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Antibiotic Infestation
Doctors are overusing antibiotics according to a double twist of
guidelines and expectations from patients who have been brain washed.
This is a vicious cycle of allowing people to assume they don't even
need to think. I'm also surprised there isn't a pill for thinking that
could be overprescribed.
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Sinus study: Antibiotics overprescribed
19 March 2007 - By Timberly Ross -
seattlepi.nwsource.com
| OMAHA, Neb. -- Antibiotics are commonly prescribed for
the majority of patients with sinus infections even though most cases
are caused by a virus rather than bacteria, according to an analysis
of treatments. |
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The researchers say the findings are troubling because overuse of
antibiotics is leading to more virulent and even drug-resistent
bacteria. Their concerns echo those of doctors who've studied the
effectiveness of antibiotics on ear infections.
"We don't want to be using up our antibiotics on these people," said
Dr. Don Leopold, chair of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's
Department of Otolaryngology who worked on the sinus study.
The study, which appears in the March issue of the Archives of
Otolaryngology, looked at two national surveys of patient data from
1999 to 2002. They showed 14.28 million doctor visits were for
diagnosed chronic rhinosinusitis and another 3.12 million for acute rhinosinusitis.
Chronic rhinosinusitis, often called a sinus infection, is the
inflammation of the sinus passages that lasts 12 weeks or longer. The
acute version lasts for about four weeks.
Leopold said there are no approved drugs to treat sinus infections and
no recommended course of treatment. |
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Comment: That means you don't need any if
you take action on your own by using a saline solution rinse, and
other natural methods.
Of the cases of acute infection
cited in the study, roughly 83 percent were treated with antibiotics.
For chronic cases, that figure was about 70 percent. Combined, that
accounts for a fifth of adults who are prescribed antibiotics each
year and one-tenth of children treated that way.
Yet, according to the study, few cases of infection were caused by
bacteria.
Dr. David Spiro, a pediatrician and professor at Oregon Health and
Science University, said the number of cases treated with antibiotics
is "extremely high for a condition that, for the most part,
self-resolves."
Spiro has studied the effects of antibiotics on ear infections and
said this study offers further evidence that doctors are overusing
antibiotics.
In May 2004, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American
Academy of Family Physicians released the first national guidelines on
appropriate diagnosis and treatment for ear infections. Among other
things, those recommend that pain medication be prescribed for most
children and antibiotics used only if the conditions persist or don't
improve. |
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Comment: One might want to take a closer
look at those guidelines.
For most sinus infections, Leopold suggests an alternate
treatment of saline flushing, which can be bought over the counter and
is much cheaper than prescription medicine.
"It's a very old remedy, but something I think we physicians have
forgotten," he said. |
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Comment: Old does not mean bad, in fact,
old might be new.
Dr. Melissa Pynnonen of the University of Michigan Health System said
saline and other treatments that address the symptoms of the infection
are best, but patients are not always receptive to them. |
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Comment: Patients have been brain washed
thoroughly according to those little guidelines mentioned earlier.
When a patient comes to a doctor for treatment, he or she often
expects an antibiotic because it may have been prescribed in the past
or because it is thought to be the quickest way to feel better,
Pynnonen said.
"A lot of it is driven by patients' expectations," she said.
But that's not always what's best for them.
"Antibiotics are not harmless. They have side effects themselves,"
said Spiro. "You can have a really severe allergic reaction."
In addition to physical side effects, he and Pynnonen also cited
increasingly drug-resistent bacteria that adapt to prescribed
antibiotics. |
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Living on the Lost Planet 
