"Farm animals get 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States." -- WIRED
WHILE WE ARE ON THE SUBJECT OF YOUNG PEOPLE's health, I want to touch on the connection between antibiotics and eating animals meat. If you're a parent, you're probably aware that over the last decade (2006 to 2016) or so doctors have become very concerned about the dangers posed by overexposure to antibiotics.
Back in the day, antibiotics were like aspirin -- doctors would prescribe them for almost anything.
Your child has an ear infection? Give him/her an antibiotic.
Your kid has a sinus infection? Let's try an antibiotic.
Today, those attitudes have changed dramatically. We know the more antibiotics someone takes, the more resistance they'll build up to them, so that when you really need antibiotics to kick in, they might not work.
There is growing fear that antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" will be one of the biggest crises humanity faces going forward. One new study even says superbugs could kill three hundred million (300 000 000) people by 2050 unless we slow down our intake of antibiotics and learn to use them more wisely. MRSA, which is an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, already kills ninety thousand (90,000) Americans every year, more than we lost to AIDS. [Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body. It's tougher to treat than most strains of staphylococcus aureus -- or staph -- because it's resistant to some commonly used antibiotics. The symptoms of MRSA depend on where you're infected.]
Yet even as doctors become more selective with how they prescribe antibiotics, as a society we're not doing enough to address the biggest antibiotic consumers out there. And it is not kids with sore throats or adults with sinus infections.
It's factory farm animals.
The animals meat we humans eat are themselves consuming close to thirty million (30,000,000) pounds of antibiotics every year.
That takes place for a couple of reasons:
The first is that many factory farmers feed their animals proactively to keep them "healthy", so-called. A farmer with thirty thousand (30,000) chickens can't check each bird to see if it is getting sick. Using carpet-bombing method; Instead he just feeds all those birds antibiotics every day figuring that the sick ones will get the antibiotics they need.
Factory farmers also like antibiotics because they make animals gain weight faster. the more the animals weigh when they're slaughtered , the more the factory farms get paid. Plus, Americans do not like lean meat. we like our meat fatty, or "marbled," as it is called in the meat industry. Giving animals antibiotics helps ensure they'll get nice and fat before they're killed.
Tellingly, there is no system that forces farmers to be selective with how they use antibiotics. if you or I needed antibiotics, we'd have to go to a doctor and get a prescription. The doctor would instruct us how much to take per dose and for how long. Not so for the chickens factories farm owners.
but if you owned a big chicken farm and you wanted to give your birds thirty thousand (30,000) pounds of antibiotics, there would be no need to go to a veterinarian for a prescription. The FDA recently suggested farmers do so, but ultimately that decision is "voluntary." You could go to a feed store and buy however much antibiotics for chickens you want. it is insane that drugs we regulate so closely in human consumption are essentially unregulated when it come to the animals we eat.
Antibiotics are not the only drugs you are unwittingly eating either. Did you know that chickens are fed Prozac? That is right, a study of commercial chicken meat by John Hopkins University found that many of the birds had been given Prozac, in addition to painkillers, antibiotics, and allergy medication. Why Prozac? because without an antidepressant, they might die from stress. Over crowing chicken farms are normal. That is how terrible the conditions they live in are.
It's crazy that so many people now still go out of their way to make sure they doesn't abuse antibiotics or needlessly take drugs like Prozac, but then unwittingly ingest those very same drug Prozac every day, each time via the meat they eat. It might not be pleasant to think about, but you have to accept that every time your kid has a piece of steak or bite of chicken, they are likely consuming antibiotics, unintentionally.
The danger is that, over time, antibiotics won't be as effective on you or your child as they might be on someone who doesn't eat animal meat.
Your strep throat might take longer to go away. An infection might take longer time to heal. When you really need antibiotics to work, like when a superbug develops, a resistance could lead to death.
That might sound dramatic, but remember: You're not just what you eat. You're what you eat eats too. The chicken you're eating ate antibiotics and drugs too. and as long as you're eating the meat from animals that are fed antibiotics every day, you're going to be increasing the chances that you've built up a resistance to those drugs. Drugs that could very well one day mean the difference between bad sickness and good health. Or life and death.
