Important Side Effects of Antibiotics for Kid

➡ The video host shares several updates, including a cooking event with a celebrity chef, free yoga classes, an upcoming workshop on Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and a conference in November. They also discuss a workshop on COVID and a health program limited to 25 people. The main topic is the overuse of antibiotics, especially in children, which is leading to antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Tuesday edition of Video Clips. I have so much stuff going on, so many things to share with you. I’m going to go through the list real quick and then you email me if you want some more information about this stuff. Okay, first of all, this Friday, Del Shrove, celebrity chef, multi-million copies of cookbooks sold. New York Times best-selling cookbook out there. It’s going to be here at Wellness Forum to present wine and dine. Four-course meal, I think maybe four or five courses. You bring whatever you want to drink. We serve this delicious meal.

We do the dishes, give you the recipes. Pretty great deal, right? And you get to have fun with Del. Friday night, seven o’clock. Other thing going on this week and actually through October, take your first yoga class at our studio before October 31st, get two months of free yoga. We know that people who come to our classes often like them and stay, so we feel real confident in making that offer to you. Don’t forget the upcoming Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS workshop coming up, all right? And then we have our conferences coming up, November 11th through 13th.

You can get a virtual ticket, but if you buy a ticket to come here live and in person, you get a free pass to my informed on COVID workshop, which is coming up right after the first of the year. So there’s tons of research to do for this. You cannot believe how much is out there. Misunderstood condition, all that kind of stuff, right? So, and then of course the Optimal Health and Life with Pam, part one and part two. Both limited to 25 people. I only do them once a year. Part two is new, by the way.

We’re going to talk about things like how to increase your metabolism and your energy levels, immune function, cognitive health and aging, digestion, dietary supplements, healthy skin, hair and nails, mental and psychological health, and forming and maintaining great habits. So all these things available, lots and lots going on. Some people want to do all of them. We can always put together packages for you too. All right, so the topic today is antibiotics, and we really need to talk about it because we’re facing a crisis with antibiotics. I’ll tell you what that is. Now, let’s just start at the beginning.

The development of antibiotics for the treatment of severe and life-threatening bacterial infections is one of the most important achievements in medicine. You could almost have your faith restored in medicine just by this alone, right? But like so many medical practices today, they are prescribed too frequently. And I’ll get to the consequences in a minute here, but antibiotics are some of the most commonly prescribed drugs for children. Over two-thirds of kids have been given at least one round of antibiotics before the age of two, and over half of all kids take at least one round of antibiotics every year, all through childhood.

This is pretty remarkable when you think about it. It needs to stop for several reasons. First of all, the incidence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections is starting to increase. We’re seeing C. diff in community populations used to just get that in the hospital, right? And also, there are significant side effects associated with taking antibiotics that should be considered before they’re prescribed. A recent literature review concerning antibiotic use and side effects for kids included 160 studies that investigated 21 outcomes. Taking antibiotics increased the risk of atopic dermatitis, allergic symptoms, food allergies, asthma, wheezing, increased weight gain, overweight, obesity, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, psoriasis, autism spectrum disorders, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

The highest increase in risk was shown to be for asthma, almost double in children who had taken antibiotics, particularly during the first year of life. Now, the researchers clearly stated that cause-and-effect relationships could not be established as a result of this particular review. But the mechanism of action that explains how antibiotics can lead to many of these conditions is really well understood. For example, antibiotics damage the microbiome, and negative changes in the microbiome have been clearly linked to allergies and asthma, juvenile arthritis, autism, and psoriasis. According to co-author Petra Zimmerman, M.D., the researchers were really surprised to find so many published studies that had examined the issue, and she pointed out that, in spite of that, so little attention is paid to these types of side effects when doctors are making clinical decisions for patients, and they really should consider them more carefully.

So, one of the most common conditions for which antibiotics are prescribed is ear infections. These often resolve without intervention. In one study, parents of children who visited an emergency room because their child had an ear infection were randomized to receive either an antibiotic prescription to be filled right away, or a prescription with instructions to fill it only if the child didn’t improve in 48 hours. Many prescriptions were not filled at all, and there was no difference in the outcomes. Another study showed that antibiotics were no more effective than placebo for ear infections. And many studies show that the leading cause of ear infections in children is consumption of cow’s milk, a habit that can pretty easily be changed.

There are other areas in which antibiotics are overprescribed or inappropriately prescribed as well. Antibiotics, of course, have almost no effect on viral infections, but they’re often used to treat them. And they’re sometimes prescribed almost continually for recurring infections, such as like sinus, ear, bladder infections, instead of addressing underlying causes. But the bottom line is we need really immediate changes in prescribing habits with antibiotics. Again, to reiterate something I said before, antibiotic resistant infections are becoming more common, and there’s really nothing in the pipeline to replace them if these drugs reach a point where they just don’t work at all anymore.

Better diet and lifestyle habits and addressing the cause of conditions for which the drugs are prescribed is really the best solution. All right, that’s all for now. As usual, pass this on to anybody who you think might enjoy watching it. If any of the stuff I mentioned at the beginning of this video is interesting to me, or to you rather, just send me an email at pampopper at msn.com, and I’ll be back to you tomorrow with more news.
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