Resistence to Antibiotics on Rise in US
By Serena Gordon HealthScoutNews Reporter FRIDAY, April 19 (HealthScoutNews) — In the wake of a new report that the strep throat germ is now showing significant antibiotic resistance in the United States, many people are wondering if they — or their children — are at risk. They just might be, unless all of us our dependence on antibiotics, says Philip Tierno, director of clinical microbiology at New York University Medical Center and Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City. “”Antibiotic resistance is more prevalent than you’d think,”" Tierno adds. There are two main reasons for it: Overprescription of antibiotics by doctors and the use of antibiotics in livestock, he says.
“”One hundred and fifty million prescriptions are written annually,”" Tierno says. “”Ninety million of those are for antibiotics, and 50 million of those are unnecessary.”" Many antibiotic prescriptions are written for sore throats, but only a small percentage of them are caused by Group A streptococci bacteria, which causes strep throat. The germ can also cause sinus, ear and skin infections. Left untreated, strep can progress into scarlet fever or the more serious rheumatic fever, with potentially fatal consequences. Young children are especially vulnerable to such complications. Strep throat is commonly treated with antibiotics, such as penicillin, or erythromycin for those who are allergic to penicillin. In yesterday’s New England Journal of Medicine report, researchers from Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh studied a group of 100 area school children from kindergarten through eighth grade. They found that Group A streptococci was resistant to erythromycin in 48 percent of the throat cultures taken between October 2000 and May 2001. According to the researchers, this is the first time such a high level of resistance to erythromycin has been found in the United States. Similarly high levels of resistance have been reported in other countries, however, Tierno says. In Japan and Finland, he says, resistance to Group A strep has been reported at levels exceeding 50 percent. The good news, according to Tierno, is that in Japan the rate of resistance has fallen as health officials there decreased their use of erythromycin-based antibiotics. By not using these drugs, Tierno explains, the germs become vulnerable to them again. The Pittsburgh researchers followed the children for three years, and during the first two years, while they did find cases of strep, they found no signs of antibiotic resistance. It wasn’t until the third year that the antibiotic-resistant strain appeared. Tierno says this finding clearly points to overuse of antibiotics. “”What causes drug resistance is the inappropriate use of antibiotics by physicians,”" he says. But patients are partly to blame as well, he adds, because they push for inappropriate prescriptions when they’re ill. Dr. James Musser is chief of the Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Hamilton, Mont. He says, “”From a national perspective, we need to be very concerned about increasing antibiotic resistance in any pathogen.”" And, he adds, we need a study that looks at a greater geographical area to assess how widespread the problem [uncovered in Pittsburgh] might be. In the meantime, he says, “”It’s important for patients to realize that not every upper-respiratory infection is of bacterial origin and to listen closely to the advice of the treating physician.”" That means patients shouldn’t badger their doctor for antibiotics unless they’re deemed necessary.
Learn About Grains
Grains By Jennifer A. Wickes
The proper term, in reference to grains, is cereal grains. The word “”cereal”" comes from Ceres, a pre-Roman goddess of agriculture. Cereal includes any plant from the grass family that produces an edible seed.
Cereals are inexpensive, have an available source of protein and the highest concentration of carbohydrates compared with any other food. Varieties Barley
Barley dates back to the Stone Ages. It is used in recipes such as bread, cereal, and soups. Most barley in the western world is now used for two reasons, for making beer and whiskey, and for animal fodder. Bulgur Wheat
Originating from the Middle East, this is wheat kernels which have been steamed, dried and crushed. Couscous
A staple in North Africa. Couscous is derived from semolina. Can be cooked and added to milk to make a porridge, fruits and honey can be added to make a dessert or you can mix a dressing into it and eat it like a salad. Kasha
This is roasted buckwheat grains. Millet
Millet is a staple grain for over a 1/3 of the world’s population, particularly in Asia and Africa. The United States uses millet almost exclusively for fodder and birdseed. Millet is rich in protein with a bland flavor, so it takes well to be cooked with other foods and spices. You prepare millet like rice, in boiling water, to make into a hot cereal or some sort of pilaf. Ground millet is used in puddings, breads and cakes. You can find millet in natural food stores, as well as Asian markets. Oats
In the 1700s, England would feed oats to their horses, yet the Scottish used to eat oats every day! Polenta / Cornmeal
Dried corn kernels that have been ground to a powder. Quinoa
A staple to the Incas. Contains the most protein than any other grain. It also contains eight essential amino acids. Quinoa is also high in unsaturated fats and lower in carbohydrates. You need to cook Quinoa like rice, and it has been compared in flavor to couscous. Can be found in natural food stores. Rice
Rice has been cultivated throughout Asia since at least 8000 BC. There are also over 7000 varieties. Rice contains iron, calcium and B- complex vitamins. Risotto
An Italian rice which is cooked as rice and can be served with a variety of meats and vegetables. Italian Arborio rice is usually used in the preparation of risotto. Rye
Rye contains less gluten that any other flour, therefore, all rye breads tend to be dense. There are a variety of different ryes, all of which are found at Natural Food Stores: medium, light, dark and pumpernickel. Sorghum
The third largest grain in the entire world, the US only use it as fodder. The only thing the US use sorghum for when speaking of human consumption, sorghum molasses, which is used to sweeten baked goods. Spelt
A cereal grain native to southern Europe, where it has been used for thousands of years. It has a nutty flavor, and can be used in lieu of wheat flour in recipes if a person is gluten intolerant. This grain can also be found in Natural Food Stores. Teff
A cereal grain native to Ethiopia, but is currently being harvested in Idaho. This grain has a nutty flavor, is high in protein, carbohydrates, calcium and iron. It can be found in Natural Food Stores. Triticale
Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye. It has more protein and less gluten than wheat. It comes in berries, flakes and flour. You can find this in Natural Food Stores. Triticale is usually used to make casseroles, hot cereals and pilafs. Due to the low gluten content, breads made from this grain make loaves to be very heavy, therefore using
Probiotics for Health
Probiotics for Health By S.K. Dash, Ph.D.
