Study finds a third of antibiotic prescriptions an unnecessary risk
It might not seem that important. You have the sniffles, maybe a sinus infection, and your doctor casually gives you an Rx for an antibiotic.
You know, just to be on the safe side.
But that simple act could be a matter of life or death.
That’s how Dr. David Hyun, a researcher with the Pew Charitable Trust in Washington, D.C., describes the free-for-all that’s going on now with antibiotic prescriptions.
Hyun and 23 other doctors from hospitals all across the U.S. have just come out with a new study on antibiotic overuse.
And it’s much worse than we ever realized. It seems that up to a third of antibiotic prescriptions were given out for no good reason at all.
So it looks like we could actually be killing ourselves by playing it safe.
Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to try and protect yourself and your family from being the latest causalities of this growing crisis.
That old saying from the Pogo comic strip has never been truer: “We’ve met the enemy and he is us.”
Our love of antibiotics is turning into a crisis of untold proportions. Experts predict that soon, antibiotic-resistant superbugs will be killing one in six people who have a hip transplant. It will take us back to the pioneer days when a simple wound could become a death sentence.
And this isn’t some futuristic threat, like the asteroid that’s going to hit earth a trillion years from now. At this point, two million Americans a year are getting sick from these antibiotic-resistant superbugs, and over 23,000 die. And I’m talking about people of all ages.
Every time you pop an antibiotic, you’re wiping out lots of good germs, or gut-friendly bacteria in your digestive track. Sure, when we really need them it’s a trade-off we have to take.
But when we don’t (more on that in a minute), we’re playing with dynamite. And that friendly fire on our gut bacteria is doing some pretty disastrous things to us. Like the gigantic rise in C.diff infections that for many, just won’t go away.
And another thing that happens when we take these drugs is that some of the bacteria in our body not only survive, but get stronger. These stronger microbes are on their way to becoming those antibiotic-resistant superbugs we keep hearing about.
It’s a pretty simple equation – the more antibiotics that are used (in farm animals, too), the more some of those bugs will slip by and become impervious to attack.
Dr. Hyun and his team examined prescriptions given out for antibiotics during a one-year period. And when they matched up the Rx to the conditions they were given out for, they estimated that 47 million prescriptions during that one year alone were unnecessary!
That amounts to a third of what doctors are handing out.
And the ones given the lion’s share of these drugs are innocent little children under two years of age.
That’s absolutely unbelievable!
Dr. Hyun warned that a lot of the medical procedures that are taken for granted would become “a far more dangerous process” without antibiotics that can do the job. That’s why we need to take matters into our own hands where antibiotics are concerned:
- Don’t take or ask your doctor for an antibiotic unless it’s absolutely necessary. Many patients will request an Rx for a viral infection (like a cold), despite the fact antibiotics are worthless in treating them.
- Remember that they’re also useless in treating conditions like bronchitis, allergies, the flu or sinus infections. In fact, around 70 percent of sinus sufferers will get better without any drugs at all.
- And don’t forget that creams like Neosporin are antibiotics, too. Studies have found that they can also contribute to the rise of superbugs, and should be used sparingly.
Sources:
“A third of antibiotic prescriptions are just wrong” Maggie Fox, May 3, 2016, NBC News, nbcnews.com
