By Trevor Shewfelt, Pharmacist at the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy
We now have this and most other articles published in the Parkland Shopper on our Website. Please visit us at www.dcp.ca
The information in this article is intended as a helpful guide only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice. If you have any questions about your medications and what is right for you see your doctor, pharmacist or other health care professional.
In Ontario they have a universal flu vaccination program. Since 2000, anyone 6 months of age and older can get a flu shot free of charge. This means the province of Ontario spends $26.5 million dollars a year on flu shots. The good new is a study published by Dr. Jeffrey Kwong of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto says the number of flu deaths and hospitalizations are down since the program started. The problem with the study is that the number of flu deaths and hospitalizations do go up and down periodically. But it is more positive news that flu shots help keep people healthy.
What is the flu? The flu (or influenza) is a viral illness spread from person to person by coughing or through contact with nasal fluids. Symptoms may include fever, headache, cough, muscle aches, runny nose, sore throat and exhaustion. The symptoms of the flu are usually more severe that a cold. Symptoms can be similar to other viral illnesses. However, onset of the flu is usually more sudden. Flu symptoms usually last from 7 to 10 days, but the cough and weakness can continue for 6 weeks. Influenza arrives in Manitoba every year in late fall or early winter.
“Can I get the flu from the flu shot?” No. The flu vaccine is made from dead virus parts. It cannot give you the flu. Unfortunately, some people can get sick, or can even get the flu immediately after the flu shot. That is because the flu shot doesn’t start working until 2 weeks after the shot. So you can catch the flu and get symptoms during that two week period. Also, people who seem to have gotten the flu within a day or two of the shot probably had the flu virus in them already at the time of the shot, and would have gotten sick anyway. Finally, the flu shot only protects against some very specific influenza virus. It doesn’t protect against the common cold virus or bacterial illnesses. The flu vaccine is effective in about 70% of healthy adults and children. In nursing homes, the flu vaccine stops 50%-60% of flu related hospitalizations, and 85% of flu related deaths. As said before immunity to the flu usually starts about 2 weeks after the shot and lasts less than 1 year. The elderly, unfortunately, can have their immunity fall off in as little as 4 months.
“Can the flu shot give me a bad reaction?” Rarely. The flu shot is made in chicken eggs. So people with serious egg allergies should not get the flu shot. You can get a local reaction at the injection site that turns red and is sore for up to two days. You may also get fever, headache, or muscle pain. If these symptoms get very bad or last for a long time, seek medical attention.
How well does the flu shot work? Well, that is difficult to say. The influenza virus mutates every year or so. The vaccine only protects against what the virus was like last year. If the virus only changed a little, the flu shot works well. If the virus changed a lot, the flu shot doesn’t work as well.
Who is at risk for influenza causing serious complications and should receive the vaccine?
· Residents of nursing homes and other chronic care facilities
· Anyone with chronic heart or lung disease
· Anyone with cancer, anemia, or a weakened immune system due to disease or medication
· Persons with other chronic conditions such as diabetes, kidney disease, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, alcoholism and multiple sclerosis may also benefit
· Anyone 65 years or older
· Children aged 6 months to 23 months
· Children and teenagers on long term aspirin therapy
· People living with "at risk" individuals who are likely to have a poor response to vaccine, such as frail elderly and those with a weakened immune system due to disease or medication
· Health care workers and other personnel in settings where care is provided for those at high risk
Who should not get the flu vaccine?
· Infants younger than six months of age
· Anyone who has a severe allergy to egg protein, formaldehyde or thiomerosal
· Anyone who has a serious acute illness, with or without fever, on the day they are to be immunized. A mild illness, with or without a low fever, is not a reason to avoid immunization.
· Persons known to have developed Guillain-Barre syndrome within six weeks of a previous influenza vaccination.
