Antibiotic Paradox Quotes

Along with better training, pediatricians need better pay. Paradoxically, physicians involved in the primary care of our children—the doctors on the front lines who receive tens of thousands of visits every day from parents and their children—are among the lowest paid of all physicians in the United States. Something is wrong with our system when the doctor who performs a brief diagnostic procedure—some form of X-ray, for example, or a fifteen-minute operation—is paid many times more than the doctors making crucial decisions about our children’s health.

Lest I be accused of being overly dramatic, here is some evidence of the devastating effects of antibiotics: studies show that every time you take a course of antibiotics, you increase the likelihood of developing Crohn’s disease, diabetes, obesity, or asthma later in life.19

you should be very cautious about taking broad-spectrum antibiotics for anything other than a life-threatening infection. And our consumption of antibiotics doesn’t just come from filling a doctor’s prescription. Almost all American chicken or beef contains enough antibiotics to kill bacteria in a petri dish!

Every time you take a course of Levaquin, ciprofloxacin, or another broad-spectrum antibiotic for a urinary-tract or another infection, you kill most of the microbes in your gut. Shockingly, it can take up to two years for them to return. Many may be gone forever. Even worse, each time a child takes antibiotics, the likelihood increases of him or her developing Crohn’s disease, diabetes, obesity, or asthma later in life.

Don’t get me wrong, targeted antibiotics can be lifesaving; but you should be very cautious about taking broad-spectrum antibiotics for anything other than a life-threatening infection.

the paradox remains that we use far too many antibiotics, but we don’t have enough of the right ones to treat an emerging burden of these antibiotic-resistant infections.