Blog about health and antibiotics medicine
The percentage of children who received antibiotics for acute otitis media (AOM) did not change significantly after a 2004 clinical practice guideline recommended “watchful waiting” for certain patients, according to data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). However, analgesic prescribing increased 71% after the guideline strongly recommended treating pain associated with AOM.
Antibiotics are known to cause digestive issues, but could they be making Americans fat? Dana Ullman, expert in homeopathic medicine, covered this issue in an article on the Huffington Post. He said scientific literature shows antibiotics play a role in weight gain, and suggested homeopathic treatments as a safe, effective way to avoid antibiotics.
He noted as far back as 1955 research showed weight gain may be linked to prolonged antibiotic usage. He said it is well known among farmers that livestock who ingest a lot of antibiotics experience disruption in the digestive tracts causing their food to not properly assimilate, leading to significant weight gain. Healthy bacteria in the gut help animals (and humans) metabolize fat, but antibiotic usage can disrupt proper fat metabolism.
Infants and young children who take antibiotics may have an increased risk of developing a rare type of intestinal blockage, according to a new study.
The results of the study do not prove that antibiotics cause the complication, known as intussusception. The researchers think that antibiotics may be just one of several factors that contribute to intestinal blockage in young children.
Antibiotics are the most commonly prescribed drugs in Irish children, an RCSI study has found.
The HRB Centre for Primary Care Research at the RCSI investigated the rate of antibiotic prescriptions among children in Ireland.
Antibiotics represent one-third of all prescriptions in Irish children. The high rates of antibiotic prescribing are an increasing concern with rising antimicrobial resistance and the associated burden on the health service, the study found.
Antibiotic resistance is increasing to such a level that there are fears that within 20 years antibiotics will cease to function, an eventuality that could take us back to the days before penicillin.
Compounds that block the bacteria’s pathogenicity instead of killing them outright may be a solution to this confounding problem.
The lack of effective antibiotics has become more and more acute as the number of bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics has increased.
One of the companies that working on new ways to fight against the pathogenic bacteria is Creative Antibiotics based in Umeå in Sweden.