Did You Know…top authorities have announced “The End of Antibiotics?”—now what should you do?
“Antibiotics were one of, if not the most, transformational discoveries in all of medicine,” acknowledged Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, associate director at the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. However, there’s no longer any doubt about it: we have reached the end of antibiotics.
“Anything that we do to try and kill bacteria, or anything the environment does to try and kill bacteria, bacteria will eventually discover ways or find ways around those,” Srinivasan said in an interview with PBS Frontline.
Fortunately, there are potent herbal alternatives to antibiotics that can be used to address many common conditions typically treated with antibiotics, such as…
- Sinus problems
- Simple infections
- Sore throats
- Superficial skin abrasions
How Antibiotics First Saved Lives
The discovery of antibiotics was heralded as a miracle. Suddenly, doctors could give patients “not just a treatment but a cure for an illness that previously would have taken their lives in a rapid manner,” said Srinivasan. Historical records confirm that for centuries prior to the introduction of antibiotics, infections were a leading cause of death. Antibiotics have “saved the lives of millions and millions of people…[and] opened up new frontiers in medicine that would be impossible without them.”
Indications that antibiotics were growing less and less effective have been cropping up for years. Despite the signs, many doctors didn’t want to acknowledged that the miracle cure was no longer effective. Yet the reality is, Srinivasan said, “bacterial resistance is largely inevitable, because bacteria will always change in order to survive.”
 Though bacterial resistance is ultimately unavoidable, we must accept some of the blame for the rapid progression of the problem. “We’ve helped it, absolutely, by the overuse and the misuse of antibiotics, and this is something I think that we have to own up to,” said Srinivasan. ‘We’ve fueled this fire of bacterial resistance.”At this point, thanks to the myriad ways we have abused antibiotics—from unnecessary prescriptions to chronic dosing of livestock—doctors now encounter bacteria that are resistant to all known antibiotics. “For a long time,” Srinivasan said, “there have been newspaper stories and covers of magazines that talked about ‘The end of antibiotics, question mark?’ Well, now I would say you can change the title to ‘The end of antibiotics, period.” |
All-Natural Plant Alternatives
The end of antibiotics may be here, but there are still options available to slow—and perhaps, eventually, reverse—antibiotic resistance. The most crucial aspect will be to curb the use of antibiotics on an individual level, as well as the widespread inclusion of antibiotics in animal feed.
“Plant alternatives use different mechanisms of action,” explained Pina LoGiudice, ND, LAc, director of Inner Source Health. LoGiudice cites powerful, all-natural choices such as …
Goldenseal
Oregon Grape
Andrographis
Dr. LoGuiudice says these plant medicines can replace conventional antibiotics without further contributing to resistance issues. Another such alternative, manuka honey, is already used to treat wounds in some progressive hospitals. Hopefully, individuals, practitioners and institutions take heed of the warning signs and begin to utilize other options.
