Why Bacteria Are More Intelligent Than Antibiotics

There is a reason for everything in the ecosystem, good bacteria is a part of that healthy ecosystem and is needed to kill off pathogenic bacteria.  It's a battle of good bacteria and bad bacteria.

You become ill when your ecological system is imbalanced by your friendly bacterial residents losing ground to the more aggressive pathogenic bacteria.  As your body responds and tries to dislodge the invading pathogenic bacteria you show symptoms such as fever, chills, diarrhea, upset stomaches.  These are important, natural symptoms that your body is trying to fight off an infection.

You have two choices at this point, one is  traditional medicine  the other is conventional, Western methods which use pharmaceuticals.

It's at this point that many of you take the  "conventional wisdom"  option and go to your modern doctor who may determine that you have a bacterial infection, he should test you, but he'll probably just guess.  He will give you antibiotics for a bacterial infection.  Just in case.

Important Information Before Taking Antibiotics:

   *  Have you been tested to ensure that it's a bacterial infection?
   *  Make sure you discuss the antibiotic risk factors with him.
   *  Be comfortable knowing the relationship of bacteria and antibiotics.
   *  Discuss any dangers of antibiotic use.
   *  Did you know that Antibiotics can cause a yeast infection which require more drugs.
   *  Discuss the dangers of MRSA and antibiotic resistance with him.

At any rate your doctor's best effort is probably to prescribe a one size fits all antibiotic to kill off the bacteria, that you may or may not have if he didn't test you.  When that doesn't work, he prescribes another and another and another, each for a 10 day series, sometimes longer.

Sadly, he may eventually just wring his hands and say there's nothing else he can do.   He's right.  There is nothing else that he can do, but that doesn't mean that you are without many options.

Pathogenic Bacteria and Antibiotics:

In an attempt to destroy all bacterial infections antibiotics were created, however they can not selectively kill only the bad bacteria.  Antibiotics are indiscriminate, they kill off the weaker bacteria too, often this is the beneficial bacterial that your body needs to keep the more harmful bacteria in check.

When the beneficial bacteria is destroyed this enables the antibiotic resistant bacteria to replicate without competition from the beneficial bacterial.

Whatever was making you sick before is still bothering you, but now you are also faced with antibiotic risks and the risks of long term antibiotic use.   The antibiotics have caused an imbalance to your body because the antibiotics have also killed the friendly bacteria, creating a bacterial imbalance.

Eventually the more pathogenic bacteria end up resistant to antibiotics.  When normal antibiotic use doesn't completely destroy the bacterial infection, then your body is really out of balance.

Bacteria are a highly intelligent and adaptable life form, like all life forms their goal is to survive.

Some bacteria are naturally immune to antibiotics and others quickly adapt a resistance in order to survive.

Through pharmaceutical use we have created highly adaptable, antibiotic resistant bacteria, they do this through evolutionary trial and error.

Bacteria create new generations 500,000 faster than humans
replicating every 20 minutes.
The pathogenic bacteria become stronger and more resistance to an increasing number of antibiotics, more potent, more dangerous and creating body imbalances that are more difficult to restore.

Factory Farms Use 29 Million Pounds of Antibiotics

North America's factory farms and 125,000 CAFO's with 2 billion confined pigs, cows and chickens used 29 million pounds of antibiotics in 2009.  This is a dangerous practice of forced medication to every American consumer, that needs to be banned.

These industrial factory animals are fed low doses of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent infection.  The antibiotics are then in the meat and even in the crop fertilizers.

In spite of this excessive use of antibiotics in agriculture research published by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment reports growing antibiotic resistant pathogens in factory livestock animals.  The great concern and importance of this is that the antibiotic resistant pathogens pass on their acquired adaptability creating more untreatable superbugs.

Who hasn't read the awful stories about bacteria and antibiotic resistance?  And the tragic stories about people that get flesh eating bacteria, necrotizing fasciitis, or believe that they may have flesh eating bacteria symptoms, and then discovering that antibiotics are powerless.

These are horrific true stories that can happen to anyone.   MRSA is a very serious, life threatening aggressive, drug-resistant staph infection.  MRSA resists antibiotics.

Bacteria Are Communicative

Back to bacteria.  Bacteria also communicate their survival skills with other bacteria, they exchange antibiotic resistance information, teaching other bacteria how to resist, avoid and override antibiotics.  Isn't nature amazing?

Bacteria share their information to resist pharmaceuticals via a mechanism of copying the resistant bacteriums DNA, thus passing the resistance onto the next generation of bacteria.  The next generation of bacteria has learned from past generations and is now more efficient on how to over throw any pharmaceutical drugs thrown at it!

If that weren't bad enough, bacteria also emit pheromones that attract other bacteria to them to share more information against fighting antibiotics that would threaten their survival.

Almost in anticipation of new antibiotics, bacteria also develop resistance to antibiotics that they have never encountered.   Countries that have cut back their antibiotic usage have found that bacteria can also forget the information they have learned.  Without antibiotics to resist they begin to lose the ability to resist antibiotics, thus keeping them effective for true life saving emergencies.

Natural Therapies

Holistic practitioners have used natural and indigenous ingredients for thousands of years with incredible effects.  Most of the world today still relies on natural medicines, natural antibiotics, simple foods & herbs to help build and maintain strong bodies, healthy & protective immune systems.

Native medicines vary somewhat depending on local availability of herbs and foods but utilize similar concepts of keeping the body balanced and in harmony.  The balance is achieved by the environment provided with medicinal herbs that are considered cleansing, toning, warming, cooling, calming, supportive or stimulating to various body systems & organs.

Long before pharmaceuticals and antibiotics, staph infections were kept in balance using anti-inflammatory, heat clearing herbs internally and externally.  For the first several decades of the 20th century herbs such as Echinacea, Thyme, Garlic & Oregano were used.

