Dr. Oz: Are Antibiotics Being Over-Prescribed?
Dr. Oz talked on his show about antibiotics. Are we over-prescribing them? 258 million antibiotic prescriptions are written every year. The CDC estimates that 2 million people get antibiotic resistant infections. And 23,000 people die from infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria per year.
Dr. Oz talked to Dr. Joel Fuhrman about this issue. He’s an expert who has written the book Super Immunity. Dr. Fuhrman said antibiotic resistance is a huge issue in the United States. He said the Centers for Disease Control is very worried about this.
Dr. Oz: Antibiotics in Meat Products
Dr. Oz talked to Dr Joel Fuhrman about the dangers of antibiotics, who says the overuse of antibiotics poses a number of health risks, including increasing the risk for cancer and allergies later in life. (Victor Naumik / Shutterstock.com)
Rochelle from the audience asked whether antibiotics in meat products at the grocery store are a problem. Dr. Fuhrman said more than 70 percent of antibiotics made in this country go to livestock to help them grow faster. Exposure to the antibiotics in meat is potentially dangerous. You have to make sure everything raw meat touches is cleaned afterward. These meats can potentially transfer super bugs to us and can even ruin kidneys.
Rochelle said she tries to buy antibiotic-free meat, but it’s a real problem because it’s difficult to find and it’s never on sale. Dr. Oz if you buy organic, it’s never going to have antibiotics in it. You can also buy meats that say antibiotic-free, no antibiotics administered, and USDA process verified.
Dr. Fuhrman said that cutting back on the use of meat is better for your health anyway.
Dr. Oz: Antibiotics For Children
Another woman had a question about her kid. Her 5-year-old daughter is getting sick more often now that she’s in school. Sometimes she doesn’t have time to take her to the doctor’s office, so she’ll call up her doctor and “bully him a bit” into getting an antibiotic prescription for her kid.
Dr. Fuhrman said this is very common and very dangerous. He said she should be saying the opposite to her doctor. Is the antibiotic absolutely necessary? Antibiotic use create more serious injuries later in life. They can increase the risk of asthma and allergies. They can also increase the risk of cancer like breast cancer and lymphoma later in life.
“We have to treat antibiotics like the dangerous drugs they are, used only when absolutely necessary,” he said.
Dr. Fuhrman said that you don’t need antibiotics for bad colds, ear infections, and bronchitis.
Dr. Oz: Immune-Boosting Foods
Dr. Fuhrman said that the best way to prevent antibiotic use is to boost the immune system so we don’t get sick as much. We should eat more greens, beans, mushrooms, onions, berries, and seeds. All of these foods do a number of great things, including having anti-microbial effects and feeding good bacteria in the stomach.
Dr. Fuhrman will be available to answer questions on Twitter on October 17, 2014. If you Tweet your questions under #OZQUESTION, Dr. Fuhrman will answer as many as he can throughout the day.
Leave a Reply