Many health-conscious consumers today want to know when they should take probiotics. They ask whether they should wait until they are sick. If so, they ask, which illnesses respond best to probiotics? Or should they take a preventive approach and take probiotics before they get sick? What about use of probiotics with antibiotics? Today, there is no doubt that taking probiotics is as essential as a multivitamin to your health. So my reply to such questions is that a daily supplement should always be taken to maintain healthy immune and digestive function — but the supplement amount should be increased during times of stress and illness. But let’s start at the beginning.
Probiotics — What Are They?
The concept of ingesting live microorganisms for the purpose of improving one’s intestinal health and general well being can be traced back well before the beginning of the Twentieth Century to earlier eras when most foods were nonrefrigerated and instead preserved with fermentation. But the current practice of using beneficial organisms to improve and sustain health is now referred to as probiotic supplementation. Although numerous types of bacteria (and yeasts) are currently being marketed as probiotic cultures throughout the world, the two most commonly used ones are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.
Probiotics — A Health Essential?
Consumers rarely consider how essential healthy bacterial populations are to their health. But the fact is that a healthy ratio of beneficial to pathogenic bacteria residing within the gastrointestinal tract is essential to good health and influences not only digestive health but also immune function, detoxification, and women’s vaginal health. Unfortunately, great numbers of people today no longer have optimally balanced ratios of beneficial to pathogenic bacteria in their body, thus allowing the “”bad guys”" to gain the upper hand. This is very dangerous and one of the reasons that digestive illnesses, as well as other types of illnesses, are becoming so prevalent. Medically prescribed antibiotic use is certainly one of the most important causes of this change in our natural flora, with travel to foreign lands a close second. But beyond these detrimental impacts on our gastrointestinal health, we face many other daunting challenges to our bacterial balance. Unless one consumes organic dairy products, for example, one is almost certainly consuming traces of antibiotics and sulfa drugs, which have a disruptive effect on bowel ecology. Our highly processed food supply has also denied our bodies the opportunity to ingest beneficial bacteria as we once did through food fermentation (widely used before refrigeration). Our water also tends to be highly chlorinated which, although important from a public health perspective, has drawbacks for individual health when it comes to adversely impacting our body’s bacterial populations. When the body’s bacterial populations are upset, many kinds of illness can result. So for daily maintenance and in times of illness it just makes sense to use a quality probiotic formula.
Prevention and Treatment of Diarrhea and Constipation: Antibiotic-associated diarrhea can be attributed in part to imbalances in intestinal microflora. Bifidobacteria have been used to successfully treat intestinal disorders and in the prevention of rotaviral diarrhea in children and adults. In fact, taking a probiotic formula with antibiotics is now considered to be standard medicine in many countries. But antibiotics and probiotics must be taken a few hours apart. Constipation is a significant problem for many people, especially the elderly. Researchers have shown that enhancing Bifidobacteria in the large intestine of constipated elderly individuals provides a significant laxative effect.
Ulcer Therapy: If you’re taking antibiotics to treat your ulcer, you should be using probiotics along with your doctor’s prescribed antibiotics. That’s the message from researchers reporting in the February 2001 issue of Digestion. Frequently, nausea, bloating, diarrhea, taste disturbances and loss of appetite are side effects from use of antibiotics to eradicate Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium thought to be the causative agent in gastric ulcers. This latest study involving 120 ulcer patients shows that persons given both antibiotics and probiotics experienced markedly reduced incidence of bloating, diarrhea and taste disturbances compared to persons given only antibiotics, and most persons given the natural remedy experienced no side effects.
Enhanced Immune Function: Most of our immune cells are produced within the gastrointestinal tract and much of our protection against orally ingested pathogens (such as salmonella) is the result of a healthy gastrointestinal environment. There is perhaps no greater protection against such food-borne pathogens than the use of probiotics to sustain this healthy environment. Recent studies show that Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria can stimulate both general immunity and also specific antibodies to certain pathogens.
Lactose Intolerance: Dairy foods are a very important part of a healthy diet, but many of us suffer from some symptoms of lactose intolerance. Studies have shown that strains of Lactobaccilli and Bifidobacteria reduce symptoms of lactose malabsorption.
Establishment of Healthy Flora: in Babies and Infants Premature infants generally take longer to establish a characteristic intestinal flora, which can render them more susceptible to certain intestinal infections. Various strains of Bifidobacterium administered to premature infants results in populations of beneficial bacteria becoming established more quickly in their intestines compared to a control group. You will also likely find that children susceptible to middle ear infections enjoy better health when they are given probiotics (DDS®-Junior Probiotic for Children).
Editor’s Note: Dr. S. K. Dash is among the world’s leading experts today in the field of probiotics. Dr. Dash is founder of America’s leading probiotic company UAS Labs.
See the full unabridged version of this article at www.freedompressonline.com.
References Armuzzi, A., et al. “”Effect of Lactobacillus GG supplementation on antibiotic-associated gastrointestinal side effects during Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy: a pilot study.”" Digestion, 2001;63:1