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.
I would like to point out, the NYT is a reputable news site but cannot even remotely be trusted with medical information/recommendations. I can’t tell you the last time I read a medical news piece from any source (and the NYT is the primary place I get my news) that I couldn’t read it and say “well that’s a gross oversimplification” or worse “this is blatantly misrepresenting the scientific author’s conclusions”. Holding up the NYT as a source of medical/scientific truth is just demonstrating how scientifically illiterate you really are.
Wow, projecting hard with that comment. This is a fantastic and well-cited article, and your comment does nothing to debunk anything in it, and you end with a baseless “you’re scientifically illiterate” comment. Amazing.