These days, it is commonplace to receive a prescription for an antibiotic when you are sick. After all, antibiotics are a modern miracle, right? It will kill the germs that made you sick and make you well—or that is what most people believe.
However, antibiotics could be creating more problems than we realize. For one, viruses are changing because of the widespread use of antibiotics. Renowned scientist and physicist Stephen Hawking has warned against antibiotic-resistant viruses, that could have the potential to wipe out mass groups of people. Hawking listed this as a possible cause for the end of the world as we know it, along with nuclear war, artificial intelligence, and global warming.
Antibiotics also wreck havoc with the body’s natural probiotics, the friendly bacteria that lives in the gut. This increases the opportunity for yeast infections and other side affects of antibiotics, such as diarrhea. The importance of maintaining a healthy gut has become more evident as some call it “the second brain.” Our gut affects how well we digest and absorb nutrients from our food, and has an impact on our weight and even our mood!
Another problem with commonplace antibiotic use, is that it frequently suppresses infection, leaving pockets of it for the body to deal with at a later time. This can be seen, for example, in children’s repeated ear infections. Instead of supporting the body to remove the infection and heal itself, the infection is pushed deeper into the body to resurface again and again.
So if antibiotics are not always the answer, what can we do? Nutrition and exercise play huge roles in preventing disease with a strong, healthy body. Chiropractic care also puts the body’s nervous system back into alignment for good brain-body communication of health.
When we do get sick, it is important to treat more than symptoms, but to get to the root cause of the disease. That may be a subluxation to be assisted with chiropractic, a nutritional imbalance to be filled with high quality supplementation, a life-style change of rest and exercise—or more likely, a combination of those!
To find out more about alternatives to traditional medicine practices, call Dopps Chiropractic NE to schedule an appointment.