Healthy Living
Antibiotics - Dangers
By David Perlmutter, MD, FACN
The Antibiotic Paradox - How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying the
Miracle
by Stuart B. Levy, MD
Plenum Publishing Corporation Publication, New York, New York
ISBN 0-306-44331-7
Although at times somewhat technical, The Antibiotic Paradox is a sobering account of where we are at the end of the 20th century with respect to our "war" on microbes. While antibiotics have been described as the most important therapeutic discovery in the history of medicine, the misuse and overuse of these drugs has allowed bacteria to become resistant or insensitive to even the most sophisticated antibiotics now produced by the pharmaceutical industry.
This is a very real and troubling situation. In The Antibiotic Paradox, Dr. Levy reveals that in many countries antibiotics are sold over the counter without prescription, and in addition are liberally added to the feed of cattle to accelerate their growth. These factors enhance resistance of organisms painting a bleak picture for our future.
Dr. Levy is a world renowned authority on antibiotic use and resistance. He has been profiled in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New England Journal of Medicine, and USA Today, and has appeared on Good Morning America, Nova, and all major television networks. He is currently Professor of Medicine and of Molecular Biology/Microbiology at Tufts University of Medicine and a staff physician at the New England Medical Center.
In his book, Dr. Levy states, "Today doctors can no longer expect that their first choice of antibiotic for women's urinary tract infections or children's ear infections will work. Similarly, cancer therapy is rendered useless if patients are unable to fight infections that are sometimes resistant to eight to ten different drugs. In developing countries, people are now dying of previously treatable diseases that are no longer responsive to traditional antibiotics. These problems are just a harbinger of what will come if we do not act now."
I strongly recommend reading The Antibiotic Paradox. It is a fascinating but troublesome history of where we have been, and a sobering prediction for the future.