eventually I realized if I didn't push myself, it would never get better. Now I work out almost every day, I even run, outside and everything. And I haven't had an attack in years. Because the stronger my lungs got from working out, the less trouble breathing I had.Totally not the same thing, but same basic idea.

aggiebug · September 2009

1 MRSA is a very real problem, and can be very deadly in some patients. It can be quite "easily" killed with very few products which is the problem. We are running out of options if we keep having to use the few products we have left then we will have nothing to treat it with.2 it is basically ethically wrong, and illegal to dispense antibiotics without a perscription. Something tells me its just antibacterial hand sanitizer. still a FAIL.3 oh crap I forgot my thoughts by the time I got to 3..... have to reread the post lol.

tlv204 · September 2009

Ditto everything mocha said. We need to get someone in here who disagrees to make things interesting.

bel138 · September 2009

They still require a script. I'm sorry if I implied they didn't. I was just pointing out the logic fail in advertising antibiotics for viral illnesses.

aggiebug · September 2009

oh allergies. so basically up until the last 10 years no one really understood allergies, except that people got them and our symptoms were cause by histamines. Well now we are begining to understand our immune system and realize that our body was not exposed to these allergens at at the time our immune system was developing so they are not recognizing them as normal occurances but as forgien enemies. The knew ideaology its to expose your self (as a pregnant woman) and your young child to life so the body can recognize these allergens as apart of our normal habitat- the non threatening part. One theory I find really interesting is the fact that as we become a global world, most people don't know where our food comes from. Well the allergens on a banana from Chile are not necessarily the allergens we face from day to day. So some scientists are recommending eating local food when possible so that you are eating the allergens in your specific habitat. They especially reccomend local honey for the pregnant women and young child since that is basically a collection of allergens by the bees. It makes sense to me, seeing as many people develop allergies after they move to a new area of the country. We still don't really know the best way to prevent allergies, but I like this thought.

anna.oskar · September 2009

Good point on the allergens aggie. Although that doesn't help those of us that grew up exposed to allergens in Germany and then moved to the US. I never had allergies until my first US summer.

anna.oskar · September 2009

"1 MRSA is a very real problem, and can be very deadly in some patients"Very true. However, it would not be such a problem if the extra time was taken to properly type the Staph. previous to treatment.

J&K10910 · September 2009

Gasp! Anna! How did I not know you grew up in Germany? Ich liebe Deutsch!

anna.oskar · September 2009

J&K: because I like to keep stuff on the D.L. I've had an active life and find that the truth is a little hard for some to believe. I hope to go back someday. Maybe get a job with WHO or CERN(close enough)

mocha beans · September 2009

See, that's always made intuitive sense to me Aggie. I'm glad to see there's some scientific evidence that I've thought right all along!

tlv204 · September 2009

Ditto mocha again! That's really interesting about the honey, aggie, I never would have thought of that. My new goal (if I ever become with child) is to eat honey from every region of every country. Greek honey is the best, but I suppose I'll branch out

mocha beans · September 2009

Gah, CERN would be amazing to work at. I should have been an astrophysicist. Next life maybe.

J&K10910 · September 2009

I took 7 years of German. But I haven't actively utilized it in 4 years so it is sehr schlecht now. I haven't been to Germany but I want to go really, really, really badly.

amandasw · September 2009

I just have to throw this out there: I love Germany! Where is Germany did you live?

mocha beans · September 2009

Germany is awesome. I spent a few weeks there on my month long European excursion courtesy of my aunt's employer. Totally would go back. I'd love to go during Oktoberfest, but I can't drink beer, so that would suck.

anna.oskar · September 2009

It can't be that bad J&K. You just need to be immersed in order to remember it all again. That's how I am. If you ever do go, don't miss Heidelberg or Obergammerau (home of the passion play every ten years)

anna.oskar · September 2009

You would not have heard of our town. It's tiny just 40 k north-east of Frankfurt. Before that we lived in Berlin for 3 years when it was still West Berlin.

tlv204 · September 2009

DH is 99% German with an incredibly German sounding name that I now share, but no one has actually moved here from there for at least 4 generations. They all just kept marrying German Americans who never actually lived in Germany. Anyway, the moral of my story is that neither of us speak German but his #1 goal in life is to go to Oktoberfest. I'm really surprised he didn't plan that for our honeymoon actually, despite it being in the wrong month.

kimbrout · September 2009

Hi, new lurker, never post here, blah blah... Just wanted to throw in aggie that babies under 12 months should NEVER be fed honey because of spores from Clostridium botulinum bacteria that their immune system is not mature enough to fight off. Basically, babies can get botulism ("floppy baby") because the honey is not pasteurized.

J&K10910 · September 2009

Yeah, I think once I started "re-learning" it it would come back very quickly, it's just super rusty!

amandasw · September 2009

Interesting. I've been to Berlin and Frankfurt each once, but spent most of my trips there in Bochum

aggiebug · September 2009

very good point kim. A very BIG thing I left out sorry

and I know better than that too. Thankfully there is a lot of good done with the mom eating it and our immune system is not done developing until later. and anna, not really sure about the human side of MRSA testing, I have to believe that it is getting better. I am on the animal side of medicine and we are a lot more religious about actually testing for the bacteria we are treating. And most vets are much more cautious than MDs about their use of antibiotics, which makes it that much more frustrating when the MDs blame the vets for their resistance problems.

anna.oskar · September 2009

aggie: one of my current research projects is MRSA and it's, I can only refer to it as a "cloaking-ability" (think klimgon cloaking device). We have found that biofilm formation + quorum sensing have led to various staph being typed as coagulase negative/positive when in fact they are the opposite. Of the 2,740 samples that were typed in hospital as MRSA, only 14% actually were.

aggiebug · September 2009

very interesting anna. is the research lab based? as in are you culturing your own MRSA? or case based, like hospital samples? I would be interested in more info, this part of medicine interests me.

anna.oskar · September 2009

I have my own lab and am praying for our grant funding to pull though soon. We do a little of both. We receive samples, (thanks to a few very helpful local hospitals) Isolate the individual colonies ,(which should be done but the hospitals do make mistakes) Type the samples and then use the isolates for various antibiotic based studies we're running.

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