42 Antibiotic Anecdote
Good news, as Dr. Arias removed my bandages with the announcement that I did not have any infection.
In addition to his years of formal training, I learned that Dr. Arias had more recently been studying homeopathic medicine.
He suggested that since I was now past the point that my surgical wound was prone to infection that I might as well stop taking antibiotics. He explained that after antibiotics have done their work that it’s actually counterproductive to continue taking them, as it will only weaken your system.
When they are doing their work, antibiotics inhibit bacterial growth thereby giving your immune defenses a chance to outflank the bugs, by interfering with the production of new bacterial cells.
Unfortunately, antibiotics kill the beneficial bacteria along with the harmful bacteria. So the longer you use antibiotics, the more beneficial bacteria are destroyed in the process, which weakens your immune system. (Not to speak of the harmful bacteria eventually growing resistant to the antibiotic.)
I have never been much on prescription medicines, except when absolutely necessary, so Dr. Arias’ counsel resonated with me.
Later I did some casual research on the subject. A couple points of interest:
Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine, believed that to heal a sick person it is necessary to stimulate the person's own immune and defense system to enable the body to heal itself.
Louis Pasteur wrote that germs may not be the cause of disease after all, but may simply be a symptom of disease. He apparently came to realize that germs lead to illness primarily when the person's immune and defense system (what biologists call "host resistance") is not strong enough to combat them.
Alexander Fleming, the scientist who discovered penicillin, cautioned against the overuse of antibiotics.
In addition to his years of formal training, I learned that Dr. Arias had more recently been studying homeopathic medicine.
He suggested that since I was now past the point that my surgical wound was prone to infection that I might as well stop taking antibiotics. He explained that after antibiotics have done their work that it’s actually counterproductive to continue taking them, as it will only weaken your system.
When they are doing their work, antibiotics inhibit bacterial growth thereby giving your immune defenses a chance to outflank the bugs, by interfering with the production of new bacterial cells.
Unfortunately, antibiotics kill the beneficial bacteria along with the harmful bacteria. So the longer you use antibiotics, the more beneficial bacteria are destroyed in the process, which weakens your immune system. (Not to speak of the harmful bacteria eventually growing resistant to the antibiotic.)
I have never been much on prescription medicines, except when absolutely necessary, so Dr. Arias’ counsel resonated with me.
Later I did some casual research on the subject. A couple points of interest:
Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine, believed that to heal a sick person it is necessary to stimulate the person's own immune and defense system to enable the body to heal itself.
Louis Pasteur wrote that germs may not be the cause of disease after all, but may simply be a symptom of disease. He apparently came to realize that germs lead to illness primarily when the person's immune and defense system (what biologists call "host resistance") is not strong enough to combat them.
Alexander Fleming, the scientist who discovered penicillin, cautioned against the overuse of antibiotics.
Labels: broken leg; infection; homeopathic; antibiotics; immune system; Salk; Pasteur
<< Home