Antibiotics are widely used by the medical establishment and even by animal farmers. In fact, these days more antibiotics are given to animals that are consumed than are distributed to people, which means that a lot of people are getting these drugs second-hand. And many people still believe that antibiotics are helpful; we've all heard stories of mothers and patients coming close to demanding them. But did you know that antibiotics can cause a great deal of long-term harm in the body? Let me explain...
Antibiotics kill bacteria in the body; it's commonly known and it's actually the reason they're taken. But what isn't widely known is that the body has healthy bacteria, called probiotics, lining our intestinal tract. These healthy bacteria, which should be in abundance in our guts, dine on unhealthy bacteria and yeasts in our bodies, serving to keep these problems in check for us.
Actually, these healthy bacteria form the basis of our immune system -- or they did until we took antibiotics because antibiotics regularly kill our healthy bacteria. And that can set you up for numerous problems down the road -- including some very serious problems.
A problem called candida, or candida overgrowth, is a common fungal problem that develops after using antibiotics without replenishing your healthy bacteria with probiotics. Now, that may sound like a small problem because you may not have heard of it, and therefore you may think it doesn't apply to you. But not when you understand two things.
First, an estimated 90 percent of the population has a problem with candida overgrowth, although most don't know it. And second, candida overgrowth can be the root cause of literally hundreds of different problems in the body.
The problems can be many for a couple of reasons. One, candida overgrowth is a fungus that can grow and nest in any number of areas in the body and it will generally cause problems wherever it is. And two, candida is a living breathing organism that, similar to how humans release carbon dioxide as a by-product of respiration, releases about 80 different chemicals as a by-product of its existence. All of those chemicals are toxic and one of them is chemically similar to formaldehyde. And every time you eat sugar or refined carbohydrates, you're feeding the overgrowth its favorite foods and giving it the fuel it needs to keep growing.
The symptoms of candida overgrowth can vary widely from person to person, but I'll give you a short list. Dandruff, eczema, headaches, allergies, rashes, acne, aches, pain, PMS, brain fog, sore muscles, fibromyalgia, anger, depression, and many, many, more can all be symptoms of this overgrowth. Remember, that's the short list. And depending on your diet, you may not see any symptoms until years after you've killed off your healthy bacteria.
It's also fascinating that an oncologist in Rome, Dr. Tullio Simoncini, says that cancer is a fungus and actually an advanced form of candida overgrowth. You can read more in his book, Cancer is a Fungus, in which he scientifically explains that the cause of cancer "is always and only candida." Because Dr. Simoncini is having a great deal of success eliminating cancer in the body very quickly, I believe he's one to listen to.
In any case, if you take antibiotics it's incredibly important to replenish your healthy bacteria liberally afterward, while keeping sugar and refined carbohydrates at a bare minimum until these bacteria are replaced. These healthy bacteria were given to us as infants through breast milk for a reason, and they can also be consumed and replenished through supplements, quality yogurts, organic miso, and unpasteurized sauerkraut. Most people would do well to consume these foods regularly.
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Kim Evans is the author of Cleaning Up! and creator of The Cleaning Up! Cleanse, a powerful body cleanse that addresses deep levels of toxicity in the body and common problems, including candida overgrowth. Learn more at www.cleaningupcleanse.com
Here is the iTunes url for the podcast:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=156191063
and here is the pusware page you can get it from, though it seem not to be there yet...
http://www.pusware.com/podcasts.html
I find that Mark gives a good well balanced breakdown of facts and research clothed in the kind of venom that Kim Evans's twaddle deserves.
careful of who you trust...
Dr. Tullio Simoncini is not so smart as you think...
Alternate perspective on this issue of cancer and antibiotics
Anyone, please, refute the claims in these links. I dare you. If you can I'll say sorry but I know you can't.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=463 (HuffPost is a great place to read up on politics and social issues but not science issues, especially medicine.)