As always if you have any questions or concerns about these or other products, ask your pharmacist.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
EAR WAX
By Trevor Shewfelt, Pharmacist at the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy
We now have this and most other articles published in the Parkland Shopper on our Website. Please visit us at www.dcp.ca
The information in this article is intended as a helpful guide only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice. If you have any questions about your medications and what is right for you see your doctor, pharmacist or other health care professional.
I periodically go deaf. It is usually only in one ear. Fortunately, there is nothing seriously wrong with me. I usually end up at the walk-in clinic. The doctor looks in my ear and usually says, “It is right full of wax.” Then a nurse takes some warm water in a syringe and clears it out. Voila! I can hear again. So I did some reading about ear wax. Here is what I found.
The skin lining the outer two thirds of the external auditory canal (EAC) has little hairs on it. The EAC also has two types of glands, ceruminous and sebaceous. Secretions from these glands mixed with sloughed off dead skin is ear wax, or more properly called cerumen. Cerumen (ear wax) helps to lubricate and protect the ear. It water-proofs the EAC and protects it from bacteria. Cerumen (ear wax) is normally produced in small amounts and moves out of the ear by the action of the little hairs we talked about earlier and by the motions produced in the EAC during talking and chewing. The ear is usually self cleaning. I am to discourage anyone from “Sticking anything smaller than their elbow” into them. Cotton swabs, match stick, pins, etc may just jam the wax in there real good and cause impaction.
What might too much wax in my ears do? It can: make it harder for a doctor to see my ear drum which they need to do to diagnose certain ear problems; I could get the wax impacted; my hearing could be impaired; or my ears could get infected. Why are my ears having problems getting the wax out? As we age the cerumen we produce gets drier and harder to move out, my EAC might be narrow or misshapen, my EAC might have too much hair in it, my hearing aids can cause problems, or I might have bony growths in my EAC.
What shoud you do if you think your ear is plugged with wax? See your doctor. Syringing with body temperature water works great in many cases. You should NOT try to syringe your own ears at home. If you do, more than likely one of the following will occur: pain, dizziness, ear infection, or perforated ear drum. There are things you can try at home first to soften the wax before syringing.
The most gentle treatments for ear warx are softening agents. These include olive oil, light mineral oil, 3% hydrogen peroxide mixed half and half with water, glycerin, and commercially available products like Cerumol (contains Chlorbutol 5%), and Murine Ear Drops (contains Carbamide peroxide 6.5%). You put these products in the ear 4-6 drops at a time, twice a day for 3-7 days. They are generally not irritating, but their effects take a few days to be noticed. The feeling of hearing loss and fullness may initially get worse as the ear wax swells. The wax may flow out naturally, but if it doesn’t, see your doctor in 3-7 days to get it syringed.
The commercially available product Cerumenex (contains triethanolamine poly peptide) works much faster than the softening agents, but don’t use it unless you are immediately going to have your ear syringed. If Cerumenex says in your ear longer 10-15 minutes it can cause irritation and allergic reactions.
The best ear wax disintegrator apparently is docusate sodium. This surprised me because there is no commercially available docusate sodium ear drop. What happened is some doctors tried the docusate sodium liquid stool softener for children in ears to soften wax. Apparently it works better than Cerumenex. The problem with the stool softener liquid is it has red dye and other stuff I don’t want in my ear. So I’m going to try to compound a docusate sodium ear drop, for the next time I go deaf. I’ll let you know how it goes.
As always if you have any questions or concerns about these or other products, ask your pharmacist.
We now have this and most other articles published in the Parkland Shopper on our Website. Please visit us at www.dcp.ca
The information in this article is intended as a helpful guide only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice. If you have any questions about your medications and what is right for you see your doctor, pharmacist or other health care professional.
I periodically go deaf. It is usually only in one ear. Fortunately, there is nothing seriously wrong with me. I usually end up at the walk-in clinic. The doctor looks in my ear and usually says, “It is right full of wax.” Then a nurse takes some warm water in a syringe and clears it out. Voila! I can hear again. So I did some reading about ear wax. Here is what I found.
