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| of the diseases that we once thought were eradicated are coming back stronger than ever due to the ability of pathogens to develop resistance against antibiotics. Most of this resistance is a direct result of overuse of these drugs. Medical researchers acknowledge this problem and caution that the continued trend to over-prescribe will eventually lead to antibiotics becoming therapeutically useless in the treatment of infections such as pneumonia and meningitis. It has already been found that more than 50 percent of streptococcus strains are now resistant to conventional antibiotics. |
| Antibiotics are routinely prescribed when practitioners do not know what else to give to satisfy consumers who expect a quick fix. One primary example of the overuse of antibiotics is in the treatment of chronic inner ear infections in children. The majority of American children have been subjected to multiple rounds of antibiotics before their first birthday. The penicillin-based antibiotic amoxicillin is often the drug of choice. While antibiotics can be lifesaving, they are prescribed far too often and for mild illnesses which can be dealt with using gentler remedies such as herbs. In 1991 the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that children who were administered amoxicillin were two to six times more likely to develop a recurrent infection than children who were not treated at all. The amoxicillin-treated children also experienced an increased incidence of hearing impairment due to scar tissue caused by the multiple infections.31 In a nutshell, one of the most widely prescribed antibiotics for chronic inner ear infections in children appears to be worse than no treatment at all. |
| My wife Mary and I have a beautiful, healthy 13- |
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