The Natural Beat

The basic function of an antibiotic is to kill bacteria directly (bactericidal) or prevent bacteria from dividing and multiplying (bacteriostatic). The effect in both the cases is removing bacterial infection. Some antibiotics have a broad bacterial spectrum, which means that they are effective against a number of pathogens. Those with a narrow spectrum are effective against typical bacteria causing specific disease. Antibiotics are also classified according their chemical structure. Each structural class has multiple drugs and each one of them is radically distinctive from the other.

Over time, two important disadvantages have surfaced in the field of antibiotic treatment.

• The quick results of antibiotic treatment have actually worked against them. The initial effectiveness of a new antibiotic drug is soon lost. This happens when it is used arbitrarily without determining whether it is extremely necessary to use an antibiotic .
• Almost all antibiotics have varying side effects, some of them being more troublesome than the disease they are meant to cure. Prolonged use of antibiotics can also affect immune system health and inhibit the body’s natural ability to cure.

Aminoglycosides that include amikacin, gentamicin, kanamycin, neomycin, netilmicin, paromomycin, streptomycin, tobramycin and apramycin. Aminoglycosides are known to have toxic affects on the hearing ability and kidneys. It is therefore important that the dosage that is given is administered according to the body weight. Vestibular and ear damage is irreversible in most cases. If taken in conjunction with cephalosporin, a broad spectrum antibiotic, there is an increased risk of kidney damage.

There are four generations of Cephalosporins. There are approximatley 50 drugs under this class, and practically all of them are prefixed with ‘cef’. Common adverse effects include gastrointestinal upsets like diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, headache, oral or vaginal fungal infection, colitis and fever. In some cases, patients may suffer from superinfection, infection that occurs while being treated for another infection.

Macrolides like azithromycin, eryhtromycin and roxithromycin are commonly used to treat a strep throat and respiratory infections. Apart from vomiting and diarrhea they may cause impairment of vision and liver toxicity.

The most widely known side affect of Penicillins is that of anaphylactic reactions. In rare cases there can be brain or kidney damage. 

Quinolones are suffixed with ‘’xacin’ and are relatively safer. In rare cases they may cause nausea and tendonoisis.

Tetracyclines, the second discovery after penicillin, cause allergies, GI upsets, kidney failure, sensitivity to sunlighjt and decrease in white blood cells.

Considering the resistance that many bacteria have developed to commonly prescribed antibiotics and the side effects that they cause, it is imperative that antibiotics be used only when they cannot be avoided. The latest recommendations of ENT specialists for laboratory examination of a culture taken by an endoscope before prescribing an antibiotic for bacterial sinus infections, is a welcome step in the right direction. Many common diseases heal with time provided you give a chance to the immune system to expel the invading pathogen.

Herbal antibiotics are time tested natural remedies that can treat and relieve symptoms of many common bacterial infections. The focus should be on the strengthening the immune system, something in which a natural and nutritional diet, active lifestyle, reasonable exposure to sunlight and herbs for immune system can play an important role.