Antibiotics (abx) are life-saving. They are one of the single things, next to sanitation, that forever changed the course of medicine BUT they are massively overused.
By the age of 10, a child has had 11 courses of antibiotics. The microbiome is most sensitive from the ages of 0-3, and antibiotics work like a carpet bomb to the microbiome.
The Mayo Clinic did a study with 14K children and showed a 20% increase in obesity in children who took an abx in first 2 years of life, a 20% increase in learning disorders, 32% increase in ADD, 90% increase in asthma and 289% increase in celiac. Other studies show a correlation between UC and Crohn’s with antibiotic use. Skeptical? Well, consider that the same results are represented in a Danish study with a MILLION children.
Today, amongst scientists and physicians alike, there is speculation that antibiotic administration before surgery not necessary. Infections after surgery is most likely due to a shift in the microbiome, not exogenous bacteria. So, maybe probiotics before surgery is the way to go.
Or acupuncture! The shock and trauma of surgery causes your immune system to plummet anywhere from 30-70% post-operatively. Adding acupuncture before and after surgery corrects that nearly entirely.
So before you go for one, never mind a second round of antibiotics, consider, are you even treating a bacterial infection or might it be fungal? Or viral? Is it your own sluggish immune and detox pathways that need some our help.
