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What you need to know...
"The future belongs to those who prepare for it..."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Be alert to potential antibiotic
dangers
Originally published Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 12:00 AM
By Joe Graedon and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D.
Q. We buried our beloved mother June 24. She
contracted severe C. diff as a result of a short round of the antibiotic clindamycin. The infection ravaged her
body and she died as a consequence. She was 79. Before the infection, she had been taking only a
multivitamin.
A. We are so sorry for your loss. C. diff
(Clostridium difficile) can cause a dangerous gastrointestinal infection that can be hard to treat. It is
sometimes acquired in a hospital stay.
A black-box warning in the prescribing information alerts doctors that
clindamycin, like certain other antibiotics, may disrupt the natural balance of bacteria in the gut and allow C.
diff to take over and cause potentially fatal diarrhea. The toxins from the bacteria can make people very
sick.
Q. Are there reputable Canadian drug companies? Our
medical bills are destroying us financially!
A. You are not alone. A lot of people are feeling
the pinch of a bad economy.
Many older people are about to fall into the dreaded Medicare doughnut hole,
in which they must pay 100 percent of drug bills out of their own pockets until expenditures exceed
$4,350.
For someone on a limited budget, going from a $10 copay to $120 for a
prescription is shocking. We are sending you our Guide to Saving Money on Medicine with a list of reliable Canadian
drugstores that accept prescriptions from the U.S. We also discuss how to use generic drugs
safely. [1]
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The dangers of antibiotics to
rabbits
Published
Wednesday 15th July 2009
By Trianna
Rathads
If you own a rabbit, or you wish to care for one
that appears to be ill, be cautious if your vet wants to prescribe antibiotics as a treatment. A lot of antibiotics
have been found to be harmful to rabbits, particularly in the form of enteritis. High doses of ampicillin,
clindamycin, lincomycin, and penicillin can causes up to 100% fatal enteritis. Amoxicillin, cephalexin,
erythromycin, spectinomycin, and tylosin can cause diarrhea, minocycline reduces growth rate, and spiramycin causes
nervousness.
Enteritis is a common disease which you might
recognise in humans, caused by pathogenic bacteria such as salmonella, and campylobacter, often called stomach
flu, although it can often be tackled by our bodies, it can cause death especially in the old and the young.
Antibiotics act by killing bacteria in a relatively non specific manor, such as ampicillin which acts by
preventing cell wall synthesis, which prevents bacterial growth. This can kill the good bacteria in our stomach,
which have a role in preventing the bad bacteria from causing infection.
Rabbits have a unique digestive system, which is inhabited by a variety of
good microorganisms which help the rabbit to digest its food. It appears that antibiotic treatment in rabbits
has the same type of effect, and kills the good bacteria in the cecum and the intestines, significantly
increasing susceptibility to pathogenic infections, such as Clostridiumspp, which can produce dangerous toxins.
The antibiotics can also cause death through toxicity, such as vancomycin which has been shown to cause 100%
mortality, it should be noted that these toxins can take up to 10 days to have an effect. The treated rabbit can
appear to be normal up to two days before you notice reduced appetite, and activity, with watery diarrhoea, and
ultimately death within two days.
Bacterial infections can occur in many places in the body, and it can
sometimes be difficult for a vet to determine where a particular infection is situated, or what type of bacteria
is responsible, different antibiotics can be more effective at tackling specific bacterial infections, so if
possible you should get your vet to try and determine what bacteria you are dealing with before you allow
administration of antibiotics. You should work with your vet to determine what the best action might be, and
remember that some antibiotics can be used with a higher level of safety, especially when administered via
injection, rather than orally, an example are Cephalosporins. [2]
..............................................
Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact
or Fiction?
Published April 29th
2009
By Dr Jim
Mercola
American health officials declared a public health emergency as cases of
swine flu were confirmed in the U.S. Health officials across the world fear this could be the leading edge of a
global pandemic emerging from Mexico, where seven people are confirmed dead as a result of the new
virus.
On Wednesday April 29th, the World
Health Organization (WHO) raised its pandemic alert level to five on its
six-level threat scale, which means they've determined that the virus is capable
of human-to-human transmission. The initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection already traveling at
higher velocity than did the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu.
Phase 5 had never been declared since the warning system was introduced in
2005 in response to the avian influenza crisis.
Phase 6 means a pandemic is under way.
Several nations have imposed travel bans, or made plans to quarantine air
travelers that present symptoms of the swine flu despite the fact that WHO now
openly states it is not possible to contain the spread of this
infection and recommends mitigation measures, not restricting travel or closing
borders. [3]
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[1]... The Seattle Times Sunday, July
12, 2009 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2009449099_pharmacy12.html
[2]... T. H. Morris: Antibiotic Therapeutics in Laboratory Animals.
Laboratory Animals 29: 16-36. http://www.helium.com/items/1400742-rabbit-antibiotics
[3]... Dr Jim Mercola www.mercola.com June 29th http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/swine-flu.aspx
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