Antibiotic Resistance: A Miracle Squandered – Part 2
Antibiotics stop bacterial infections in their tracks. A crisis is averted and the patient returns to normal. Problem solved. Unless, of course, “normal” is the problem.
When we are fortunate enough to survive a disease and return to life as usual, do we bother to look for why the disease occurred in the first place? The advent of antibiotics allowed us the luxury of not examining causes but going directly to treatment of the symptoms.
The CDC says that as many as 4 of 5 Americans receive an antibiotic every year. Actually, the average number of prescriptions per year for antibiotics is about 0.8, 1 prescription for every 4 of 5 people (#1 West Virginia 1.237 antibiotic prescriptions per person, #2 Kentucky 1.232, and #3 Tennessee 1.199). This is an astounding statement as to the health of individual Americans.
That people need an antibiotic so frequently demonstrates one of the negative consequences of antibiotics, that they allow us to not address the cause of the infection, the weakness that allowed bacteria to establish a presence. This is just another symptom (so to speak) that we do not truly understand health.
Americans, in particular, have very poor immunity. A diet of processed foods, perhaps thinking a multivitamin will make up the difference, undermines our physical integrity.
A spirit of fear pervades all aspects of life, including health, with our fear of “germs”, in particular, and disease, in general. This fear undermines our emotional integrity.
Embracing the latest pharmaceutical treatment or natural wonder plant surrenders our own responsibility as we depend on vaccines, antibiotics, germicides, and antioxidants to provide “health.”
Stress, anger, fear, and other negative emotions undermine our physical strength and immune system, literally wearing us out and sapping the joy of life.
The powers of this world love to control by fear. The Power that created and controls everything loves, and love banishes fear.
There is always a system that is necessary to create an organized and safe living environment, but each individual is to be their own person within that system, fulfilling their potential, using their gifts, and helping one another. When we do not perform the natural functions for which we were created, we are not whole.
Merriam-Webster’s first entry under the definition of health - “Health: the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit…; especially: freedom from physical disease or pain.”
Perhaps we can see what it means to be whole. Being whole is not being free of the symptoms of physical, emotional, or spiritual disease, but is being free from the stress of feeling lack, free from feeling we are less than expected, free from experiencing an unfulfilled need.
When we are physically ill, we have symptoms of not being all that we expect of ourselves.
This sounds as though it applies to adults, and perhaps older children. But even infants have emotions, and when they are predominately negative (e.g., fear, loneliness), there are consequences, according to Scientific American (please read the entire article):
“Many children who have not had ample physical and emotional attention are at higher risk for behavioral, emotional and social problems as they grow up. These trends point to the lasting effects of early infancy environments and the changes that the brain undergoes during that period.” We must realize that physical problems will occur, also.
A 1997 JAMA article speaks of the results of a particular study on children adopted from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: Children had 1 month of linear growth lag for every 5 months in an orphanage (r=-0.48, P<.001). Developmental delays were also common (gross motor delays in 70% of children, fine motor in 82%, language in 59%, and social-emotional in 53%).
What we believe about God, other people, and ourselves determines much of who we are and what happens in our lives. This is true regardless of our age, even if we are too young to grasp and express the concepts.
When any of those beliefs are out of line with reality, then we are not whole. We have an imbalance between belief and reality, and we suffer the conflict – dis-ease, if you will – between mind and matter.
A personal testimony….
At around age 5 (about 1954-5), the doctor suggested that my tonsils be removed so that my health would be better. My mother mentioned later in my life how I went through three diseases after the tonsillectomy. Inflamed tonsils were not the problem.
My recurring sinus infections of the 1980’s and 1990’s were not resolved until I cleaned my gut. Almost annual rounds of antibiotics would have continued until something changed (and so would the constipation, bad breath, etc.).
Chronic infections of the sinuses (as well as ears, respiratory system, urinary tract, etc.) often trace their origin to dysbiosis, a compromised digestive system. My body was simply trying to get my attention, to tell me there was a problem, and I was hard of hearing.
One way to see what health is like is to read the Gospels. Yes, we see the physical healing miracles, and subconsciously dismiss them precisely because they are miracles and do not seem relevant to our daily lives. Then we miss the spiritual healing that runs throughout the stories, and also the emotional healing running on a parallel course. The Samaritan woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, and Jesus’ many actions of forgiveness, love, mercy, etc. come to mind.
When Jesus asked the man at the pool of Bethesda, “Wilt thou be made whole?” (John 5:6 KJV), He is not asking if the man wants the symptom of his inability to walk to be removed. He is asking if the man wants the symptom and its causes - physical, emotional, and spiritual - to be removed.
What we think, what we believe about ourselves, other people, and God, determines so much about how our life will go on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels, as well as on the secular level of how “successful” we are in life.
Antibiotics are a last resort, but we have used them as a first line of defense, and even made them part of an offensive effort to destroy the enemy, germs, as if that were even possible and desirable. We depend on many of those germs for our very existence, but we kill indiscriminately.