When people appreciated natural herbal remedies, MRSA didn't exist. 

So, What Happened?

Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin in 1928 by removing the natural penicillin that forms on certain molds found on fruit and grains.  That discovery was the beginning of the end for herbal antibiotic use in North America.  Penicillin was used for everything.

Even then, bacteria were just as intelligent as they are now, they adapt and replicate quickly and become antibiotic resistant.  So, different, stronger penicillin based antibiotics were produced which, in turn, enabled the bacteria to develop stronger bacterial strains.

While Penicillin was viewed as a panacea, it was destroying millions of friendly bacteria that our body requires for healthy digestion and a robust immune system.  Combating the infection is one aspect the other equally important part of healing is rebuilding a robust immune system and learning to monitor it carefully to keep it performing optimally.

Our body needs to replace the Natural Flora destroyed by the antibiotics and restore balance.  Native Flora by Native American Nutritionals   contains sixteen of the most important Homeostatic Soil Organisms in therapeutic amounts.  People today should always take probiotics, which are also found in many fermented foods such as sauerkraut and yogurt, if they take antibiotics.

Herbal Antibiotics

There are highly effective natural herbal antibiotics, the same ones that our ancestors used since ancient times.

How are the effects different with herbs than antibiotics?

Remember that while synthetic antibiotics are targeted to specific bacteria, in reality they are non discriminate and will also kill the beneficial bacteria.  Many of the natural herbal antibiotics are heat clearing and are effective in helping the body combat both bacterial and viral infections.  While antibiotics are ineffective against viruses.

Cornell University Professor Paul Sherman found thirty common culinary herbs and spices were highly effective and either killed or stopped growth of at least 25% of food poisoning bacteria.
 

Cornell University Results

100% killed by::   garlic, onion, allspice, oregano
90 to 75% killed by:   thyme, cinnamon, tarragon, cumin, cloves, lemongrass, bay leaf, capsicums (hot peppers), rosemary, marjoram, and mustard
72 to 50% killed by:   caraway, mint, sage, fennel, coriander, dill, nutmeg, basil, and parsley
48 to 25% killed by:   cardamom, pepper, ginger, anise seed, celery seed, lemon or lime juice

Essential Oils Against MRSA

According to  Univeristy Of The West Of England in Bristol   research from 2008, they confirmed that small amounts of Mediterranean Oregano oil was a more potent antimicrobial than the 18 pharmaceutical drugs that they compared it to!  They believe it to be effective against MRSA

Georgetown University, Cornell University, and the University of Tennessee   have concluded that oregano oil to be a potent, natural rival of antibiotics such as Streptomycin, Penicillin, Vancomycin, Nystatin, and Amphotericin.

Personally, I never use antibiotics, but find numerous uses for essential oils for myself and animals.  One of my favorites essential oil blends is  Antibacterial   It's great to diffuse in stuffy rooms, offices or where mold is present, sick rooms, car pools, schools.  Also beneficial diluted in massage oil for topical application.

It is a 100% natural essential oil blend of Grapefruit seed, Eucalyptus, Oregano, Tea Tree, Cinnamon leaf, Lavender, Frankincense, Rosemary, Geranium, and Ginger.

This gentle aromatic blend has helped on such a wide range of seemingly unrelated issues, from a face swollen due to a tooth abscess, to a case of huge edema swollen scrotum that the vet was unable to identify yet alone remedy, to numerous skin issues, to soften a pig's skin and human baby eczema.  It has a pleasing herbaceous aroma and is very gentle & soothing.

One research project at the   University of Manchester, in England, has shown that just Eucalyptus and Tea Tree oils can KILL live Tuberculosis cells in just 40 minutes.  Do you know of anything synthesized that can approach those incredible results?

Essential oils  (Aromatherapy) effects the neurochemistry of the brain and can help to clear sinuses, free congestion in the chest, relax, invigorate and produce changes in emotional and mental behavior.   Even subtle, undetectable aromas can produce significant results within your central nervous system.

Essential oils could kill the deadly MRSA hospital 'superbug', scientists have claimed at the University of Manchester.  Researchers found three of the oils, usually used in aromatherapy, destroyed MRSA and E.coli bacteria in two minutes.

They suggest the oils could be blended into soaps and shampoos which could be used in hospitals to stop the spread of the MRSA superbug.  Hospital acquired infections in the UK, such as MRSA, kill an estimated 7,000 a year.   US hospital infection deaths are 99,000 yearly.

Dr Peter Warn, who carried out the research, said:   "When I tested the oils in the lab, absolutely nothing grew.  Rather than stimulating bacteria and fungi, the oils killed them off."

The University team then tested 40 essential oils against 10 of the most infectious agents found in hospitals, including MRSA  (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus).  Two of the oils were found to kill MRSA and E.coli almost instantly, while a third was found to act over a longer period of time.

Dr Warn says the essential oils could be used to create much more pleasant inhalation therapies - which he said were likely to have a much higher success rate than the current treatment, which is only effective in around 50% of cases.

Jacqui Stringer, clinical leader of complementary therapies at  Christie Hospital in Manchester,   instigated the oils research.   She said:   "Our research shows a very practical application which could be of enormous benefit to the NHS and its patients.  The reason essential oils are so effective is because they are made up of a complex mixture of chemical compounds which the MRSA and other super bug bacteria finds difficult to resist."

"The problem with current antibiotic treatments is that they are made of single compounds which MRSA relatively quickly becomes resistant to, so treatment is only successful in around 50% of cases."

NOTE:  Happy Tails never uses pharmaceuticals except for anesthesia during surgery, we also never have bacterial infections, not us and not our animals.