this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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Public Health

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YSK: Do You Really Need That Antibiotic? It’s antibiotic season. Brush up on how you should use them — and when to avoid them. (NYT, Dec 2023) (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 11 months ago by MaximilianKohler@lemmy.world to c/publichealth@mander.xyz
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9858445

It's refreshing to see a major news outlet discussing collateral damage and not just resistance. Over the past decade, 99% of the time antibiotic overuse is covered and warned about it's always only in regards to resistance.

It's a good article that also doesn't spread the common misinformation of "just take some probiotics and fermented foods after antibiotics and you're good to go".

Swallowing an antibiotic is like carpet-bombing the trillions of microorganisms that live in the gut, killing not just the bad but the good too, said Dr. Martin Blaser, author of the book “Missing Microbes” and director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers University.

“I think the health profession in general has systematically overestimated the value of antibiotics and underestimated the cost,” Dr. Blaser said.

No shit. And it has spread like a virus to the general populace as well. The majority of people seem mentally addicted to antibiotics and think they're going to die if they don't get an antibiotic for every minor issue.

  • Find out if you really need an antibiotic.
  • Ask for the shortest course.
  • Rethink probiotics.

I appreciate the NYT for finally helping spread this.

Just yesterday people on Lemmy were cheering about AI discovering new antibiotics. When I shared info about the concerns of collateral damage, the responses were more unintelligent and close-minded than on reddit. Extremely depressing.

For more info on this subject there's a wiki and forum at https://humanmicrobiome.info.

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[–] MaximilianKohler@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

Some relevant info I shared yesterday:

While antibiotic resistance gets all the attention, the damage being done to our host-native microbiomes is arguably as big a threat as climate change, as the damage compounds over generations, and once it's gone you can't get it back. (Apr 2019).

Resistance can be solved by restoring lost microbes with FMT: https://humanmicrobiome.info/antibiotics/