Many medical terms are hard to understand by folks outside the medical field. But it is not so with antibiotics. All we need to do is to pay close attention. Anti- against, bio-life. So, it's against life in a very simplistic reading which by itself should cause alarm. But bio here means more specifically, microorganisms like viruses, fungi, and bacteria. The most commonly used antibiotic is antibacterial, which kills bacteria. So, antibiotics have become synonymous with antibacterial. Not so alarming now, is it not? After all, we have been taught how bacteria are bad and are to be eradicated.
Until seventy years ago, with wars raging and violence very common, even a small cut could cause death as disease-causing bacteria (pathogens) would enter our bodies through these small cuts. But not everyone with a small cut would die as our bodies have the capability to fight the pathogens. It is only when our fighting capability is overwhelmed, that we are most likely to die until antibiotics became available.
Penicillin, the first commercialized antibiotic, was discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming largely as a result of an accident[1]. Mr. Fleming found that staph bacteria died when a mold (fungus) accidentally grew in there. He found that the mold that killed staph bacteria was penicillium. There were some other anti-bacterial agents like phenols discovered before penicillin but they killed both bacteria and our white blood cells, true life killers. But penicillin was unique in that it killed only bacteria but not our WBCs. So, it's not toxic for us or other animals.
All microbes were considered bad when antibiotics were first created. The use of antibiotics saved countless people whose body's fighting capability has been overwhelmed by the microbes. We are able to do invasive surgeries like heart bypass and organ transplants thanks to antibiotics, which keep the pathogens at bay when the body is cut.
In recent years, we discovered that not all bacteria are pathogens (disease-causing). There are many which are good for us. There is a lot of research that has shown how important these good bacteria are to our well-being. These bacteria mostly reside in our gut or gastrointestinal tract which starts from the mouth and ends with the rectum, the food pipe. They also live on the skin and are found everywhere around us. It is estimated in the human body there are more microbes than human cells. But since the microbes are smaller in size, they only account for a small percentage in terms of body weight.
Whenever we take penicillin-based antibiotics, such as ampicillin, and amoxicillin, it kills all bacteria, bad and good. That's why it's called the nuclear option. Loss of gut bacteria has been found to be a factor in various digestive and immunity-related diseases. Gut bacteria play a huge role in extracting nutrients they then share with our body. Gut bacteria also play a role in the communication chain of our immunity system. And there's more that's left to be uncovered.
Dr.Florey, who made penicillin stable for human consumption viewed that such life-saving drugs should not be patented. That's why it's available cheaply and saved millions of lives in the last 75+ years. At the same time, we have started to abuse them as it's cheap which is a disservice to Dr.Florey and other great scientists like him. Antibiotics are life-saving drugs and should be used as a last resort to save lives. Antibiotics, when administered intravenously (injection) have a less negative impact on the gut bacteria. [2]
Some doctors do ask us to take pre-biotics and pro-biotics when we take antibiotics. But it is a hit-and-miss approach as just adding good bacteria to our diet does not automatically mean that the good bacteria are able to just go in and colonize our gut. There are many factors involved and so the probability is low. It's better to keep the bacteria that you have cultivated over many years than kill them and start from scratch.
Call to Action:
Use antibiotics to save lives as intended, not for our comfort unless we want our grandkids to die from infection from simple cuts, cancer, and organ failures like our grandparents. If must, take it intravenously after confirming that bacteria are the source of infection. If there are antibacterial cleaning products in your home, dispose of them safely NOW!
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