WHILE WE ARE ON THE SUBJECT OF YOUNG PEOPLE's health, I want to touch on the connection between antibiotics and eating animals meat. If you're a parent, you're probably aware that over the last decade (2006 to 2016) or so doctors have become very concerned about the dangers posed by overexposure to antibiotics.
Back in the day, antibiotics were like aspirin -- doctors would prescribe them for almost anything.
Your child has an ear infection? Give him/her an antibiotic.
Your kid has a sinus infection? Let's try an antibiotic.
Today, those attitudes have changed dramatically. We know the more antibiotics someone takes, the more resistance they'll build up to them, so that when you really need antibiotics to kick in, they might not work.
There is growing fear that antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" will be one of the biggest crises humanity faces going forward. One new study even says superbugs could kill three hundred million (300 000 000) people by 2050 unless we slow down our intake of antibiotics and learn to use them more wisely. MRSA, which is an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, already kills ninety thousand (90,000) Americans every year, more than we lost to AIDS. [Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body. It's tougher to treat than most strains of staphylococcus aureus -- or staph -- because it's resistant to some commonly used antibiotics. The symptoms of MRSA depend on where you're infected.]
Yet even as doctors become more selective with how they prescribe antibiotics, as a society we're not doing enough to address the biggest antibiotic consumers out there. And it is not kids with sore throats or adults with sinus infections.
It's factory farm animals.
The animals meat we humans eat are themselves consuming close to thirty million (30,000,000) pounds of antibiotics every year.
That takes place for a couple of reasons:
The first is that many factory farmers feed their animals proactively to keep them "healthy", so-called. A farmer with thirty thousand (30,000) chickens can't check each bird to see if it is getting sick. Using carpet-bombing method; Instead he just feeds all those birds antibiotics every day figuring that the sick ones will get the antibiotics they need.
Factory farmers also like antibiotics because they make animals gain weight faster. the more the animals weigh when they're slaughtered , the more the factory farms get paid. Plus, Americans do not like lean meat. we like our meat fatty, or "marbled," as it is called in the meat industry. Giving animals antibiotics helps ensure they'll get nice and fat before they're killed.
Tellingly, there is no system that forces farmers to be selective with how they use antibiotics. if you or I needed antibiotics, we'd have to go to a doctor and get a prescription. The doctor would instruct us how much to take per dose and for how long. Not so for the chickens factories farm owners.
but if you owned a big chicken farm and you wanted to give your birds thirty thousand (30,000) pounds of antibiotics, there would be no need to go to a veterinarian for a prescription. The FDA recently suggested farmers do so, but ultimately that decision is "voluntary." You could go to a feed store and buy however much antibiotics for chickens you want. it is insane that drugs we regulate so closely in human consumption are essentially unregulated when it come to the animals we eat.
Antibiotics are not the only drugs you are unwittingly eating either. Did you know that chickens are fed Prozac? That is right, a study of commercial chicken meat by John Hopkins University found that many of the birds had been given Prozac, in addition to painkillers, antibiotics, and allergy medication. Why Prozac? because without an antidepressant, they might die from stress. Over crowing chicken farms are normal. That is how terrible the conditions they live in are.
It's crazy that so many people now still go out of their way to make sure they doesn't abuse antibiotics or needlessly take drugs like Prozac, but then unwittingly ingest those very same drug Prozac every day, each time via the meat they eat. It might not be pleasant to think about, but you have to accept that every time your kid has a piece of steak or bite of chicken, they are likely consuming antibiotics, unintentionally.
The danger is that, over time, antibiotics won't be as effective on you or your child as they might be on someone who doesn't eat animal meat.
Your strep throat might take longer to go away. An infection might take longer time to heal. When you really need antibiotics to work, like when a superbug develops, a resistance could lead to death.
That might sound dramatic, but remember: You're not just what you eat. You're what you eat eats too. The chicken you're eating ate antibiotics and drugs too. and as long as you're eating the meat from animals that are fed antibiotics every day, you're going to be increasing the chances that you've built up a resistance to those drugs. Drugs that could very well one day mean the difference between bad sickness and good health. Or life and death.