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2008/08/a_fungus_among_us_in_oncology.php
Quote: 'Worse, he (Dr. Simoncini) proposes a treatment that, even if cancer were a fungus, is completely implausible and wouldn't work. Indeed, we don't treat fungal infections that way even when we are treating a diagnosed fungal infection.'
I would recommend eating yogurt during/after antibiotics and probiotics wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Candida albicans is a normal host flora found throught the digestive tract in humans. You are basing much of your claim on the concept of a subclinical systemic candidiasis. The types of candida yeast infections that occur in normal individuals are self-limiting, easily treatable, and easily diagnosed. While immuno-compromised individuals (such as those with CD4 counts below 200...as in AIDS, or those on immuno-suppressive chemotherapy) can suffer from a systemic candidiasis with symptoms that range from mild to severe, such infections require significant immune suppression. Also, they quickly become life threatening if untreated, so someone having systemic candidiasis for years without progressing and having no sign of thrush or candiasis of the genitalia seeems inpluasable. Wouldn't someone who is unable to fight an infection in their blood (higher [antibody]) also have trouble fighting the same infection in the mucosal membranes (lower [antibody]) of the mouth , esophagus, intestinal tract, and the genitals? How can such a subclinical infection exist only in the blood?
You made the caveat their your advice shouldn't be taken in lieu of real medicine, but your advice is specifically that real medicine is dangerous and doesn't have the answers that you do. I'm appalled that you don't see the duplicity involved here.
As a final point, you claim in your biography that doctors asked you what you were doing so they could pass on the advice. I am frankly appalled that these doctors didn't see fit to communicate any of this information to other doctors, and to the medical establishment. Are these people actual MDs from accredited schools who still have their licenses?
Please cite them by name. We can argue abstracts all day, but it's time for you to back up your fantastic claims with specific, named sources. Names and business numbers of the accredited, practicing doctors who recommend your method to their patients. After you've provided those, could you then explain why they aren't listed anywhere in your bio? Standard practice in medicine is to provide documentation and endorsements for your claims.
Standard practice in internet scams is to provide anonymous testimonials and unverifiable promises.
You must also know that you've done nothing of the sort. Your book was probably reviewed by an editor looking for something that would be commercially successful and a lawyer making sure you didn't say anything that could get the publisher sued. The fact that you haven't survived the peer review process means that either you haven't attempted it or that you've been rejected. In the former case, what on earth are you doing criticizing the establishment for an idea you've never attempted to explain to them? In the latter case, you were probably rejected for a good reason, in which case you're so supremely confident that you know more than the scientific community that you're willing to bet other people's lives on it.
The evidence you've supplied is a pathetically low standard of proof on which to bet someone's life. I have to ask: completely honestly, if you suddenly discovered you had melanoma, would you actually trust your baking soda remedy to save your life over the sum of human medical knowledge? If so, then my original post was right and you're practicing faith - not science. If not...
That said, your claims do not add up. Medical science has its problems, but do you honestly think nobody in that huge and incredibly competitive field would be interested in getting an edge over their colleagues by taking a look at your claims? You seem to offer what you know almost free of charge - why do you think doctors aren't swarming all over it? Perhaps you got lucky with a couple patients, either by stumbling onto a combination of ailment and treatment that actually works, or by simply having a surprisingly healthy patient, but the plain and simple fact is that if most problems could be healed with baking soda and a healthy diet, medical science would know by now.
Your only escape at this point is to postulate a conspiracy theory involving the single-minded and absolute collusion of pharmacy and medical science to prevent people from realizing that they can cure all their health issues with simple home remedies. If you make this postulation, of course, you sacrifice any credibility outside the tinfoil hat
I'm posting this for the protection of people reading this site: there's a better than even chance that this advice will hurt a lot more than it helps, despite the adamant replies of an author who wants to save face but who has yet to back up her claims. She's restating an opinion over and over using stories to which she alone is privy.
