Consequences of Antibiotics

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Consequences of Antibiotics

By Jake Paul Fratkin, OMD | Published 07/28/2004 | Pharmaceutical

Drugs |

http://www.hpakids.org/holistic-health/articles/150/1/Consequences-

of-Antibiotics

 

Jake Paul Fratkin, OMD

Jake Paul Fratkin has been a Doctor of Oriental Medicine since 1978,

utilizing Chinese herbal medicine, Japanese meridian balancing and

nutritional medicine. He specializes in internal disorders,

infections and pediatrics. He has been teaching at various

acupuncture and naturopathic colleges since 1982 and was Chairman of

the Department of Herbal Medicine, Southwest Acupuncture College,

Santa Fe from 1986 to 1990. His training includes one year advanced

hospital work in Beijing. He is the author of CHINESE HERBAL PATENT

MEDICINES: THE CLINICAL DESK REFERENCE,(2001), a work on 1280

available Chinese herbal patent medicines. He is the editor-

organizer of Wu and Fischer's PRACTICAL THERAPEUTICS OF TRADITIONAL

CHINESE MEDICINE (Paradigm Publications, 1997). He was awarded

ACUPUNCTURIST OF THE YEAR in 1999 by the American Association of

Oriental Medicine (AAOM). Dr. Fratkin lectures frequently on the

treatment of infants and children using acupuncture and Chinese

herbal medicine, and writes for numerous journals, including North

American Journal of Oriental Medicine, Acupuncture Today, and

California Journal of Oriental Medicine. He is a founding member of

the Holistic Pediatric Association. Dr. Fratkin is currently in

private practice in Boulder, Colorado.

 

View all articles by Jake Paul Fratkin, OMD Consequences of

Antibiotics: Alternative Medicine for Children

Western medicine, brilliant and advanced in diagnosis and crisis

management, seems to limit itself in therapeutic choices for common

illnesses and injury. This is due to an over-reliance in

pharmaceutical medicine, whose choices are small, expensive, and

often with side effects. Western doctors are hesitant to try or

prescribe natural medicine alternatives, due to lack of training and

fear of reproach from their fellow doctors.

 

Let's compare this to the situation in France or Germany. In those

countries, only medical doctors may prescribe medicines of any type.

Yet 50% of the doctors include some form of natural medicine in

their practice, choosing from homeopathy, western herbs or

acupuncture. A graduate of a medical school is considered trained

and independent, and may pursue a variety of healing therapies. Many

practitioners are proud to be " village doctors " , caring for families

from cradle to grave. They are open to therapies that work, without

side effect, based on their own clinical experience and observation

rather than hard scientific evidence. This is not to say that they

ignore or belittle science, but they are willing to use medicines

without the hard evidence if it appears useful and not dangerous.

They call these " soft medicines " as opposed to pharmaceutical drugs.

 

In China, the availability of natural medicine is dramatic. With a

population of 1.4 billion, 40% of the people use clinics or

hospitals that are strictly Traditional – herbal

medicine, acupuncture or massage-manipulation. Imagine a health care

delivery system for 560 million people using only herbs and

acupuncture! The Beijing hospital where I studied had 1500

outpatients every morning, each prescribed Chinese herbs.

 

In the United States, there exist health care professionals offering

therapeutic alternatives for pediatric conditions. We have

practitioners of Oriental medicine, like myself, who prescribe

Chinese herbal pills and tinctures and provide pediatric acupuncture

treatments. Naturopathic physicians prescribe homeopathic medicines,

western herbs, and nutritional medicine, and chiropractors offer

spinal manipulation and nutritional support. Also, more and more

western medical doctors are studying and prescribing " soft

medicine " . All of these offer benefit to children in acute and

chronic conditions, and I encourage parents to develop a

relationship with a practitioner of alternative medicine having an

expertise in pediatric treatment.

 

Does this mean abandoning your conventional pediatrician? Absolutely

not. Western doctors are still the best trained in both well-child

assessment and as the gate-keepers for assessing serious conditions

that may require medical specialization or hospitalization. Western

doctors have more training than practitioners of alternative

medicine, namely seven years, versus the four years of naturopathic

or chiropractic physicians, or the three years of an acupuncturist.

(Some acupuncturists will pursue one to four years of postgraduate

training).

 

The Consequences of Antibiotics

Despite the advanced training of western medical doctors, I have a

concern with the over reliance on pharmaceutical drugs, even for

benign conditions. There is an overuse particularly of antibiotics,

which is given for all infections affecting the ear, throat, lungs,

urinary tract, skin or gums. Clearly, 80% of these infections are

viral in nature, and antibiotics are not destroying the real viral

pathogen. Antibiotics provide relief of symptoms in many viral

infections, including inflammation, phlegm production, and malaise,

because they inhibit white blood cell activity which triggers these

natural responses. However, by inhibiting white blood cell

production, they lower the body's natural immune response.

