• We are not helpless against this modern-day plague.
By James Spounias —
We’ve all heard of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs.” Friends, relatives and perhaps you have contracted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or other well-known microbial strains, such as C-diff and VRE (Vancomycin-resistant enterococci). They can be deadly. In 2015 it seems particularly galling that catching a deadly hospital infection is a serious risk, especially when medical bureaucrats are hell-bent on enforcing vaccinations and other objectionable medical dictates, from cradle to grave, while ignoring the fact that aggressive antibiotic therapy helped create this problem.
Every year, MRSA becomes invasive in about 90,000 people, resulting in 20,000 deaths. C-diff affects 453,000 people, resulting in 29,000 deaths per year. As many as 33% of Americans carry staph infections in the nose, and one in 50 carries MRSA.
One of the major problems with antibiotics is that they destroy healthy intestinal flora, as well as “unhealthy” bacteria, which disrupts the body’s balance of good bacteria, leaving one vulnerable to opportunistic infections such as MRSA and C-diff. Even establishment sources say that such damage may be permanent and may be the cause of many other health maladies, including irreparable nerve damage.
Antibiotic resistance is a multifactorial problem: overuse of antibiotics, less than sterile hospital and medical facilities, implantation of artificial devices (as simple as catheters or artificial hips/knees), an antibiotic-laden “food” supply and a population with compromised immunity are a few key elements that can bring a perfect storm to those affected. Minimizing the prospect of superbug infection cannot be solved with a single bullet.
President Barack Hussein Obama headlined antibiotic resistance as a national priority by creating the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, but those in both establishment and alternative circles find fault with the program.
While addressing the medical-information clearinghouse Medscape on March 27, President Obama said: “Overprescribing is a serious problem. Using antibiotics when they aren’t needed is one of the main causes of antibiotic resistance. . . . We know that five out of six Americans are prescribed antibiotics each year. That adds up to 262 million antibiotic prescriptions annually. We also know that some doctors prescribe antibiotics far more frequently than others. And studies have consistently shown that a lot of America’s antibiotic use is unnecessary.”
What Obama said mirrored Dr. Argun Srinivasan’s 2013 warning: “For a long time, 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.’” Srinivasan is a high-ranking official with the Centers for Disease Control.
Obama said his national action plan “includes significant new investments in drug development, both at the National Institutes of Health and at a government agency called the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Those dollars would go directly to developing new antibiotics. So that will help us in the fight against drug resistance, too.”
Even establishment critics are skeptical of the president’s plan.
For instance, big agricultural practices involve heavy antibiotic use.
“More than 70% of the antibiotics sold in the United States goes to chickens, pigs, cows and other animals that people eat, yet producers of meat and poultry are not required to report how they use the drugs—which ones, on what types of animals and in what quantities,” reported The New York Times recently.
The Natural Resource Defense Council stated that Obama’s plan “continues to allow the routine feeding of antibiotics to animals that live in the crowded conditions endemic to industrial farms.”
Assistant Professor Keeve Nachman, the director of the Food Production and Public Health Program at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, cautions that the president’s reporting requirement for animal antibiotics is “so vague that it’s hard to tell how useful it would be.”
Even though Obama’s summation of excessive antibiotic use was encouraging, the fact of the matter is that more money is being poured into Big Pharma’s coffers with no meaningful reduction in the use of medications on animals. Other technologies are being ignored as well.
ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
One therapy, called “phage therapy,” is being largely ignored or minimized, despite the fact that it has shown great promise in Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland, Ukraine and Georgia.
Phage therapy is a viable non-antibiotic treatment for antibiotic resistance where “bacteriophages . . . invade bacterial cells and, in the case of lytic phages, disrupt bacterial metabolism, causing the bacterium to destruct. Phage therapy is the therapeutic use of lytic bacteriophages to treat pathogenic bacterial infections.” Advantages are that the body’s normal gut bacteria aren’t killed off and the risk of secondary infections is slight.
Another way to curb superbugs would be to implement robot ultraviolet light technology. Dr. Joanne Levin, medical director of the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Infection Prevention Program, noted in 2012: “We were able to reduce C-diff infections by 53%, which is huge.”
Noting that the technology reduced the incidence of viruses, such as the norovirus, medical experts agree the technology adds another layer to making hospitals, nursing homes and other medical settings more sanitary.
Considering America spends approximately $4 million every hour for the “war” in Afghanistan and $615,482 every hour to fight ISIS, why doesn’t Obama immediately mandate and pay for robot technology to be employed in every hospital, nursing home and medical facility in America?
Medicare has been ordered to cut payments for hospital infections. The irony seems to be lost on those who caused the antibiotic resistance problem in the first place. Forbes magazine notes the dictate not to pay for hospital infections did nothing to reduce hospital infections or cut costs.
What can we do to protect ourselves?
Alternative health proponents have long lamented the prolific use of antibiotics. In a 1998 interview with “Radio Free America,” host Tom Valentine, Dr. Morton Walker, author of the book Olive Leaf Extract: Nature’s Antibiotic, cited olive leaf extract as a great alternative to antibiotics.
Olive leaf extract is “the finest anti-microbial product that exists in the market today,” said Walker. “It is a marvelous substitute for antibiotics, which are no longer working. Do you know that we have only one antibiotic left, vancomycin, and now it is no longer functioning because staphylococcus and streptococcus—both are very serious hospital infections—have become resistant? Staph infection overrides infections in the hospital. You go in without it and come out with it. Erythromycin no longer works against streptococcus, and the only thing I can see that does work is olive leaf extract, an over-the-counter dietary supplement product.”
Drawing upon hundreds of published studies in the Yale Medical School Library, Walker found a goldmine of studies supporting olive leaf extract.
Probiotics are vital, as well. The preferred strain is bacillus coagulans, because it is virtually indestructible and has been tested in many published studies in Japan for decades.
Vitamin C is also important for immunity. Peppers (chili, red, green and bell), mangos, papaya, kiwi and, of course, oranges are foods rich in Vitamin C.
Nascent iodine is also important for immune health, as well as garlic. Garlic is best consumed raw. Researchers recommend one or two teaspoons should be consumed at least every 2-3 days. Make sure it’s organic and non-Chinese.
Manuka honey is a well-known antibacterial agent, which has been used against MRSA in published trials. Look for UMF potency higher than 10 for efficacy.
Red onions used in an old time remedy involve putting a slice or two of red onions in your sock at bedtime. Once or twice a week goes a long way to boosting immunity.
James Spounias is the president of Carotec Inc., originally founded by renowned radio show host and alternative health expert Tom Valentine and his wife, Carole. To receive a free issue of Carotec Health Report—a monthly newsletter loaded with well-researched and reliable alternative health information—please write Carotec, P.O. Box 9919, Naples, FL 34101 or call 1-800-522-4279. Also included will be a list of the high-quality health supplements Carotec recommends.