Before anyone starts chugging baking soda remember to be careful. A little may not hurt but the reaction with HCl produces gas and if you overdo it you can distend your stomach suddenly and hurt yourself. A ruptured stomach is often fatal:
http://journals.lww.com/jcge/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=1986&issue=08000&article=00015&type=abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2555919
There are many more sources - let me know if anyone wants more.
One's health and well-being are, ultimately, in one's own hands, and articles and writers like this blogger are a welcome addition to HuffPo...
I am curious as to where you got this?
For a cursory glance...
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2006/hmprobiotics.htm
And for more in depth reading, I'd recommend The Consumer's Guide to Probiotics by SK Dash.
And try your own research as well... Do a Google search with any disease name and probiotics. Most will come up with studies pointing to the role of these healthy bacteria in prevention or elimination.
But it's also important to remember that by their very nature studies are limited in scope. However, when you understand from a more global perspective how the body works and how disease comes into being (largely by filth, bacteria, fungus and other problems in the body that these bacteria eat), the smaller pictures of individual diseases all make a lot of sense...
And this article is only the tip of the iceberg. We won't even discuss the other medications that have been found to cause kidney and/or liver damage, depression or suicide, on top of the potential for cancer that tthis article illuminates
That said, only 50% of what we do is based on evidence based medicine.
There are plenty of videos on the net if you care to watch Dr. Simoncini pour an alkaline solution of baking soda and water as close to a tumor as possible, and have the tumor disappear, often in a matter of days. While I grant that it is possible that Dr. Simoncini could be wrong about the cause of the tumor (I don't believe he is, but for arguments sake, I'll allow that possibility), I find it hard to believe that after graduating from oncology school he doesn't know what a tumor looks like. Or that the videos showing the tumors being eliminated were somehow not eliminated or not tumors to begin with. So, even if the cause was incorrect, the fact that these tumors are being quickly eliminated seems pretty straight forward.
http://www.TheCommentDepot.com
Here is what the OP says.
All cancer is Fungus. Antibiotics cause fungus growth. Therefore Antibiotics cause cancer.
Wow, it, so simple. No complex biology to understand. No years of anatomy, biochemistry, genetics and medicine to study. Cancer is simple. It's just a fungus. Problem solved.
Or it would be if it were remotely true rather than simplistic wishful thinking. HL Mencken wrote "Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers.” This post is a perfect example. Cancer is complex, hard to understand and hard to treat. Do you **really** think that the solution to cancer is that "it is always and only candida" and that somehow thousands and thousands of medical researchers and oncologists just failed to notice that fact? That forensic pathologists some how can't tell the difference between malignant human cells and a fungus?
This post is a stunning example of playground medicine, that is, it is the kind of medical theory kids in a playground playing with mud pies would invent, using their imaginations, free of the restrictions that a greater knowledge of reality would impose, where they can just make stuff up and pretend that it's true. That is great fun for kids, but irresponsible when adults do it and pass it off as fact.
And as far, as thousands of people being wrong. Well, unfortunately, it's not the first time it's happened. It wasn't too far back that the guy who thought doctors should wash their hands before delivering babies was ousted by the medical community. Or long before that that the populous and astronomers thought the earth was flat. If we really want to understand something that we're obviously struggling with, sometimes we need to look outside what we already "know."
As a note, and too clarify... Do I think the answer to cancer is simply taking as many probiotics as you can? No. I believe most people's bodies are in a state that it's no longer that simple. But do I find it dangerous that most of the population takes antibiotics without a clue to replenish their healthy bacteria? Yes. And in my link above, you'll see that Merck agrees that antibiotics kill these healthy bacteria and can lead to candida problems. So while Merck agrees that antibiotics lead to candida problems, and admits significant problems, and the National Cancer Institute has at least found a connection between antibiotics and cancer - http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/antibiotics - maybe it's time we look a bit deeper.