This is related to my present condition of a common cold that wouldn't leave me. I was not able to go to work last Wednesday until Friday and tomorrow, Monday, I am not sure if I have the energy to work. Upon reading that article in New York Times about Superbugs, I got the shivers. What if the virus and other organisms have become immune to anti-biotics? Worse, even if we avoid taking anti-biotics when we are sick, it is the livestock that is providing us with it - livestock in farms, presumably chickens, are being fed anti-biotics that enter our body when we eat the meat. Here is the link for the complete story - http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/opinion/the-world-wakes-up-to-the-danger-of-superbugs.html?_r=0
Most countries now are limiting their prescriptions of antibiotic. I have heard they are working on new strains.
You are exactly right, @Corie Henson , and most of the animals that are raised commercially are in such awful packed conditions that they are always sickly, and have to have all kinds of antibiotics just to keep them alive long enough to get them to where they want to kill them. Plus, doctors prescribe antibiotics even for a virus, knowing that antibiotics have NO effect at all on a virus, and besides not doing anything to kill the virus, the antibiotics kill all of the good bacteria that live in our intestines which help us digest our food properly, and that makes us even sicker. Eating a natural probiotic, such as yogurt or kefir will help restore that natural balance in our digestive system, but most doctors are not nutritionists, and they don't tell people that they need to eat yogurt or any probiotic food after they have used an antibiotic. It has been a long, long time since I have taken any kind of antibiotic, because I use natural ones like garlic, and also take Lugol's iodine, which kills all kinds of viruses and bacterial infections. When we go to the fitness center, I stay in the hot tub for 5 minutes to raise my body temperature and that kills off most infections before they get a chance to spread. Since they can only live in the right temperature, this is an easy way to get rid of unwanted bacteria and viruses. If I do get sick with something, which is very rarely, then I start taking a LOT of cayenne, or other very HOT foods (spicy hot), and also salty foods. Chips and salsa is my go-to food cure, since it has both the necessary hotness and also the salt.
@Yvonne Smith, we also subscribe to the natural vitamins for prevention of diseases. However, it is not fool proof to eat natural foods to be free from sickness. And taking supplements is not that effect either. What is worrying in that article is when the superbugs become immune such that even a simple common cold can kill us. It is really strange with this cough that is like tearing my chest. And now 2 people in the house are already contaminated, just 1 left that is free from the bug.
Drug resistant bacteria was a big problem on our Southern border when I lived in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas sixteen years ago. I imagine it's worth now, and that it's traveled further north, since these diseases come across our unprotected borders. Plus, there are probably new ones coming in from the Islamic countries. When I was hospitalized for a strangulated hernia in the mid- to late-1990s, I ended up with a drug resistant bacterial infection, catching it in the hospital. I was hospitalized for six or seven weeks, unable to eat or drink anything. They had to design an antibiotic to combat the bacteria that I had. I received the antibiotic by IV while in the hospital, and had to take three a day for ten days after being discharged. They cost $200 apiece, which amounted to $600 per day for ten days, costing me $6,000 just for a 10-day regimen of the antibiotic, and that's not counting the IV form that I was getting for weeks. I don't actually know how long because I know they tried a few other antibiotics before coming across a formula that worked. Even then, when the borders weren't as porous as they are now, tuberculosis was common. There is a large hospital in Harlingen that deals mostly with tuberculosis, but also has wings for AIDS and other infectious patients.
First antibiotics are not for viruses but bacteria. There is a couple of anti viral drugs out there. As far as herbal or natural cures well if you got sick than it is likely your digestion system is not letting you get the natural medicine that we eat every day like vitamin C. If you cannot absorb it ,it would be a waste of time taking it. There is other things available to use against supper bug but doctors will not tell you about them 1 electro medicine 2 Ultraviolet blood treatments. 3 intravenous vitamin C 4 intravenous hydrogen peroxide 5 there is no bacteria immune to silver. 6 Phage Therapy a bacteria killing virus – known as bacteriophages or phages. There is many more.
The problem with bacterial diseases that come across the border is that they are introduced to people here who have no immunity to them, similar to the smallpox and other diseases that European-Americans introduced to the Native Americans when this continent was colonized. There was a time when a clean bill of health was required in order to immigrate to the United States but I strongly suspect that this practice has been suspended in order to force American taxpayers to fund research into diseases that we wouldn't otherwise have to deal with.