Each of us must accept the burden of being our own primary healthcare provider. No one else cares about our health so much as ourselves. Next article
Antibiotics stop bacterial infections in their tracks. A crisis is averted and the patient returns to normal. Problem solved. Unless, of course, “normal” is the problem.
When we are fortunate enough to survive a disease and return to life as usual, do we bother to look for why the disease occurred in the first place? The advent of antibiotics allowed us the luxury of not examining causes but going directly to treatment of the symptoms.
The CDC says that as many as 4 of 5 Americans receive an antibiotic every year. Actually, the average number of prescriptions per year for antibiotics is about 0.8, 1 prescription for every 4 of 5 people (#1 West Virginia 1.237 antibiotic prescriptions per person, #2 Kentucky 1.232, and #3 Tennessee 1.199). This is an astounding statement as to the health of individual Americans.
That people need an antibiotic so frequently demonstrates one of the negative consequences of antibiotics, that they allow us to not address the cause of the infection, the weakness that allowed bacteria to establish a presence. This is just another symptom (so to speak) that we do not truly understand health.
Americans, in particular, have very poor immunity. A diet of processed foods, perhaps thinking a multivitamin will make up the difference, undermines our physical integrity.
A spirit of fear pervades all aspects of life, including health, with our fear of “germs”, in particular, and disease, in general. This fear undermines our emotional integrity.
Embracing the latest pharmaceutical treatment or natural wonder plant surrenders our own responsibility as we depend on vaccines, antibiotics, germicides, and antioxidants to provide “health.”
Stress, anger, fear, and other negative emotions undermine our physical strength and immune system, literally wearing us out and sapping the joy of life.
The powers of this world love to control by fear. The Power that created and controls everything loves, and love banishes fear.
There is always a system that is necessary to create an organized and safe living environment, but each individual is to be their own person within that system, fulfilling their potential, using their gifts, and helping one another. When we do not perform the natural functions for which we were created, we are not whole.
Merriam-Webster’s first entry under the definition of health - “Health: the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit…; especially: freedom from physical disease or pain.”
Perhaps we can see what it means to be whole. Being whole is not being free of the symptoms of physical, emotional, or spiritual disease, but is being free from the stress of feeling lack, free from feeling we are less than expected, free from experiencing an unfulfilled need.
When we are physically ill, we have symptoms of not being all that we expect of ourselves.
This sounds as though it applies to adults, and perhaps older children. But even infants have emotions, and when they are predominately negative (e.g., fear, loneliness), there are consequences, according to Scientific American (please read the entire article):
“Many children who have not had ample physical and emotional attention are at higher risk for behavioral, emotional and social problems as they grow up. These trends point to the lasting effects of early infancy environments and the changes that the brain undergoes during that period.” We must realize that physical problems will occur, also.
A 1997 JAMA article speaks of the results of a particular study on children adopted from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: Children had 1 month of linear growth lag for every 5 months in an orphanage (r=-0.48, P<.001). Developmental delays were also common (gross motor delays in 70% of children, fine motor in 82%, language in 59%, and social-emotional in 53%).
What we believe about God, other people, and ourselves determines much of who we are and what happens in our lives. This is true regardless of our age, even if we are too young to grasp and express the concepts.
When any of those beliefs are out of line with reality, then we are not whole. We have an imbalance between belief and reality, and we suffer the conflict – dis-ease, if you will – between mind and matter.
A personal testimony….
At around age 5 (about 1954-5), the doctor suggested that my tonsils be removed so that my health would be better. My mother mentioned later in my life how I went through three diseases after the tonsillectomy. Inflamed tonsils were not the problem.
My recurring sinus infections of the 1980’s and 1990’s were not resolved until I cleaned my gut. Almost annual rounds of antibiotics would have continued until something changed (and so would the constipation, bad breath, etc.).
Chronic infections of the sinuses (as well as ears, respiratory system, urinary tract, etc.) often trace their origin to dysbiosis, a compromised digestive system. My body was simply trying to get my attention, to tell me there was a problem, and I was hard of hearing.
One way to see what health is like is to read the Gospels. Yes, we see the physical healing miracles, and subconsciously dismiss them precisely because they are miracles and do not seem relevant to our daily lives. Then we miss the spiritual healing that runs throughout the stories, and also the emotional healing running on a parallel course. The Samaritan woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, and Jesus’ many actions of forgiveness, love, mercy, etc. come to mind.
When Jesus asked the man at the pool of Bethesda, “Wilt thou be made whole?” (John 5:6 KJV), He is not asking if the man wants the symptom of his inability to walk to be removed. He is asking if the man wants the symptom and its causes - physical, emotional, and spiritual - to be removed.
What we think, what we believe about ourselves, other people, and God, determines so much about how our life will go on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels, as well as on the secular level of how “successful” we are in life.
Antibiotics are a last resort, but we have used them as a first line of defense, and even made them part of an offensive effort to destroy the enemy, germs, as if that were even possible and desirable. We depend on many of those germs for our very existence, but we kill indiscriminately.
Each of us must accept the burden of being our own primary healthcare provider. No one else cares about our health so much as ourselves. Next article
