Antibiotics- why and why not!

According to a Nature article, children in the United States and other developed countries, by the age of 18 have had received 10-20 courses of antibiotics. Antibiotics are lifesaving drugs, discovered first by Alexander Fleming. The first one to be discovered was Penicillin from the mould Penicillium notatum. They have saved millions of lives, including those of the soldiers during the World War II. It revolutionized the medical field and the amount of impact it had on people’s lives can be seen as then it was called ‘Wonder drugs’, because of the effectiveness and its stunning record. It has played a major role in increasing the average life. According to a report the average life of a US citizen born in 1940 was expected to be 63 years and for today scenario it is 78 years.

Now, as we all know for everything, there are pros and cons. Antibiotics being the most effective drugs of all times cure many diseases but they cause some issues with their intake too. When we take antibiotics, they kill the bacteria causing the disease in our body but they also act on the beneficial microflora which is present in our body and it has been recorded in various studies that the lost beneficial microflora never recovers which may lead to various infections and diseases. The overuse of the antibiotics may cause obesity issues, type I diabetes, allergies, asthma and various bowel diseases. Bacterial probiotics are frequently suggested and are administered in order to prevent the gastro-intestinal side effects. From a research paper I got a very interesting data how the risk of inflammatory bowel diseases has increased with the number of courses of antibiotics taken.

Addressing a case of elimination of bacteria from the human gut, it was noticed that in early twentieth century, Helicobacter pylori was a dominant microbe in the gut of humans. Now , by the turn of the 20^th century , it was found that fewer than  6% of the children are having them , and antibiotic resistance was found to be the main culprit for the elimination the bacteria from the human gut. The eradication of this bacterium affected the regulation of the two hormones produced in the stomach and involved in energy balance- ghrelin and leptin. The elimination of the bacteria has caused increase in the gastrointestinal reflux, and its attendant problems such as Barrett’s oesophagus and oesophageal cancer. (Ref. Blaser, Martin. ”Antibiotic Overuse: stop the killing of beneficial bacteria.” Nature 476.7361(2011):393) 

Now-a-days, it is seen that doctors prefer to recommend the antibiotics even in case of viral fever and viral diseases. Initially it was considered good, since those antibiotics would protect the patient from various other bacterial invasions as the immune system becomes more vulnerable during the viral attack but the major problem that lies is antibiotic resistance. Now-a-days, it seems like doctors are dancing to the tunes of Medical Representatives. The overuse of antibiotics has caused antibiotic drug resistance, which is one of the major issues these days. According to a report published by the WHO , for one of the most fatal diseases, Tuberculosis (TB), it has been observed that there are increasing number of cases of the MDR-TB i.e. Multi Drug Resistance TB, and it has been observed that there were around 4.5 lakhs new cases of MDR-TB and about 1.5lakhs deaths due to it.

So, it becomes highly necessary to use the antibiotics quite wisely. ?Before taking them one needs to ask doctor some questions……

Source: Consumer Health Care Choices

Written By:

Nitin Kumar Singh