 

There are three serious consequences of overuse of antibiotics. The

first, recognized by western medicine, is the mutation of bacteria

into drug resistant offspring. When you hear of " super-bacteria " in

the media, it means that there are bacteria impervious to all of the

known antibiotics. Science keeps searching for new and stronger

antibiotics, although researchers know that these too will become

obsolete in a short time. The rampant application of antibiotics,

both through medicines and more importantly through the food chain

(chicken, beef, eggs, milk and dairy products) are potentially

creating mutant pathogenic bacteria that can seriously affect the

health of our whole population.

 

The second consequence, unacknowledged by the typical doctor, is the

damage done by antibiotics to the body's overall health. We have

about five hundred different species of beneficial bacteria in our

small and large intestines. These bacteria do the lion's share of

digesting toxins that the liver dumps from the blood, neutralizing

the caustic effects of secreted bile, and providing enzymatic

cofactors so that beneficial nutrients from food can be absorbed

across the small intestine wall and into the blood. When we take

antibiotics for a pathogenic microbe, we destroy all of the

beneficial bacteria of the intestines. By doing so, we actually

become malnourished because we cannot efficiently transport

nutrients into our blood. This happens no matter how nutritious our

food is or how many vitamins we take.

 

As for bile, it is a necessary substance to detoxify poisons in the

liver and acts as a lubricant to carry poisons out of the liver and

into the small intestine. Good bacteria converts the bile into

harmless salts, but without these bacteria, bile is caustic and

irritating to the large intestine lining. Chronic use of

antibiotics, I think, is a contributing factor to our modern

epidemic of colon cancer.

 

The third consequence, unaccepted by the typical doctor, is the

damage caused by the growth of the fungus Candida Albicans following

antibiotic use. Antibiotics not only clear beneficial bacteria from

the intestines, but they change the pH, providing a cool alkaline

environment conducive to fungal growth. Candida grows rapidly and

inhibits the re-establishment of beneficial bacteria. The problem

with Candida, besides inhibiting the growth of beneficial bacteria,

is the secretion of a chemical aldehyde, which irritates and

ruptures the cells lining the small intestine. This slowly but

surely lowers the immune response in the intestinal mucus, and

allows infiltration of toxins into the blood stream. This has come

to be known as

Leaky Gut Syndrome, and significantly affects the body's immunity

 

Studies in northern Europe have shown that children who have taken

antibiotics for an ear infection have a three-fold increase in a

second ear infection within six weeks than children who did not take

antibiotics. They also found that children who take antibiotics

versus children who have not taken antibiotics for ear infection

have the same rate of recovery, and subsequently have recommended

that children not be given antibiotics for ear infection.

 

Leaky gut syndrome, a direct consequence of antibiotics causing

Candida growth, is responsible for a steady infiltration of toxins

back into the body. I believe that it is a significant contributing

factor to asthma, chronic allergies and chronic infections. I also

believe it leads to food allergies, because foods are absorbed

before they are completely digested, and are " tagged " as foreign by

the body's immune system.

 

Doctors minimize the consequences of Candida growth by saying that

all people carry Candida, but not all people are ill. This is

because doctors do not utilize lab tests that quantify the amount of

Candida in the intestines. Low levels are insignificant, but higher

levels are associated with obvious symptoms of illness.

Unfortunately, there are half-dozen labs in the country willing to

do an accurate Candida count.

 

Where does this lead? Do we deny ourselves antibiotics under all

conditions? Are we to avoid treatment for common pediatric

infections? The answer to both of these questions is no. Antibiotics

are an important medicine in the healing arsenal, but given their

consequence they should be recognized as a heavy-duty approach for

cases needing hospitalization. These would include bacterial

infections that have entered the bloodstream, the bone, the spinal

cord or brain, or organs such as the heart or kidney. These events

usually exhibit high fever. Antibiotics are also necessary in open

wound trauma and following surgery.

 

Most pediatric outpatient cases that routinely are given antibiotics

involve the epithelia of the throat, ear, sinuses, lungs, skin, and

urinary tract. In my clinical experience, Chinese herbal medicines

in pill or powder form are extremely effective for the viral or

bacterial infections affecting these areas. Western herbs and

homeopathics can also be effective. When possible, consulting a

trained practitioner is the best course, but significant relief and

control in mild or early cases can happen with self-medication from

the shelves of the natural food stores.

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes