Germs, Super Germs and Antibiotic Resistance

If you have gone to the doctor for a stomach virus or cold in the last few years, you might realize like I have that it can be very hard to get antibiotics. As a whole many of the doctors are recommending them far less often. This is because on a large scale the doctors are trying to avoid, or at least slow down the process of germ evolution to resist certain strands of antibiotics. The main problem is these new antibiotic resistant germs, dubbed Super Germs, are growing resistant to antibiotics, far faster than we can actually create new antibiotics to fight them. If this continues, we could have mass outbreaks in the future that might kill many, that essentially could have been saved if we were more selective with who we distribute antibiotics to.

In perhaps the most contradictory statement I have ever made, I am going to say that getting sick, is completely healthy. What I really mean by this is having a cold, getting sick and coming into contact with a variety of germs is a natural and in many ways beneficial thing. We may get mildly sick for the moment and feel like crap, but our body learns to adapt and fight our sicknesses in the future. Without any exposure to germs and having your body lack any sort of resistance, puts you at risk for potentially much more severe reactions when you come into contact with other sickness.

If we take the age of example of Polio, which destroyed nerve cells in the spinal cord, while also making muscles weak, causing paralysis, was not a disease that many lower class people were exposed to. In fact the vast majority of people who had gotten Polio in places like the United States, were from upper class families. For the most part, Children from lower class families and areas were exposed to so much bacteria that they built immunities to the Polio virus when there were outbreaks. Those who spent time inside, away and avoiding germs were much better targets for the disease.

This is the large problem we are seeing today, not only from people who are using antibiotics for every little sickness, but also from parents who are choosing to do so for their children. Parents are not letting their kids get down and dirty and expose themselves to the bacteria that will help them grow immunities in the future. Hand sanitizer is common place in almost all public areas these days and people are using it every chance they get. The problem that arises is if these children don’t create a basic immune system for later in life, they are going to get more severe sicknesses from the get go and potentially be at risk for more severe ones later on.

Asthma rates among children are at all time highs and the amount of time children are playing outside, in areas that expose their immune systems, are at all time lows. This is only going to get worse if we don’t do something. So next time you have a cold or a mild sickness, you might feel like crap, but it might be better to avoid taking antibiotics unless it is absolutely necessary. The same goes for your children if you are a parent. We all want to live in a healthy world with no major disease outbreaks, so let’s use the resources we have sparingly in order to give those creating new cures time.