Antibiotics in Meats Are Killing Us: Top DoctorThursday, 26 Sep 2013 07:43 PM
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a report
that confirmed a connection between the routine use of antibiotics
in livestock and a growing number of superbugs, such as
methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), that are
resistant to most antibiotics. According to the CDC, this growing
bacterial resistance results in the deaths of at least 23,000 people
a year and sickens 2 million more.
"The antibiotics that are being given to farm animals are killing
us," says holistic family physician Dr. David Brownstein, editor of
Dr. David Brownstein's Natural Way to Health.
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"I think the death toll is much higher than the CDC admits," he told
Newsmax Health.
"There's no question that the antibiotics are affecting us, and they
are affecting us in multiple ways," he said. "In addition to bugs
that are resistant to antibiotics, we are seeing more problems with
the immune system and more allergies, and rates of breast and
prostate cancer are rising."
Antibiotics can be especially dangerous to hospital patients by
killing good bacteria in the gut that protects them from dangerous
bacteria, leaving them susceptible to potentially fatal infections
with the bacterium Clostridium difficle, or C. diff.
"It's a multi-pronged problem," says Dr. Brownstein.
The CDC reported that part of the misuse of antibiotics is that
physicians prescribe too many of them. Up to half are given
unnecessarily or used incorrectly, such as prescribing an antibiotic
to treat a viral infection.
The major misuse of antibiotics, however, is giving them on a
regular basis to healthy livestock to prevent infections. Up to 70
percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to
farm animals.
"The farming industry relies on antibiotics to keep animals grown
for food from getting infections," said Dr. Brownstein. "The animals
live in such poor, crowded conditions that they get infections
easily. The industry also uses antibiotics to fatten up the animals
right before being sold."
This overuse of antibiotics, both in humans and animals, is
responsible for breeding superbugs, such as MRSA, that are resistant
to most common antibiotics and harm millions of Americans every
year.
"We'd better take this report seriously, although it doesn't tell us
anything we didn't already know," says Brownstein. "We should have
taken it seriously years ago.
"When I was in med school, there were experts saying that the
widespread use of antibiotics would come back to haunt us. There was
no doubt then it would become a public health disaster, and it has."
It's essential that changes are made, says Brownstein, but they will
have to be regulated by the federal government. It will be
difficult, he says, because both the farm and pharmaceutical lobbies
will put pressure on Congress to keep them from passing meaningful
legislation.
What can you do to protect yourself? First, don't ask your doctor
for unnecessary antibiotics. Second, buy meat and other food
products (such as milk and eggs) that are labeled "organic" or
"raised without antibiotics."
Editor’s Note:
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Again. Get Super Immunity for Only $4.95. Click here.© 2013 NewsmaxHealth. All rights reserved. |