Borio Chiropractic Health Center . . .  Wellness Begins Here

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Casualties of the War on Germs

Antibiotics can disrupt the vaginal flora, making the patient more susceptible to vaginal infections such as that due to the yeast Candida albicans.
"Candida albicans infection, often associated with antibiotic-induced alterations in microbial flora, may cause defects in cellular immunity."
While no one can argue the fact that antibiotics have saved lives, many authorities believe that doctors' efforts to "eradicate microbes at all costs" represent an undeclared war that is not without a price. In fact, some suggest there are numerous circumstances in which the risks of antibiotics outweigh the benefits.
Antibiotics continue to be prescribed for conditions that do not even warrant their use.
This heavy prescribing of antibiotics is not without costs in both dollars and human suffering. Perhaps the worst tragedy is that many doctors consider much of the antibiotic prescribing medically unnecessary or worse-harmful! Consider the views expressed by leaders in the fields of infectious diseases and medical consumerism, much of which has been published in medical textbooks and peerreviewed medical journals:

"After Congressional hearings and numerous academic studies on this issue, it has become the general consensus that 40 to 60 percent of all antibiotics in this country are misprescribed."
"Pharyngitis and tonsillitis. . . are among the worst-treated of all illnesses, primarily because of the overprescription of antibiotics."
"In 1983, more than 51 percent of the more than 3 million patients who saw doctors for treatmen of the common cold were unnecessarily given a prescription for an antibiotic."8 Antibiotics do nothing for the common cold because the condition is viral in nature.
"It is no accident that the most allergic generation in history has been raised on antibiotics. Several times a week I see a new patient whose allergies appeared or became much worse after a course of antibiotics."
"Researchers are questioning whether the routine use of antibiotics is a contributing factor to frequently occurring acute otitis media [middle ear infection] and persistent middle ear fluid-conditions that were rare before the advent of antimicrobial therapy."
"Recurrence rates [of middle ear fluid] were significantly higher in the antibiotic-treated group than in the placebo group." Children receiving amoxicillin for chronic middle ear infection experienced two to six times the rate of recurrence.
Antibiotics used to treat upper respiratory infections have been shown to cause urinary tract infections.

Our purpose is to educate and adjust families toward optimal health