How safe will you be this winter?

What's the problem with antibiotics?

Question: Why would your doctor give you a medicine for an illness you don’t have?
Answer: It may be because the doctor doesn’t know if you have that illness or not.

Picture this scene – You have a terrible cold. In fact, you think it might be flu, you feel so bad. You stagger to the doctor’s and they tell you that if it’s a viral infection (and 95% of colds and flu infections are) – there’s nothing they can do except urge you to return to bed and wait it out.

If it’s a bacterial infection, however, they can give you an antibiotic. It will take 36 hours to run tests to find out whether it’s bacterial and if so which antibiotic is most appropriate for treating it. You fear that in 36 hours you may well be dead! OK, maybe this infection has skewed your perception a little, but you feel terrible and just want something NOW!

The doctor gives you the antibiotic, ‘just in case’ the infection is bacterial. Where’s the harm?

Well several years down the line, after a few run-ins with colds and/or flu, you may need an antibiotic for a terrible tooth abscess, or some nasty bacterial infection you’ve picked up on holiday. But, the drugs don’t work. The bugs have become resistant to the antibiotics, needlessly taken for non-bacterial infections.

Sense and Sensibility (let's welcome them)

Recently, the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance called for patients to be tested prior to being handed an antibiotic prescription. As antibiotics only work for bacterial infections not viral infections, ensuring that a patient actually has a bacterial infection before prescribing an antibiotic seems reasonable – common sense, in fact.

The medical profession has gradually been sensitised to the issue by the fact that increasing numbers of infections are becoming resistant to all the antibiotics with which they could previously be treated. We are at risk of seeing treatable infections becoming as untreatable as they were before the discovery of antibiotics: a step backwards in time for humans and a step forwards for bacteria…

“To avoid the tragedy of 10 million people dying every year by 2050, the world needs rapid diagnostics to improve our use of antibiotics.” –Lord Jim O’Neill, Chairman of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance

So the tendency for antibiotic prescriptions to be handed out without due cause has to be tackled. A few weeks ago a suggestion that doctors should be fined for over-prescribing antibiotics was mooted. This, however, fails to take into account that most doctors would probably be quite happy to prescribe something else instead. But they have nothing – nothing except the patient drooping forlornly before them, pleading in a distressed croak through their sodden hanky for something to make them feel better.

Pride and Prejudice (let's avoid them)

An answer already exists, and for many it is already in use. Herbal medicine is often appropriate as a back-up to allopathic or conventional medicine, as well as being perfect for situations where prescribed medication is not suitable; and growing numbers of people avail themselves of these remedies.

Looking to the plant world for answers may seem to some like a retrograde movement, but ‘back to the future’ would be a more appropriate description as the increasing volume of research on many medicinal herbs has dramatically improved the scientific basis of our knowledge.

This is not the time to prevaricate and put forward out-dated ideas about ‘old wives’ tales’, but to smarten up and look at what research is saying.

The worry over antibiotics is a perfect case in point, as the herbal remedy Echinacea is proven to have both antibacterial and antiviral actions, and thus provides the ideal solution for the harassed doctor wanting to avoid needless antibiotic use.

In the UK, Echinacea has been licensed as a medicine since 1997 in tincture and tablet form, as it has been proven to work for colds and flu. This means that doctors can prescribe it with the same confidence of quality, safety and effectiveness.

Medicinal safety data on Echinacea

A very recently published review and assessment of Echinacea’s safety has revealed some extremely reassuring facts ^[1]. This rigorous review systematically looked at the following areas:

• Drug interactions
• Contraindications
• Adverse events
• Duration of use

Does Echinacea interact with drug medication?

No, was the heartening answer. No evidence of changes to the way that the body handles medication was found when Echinacea preparations were taken. Although the research was carried out on a number of different preparations available commercially, the A.Vogel preparation Echinaforce^® was mentioned specifically as not interfering with other medicines taken at the same time.

Does Echinacea cause unpleasant side effects?

Very rarely, is the comforting conclusion of the researchers. Most of the adverse effects documented were classified as mild to moderate, and many of them could not be proven to be due to Echinacea.

The most commonly experienced side effect is a mild allergic response involving a skin rash and possibly itching, which resolves when the remedy is stopped. Even this reaction, though, is ‘rather rare’ when all the available evidence is taken into account.

Can Echinacea be taken long-term?

Yes! The researchers looked at several long-term studies and concluded that ‘no data was found to support limiting the use of Echinacea.’ A recommendation that Echinacea be used long-term for the elderly as well as those suffering from COPD (chronic obstructive lung disease) and smokers (who are more vulnerable to chest infections) was cited. Two studies, one lasting 4 months and the other 6 months, involving continuous use of Echinacea, showed no adverse effects on the patients.

Taking remedies such as this when they are suitable for your condition means that should you need an antibiotic for a serious bacterial infection they are more likely to be available for you. Job done.