The skin lining the outer two thirds of the external auditory canal (EAC) has little hairs on it. The EAC also has two types of glands, ceruminous and sebaceous. Secretions from these glands mixed with sloughed off dead skin is ear wax, or more properly called cerumen. Cerumen (ear wax) helps to lubricate and protect the ear. It water-proofs the EAC and protects it from bacteria. Cerumen (ear wax) is normally produced in small amounts and moves out of the ear by the action of the little hairs we talked about earlier and by the motions produced in the EAC during talking and chewing. The ear is usually self cleaning. I am to discourage anyone from “Sticking anything smaller than their elbow” into them. Cotton swabs, match stick, pins, etc may just jam the wax in there real good and cause impaction.
What might too much wax in my ears do? It can: make it harder for a doctor to see my ear drum which they need to do to diagnose certain ear problems; I could get the wax impacted; my hearing could be impaired; or my ears could get infected. Why are my ears having problems getting the wax out? As we age the cerumen we produce gets drier and harder to move out, my EAC might be narrow or misshapen, my EAC might have too much hair in it, my hearing aids can cause problems, or I might have bony growths in my EAC.
What shoud you do if you think your ear is plugged with wax? See your doctor. Syringing with body temperature water works great in many cases. You should NOT try to syringe your own ears at home. If you do, more than likely one of the following will occur: pain, dizziness, ear infection, or perforated ear drum. There are things you can try at home first to soften the wax before syringing.
The most gentle treatments for ear warx are softening agents. These include olive oil, light mineral oil, 3% hydrogen peroxide mixed half and half with water, glycerin, and commercially available products like Cerumol (contains Chlorbutol 5%), and Murine Ear Drops (contains Carbamide peroxide 6.5%). You put these products in the ear 4-6 drops at a time, twice a day for 3-7 days. They are generally not irritating, but their effects take a few days to be noticed. The feeling of hearing loss and fullness may initially get worse as the ear wax swells. The wax may flow out naturally, but if it doesn’t, see your doctor in 3-7 days to get it syringed.
The commercially available product Cerumenex (contains triethanolamine poly peptide) works much faster than the softening agents, but don’t use it unless you are immediately going to have your ear syringed. If Cerumenex says in your ear longer 10-15 minutes it can cause irritation and allergic reactions.
The best ear wax disintegrator apparently is docusate sodium. This surprised me because there is no commercially available docusate sodium ear drop. What happened is some doctors tried the docusate sodium liquid stool softener for children in ears to soften wax. Apparently it works better than Cerumenex. The problem with the stool softener liquid is it has red dye and other stuff I don’t want in my ear. So I’m going to try to compound a docusate sodium ear drop, for the next time I go deaf. I’ll let you know how it goes.
As always if you have any questions or concerns about these or other products, ask your pharmacist.
Friday, October 10, 2008
ARTIFICIAL SWEETNERS
By Trevor Shewfelt, Pharmacist at the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy
We now have this and most other articles published in the Parkland Shopper on our Website. Please visit www.dcp.ca
The information in this article is intended as a helpful guide only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice. If you have any questions about your medications and what is right for you see your doctor, pharmacist or other health professional.
“Is it true that aspartame causes Multiple Sclerosis?” “Isn’t aspartame a poison?” “Isn’t it true that airline pilots aren’t allowed to take aspartame before flying?” These are still common questions in our pharmacy. Are artificial sweetners evil? No, I don’t believe so. Is it possible that some people don’t react well to them? Absolutely. Some people get headaches, flushing, upset stomach, etc. when they use artifical sweetners. So we tell them not to use them. Should people without diabetes eat pounds of artifical sweetners every day? Probably not. However, are artifical sweetners a good tool for diabetics to use when they want something sweet, but don’t want their blood sugar to go up? Absolutely!
Diabetes educators now talk about CARB choices for diabetics when looking at their food. A person needs at least 9 CARB Choices per day and that should be spread over 3 meals. A female diabetic should aim for 3-4 CARB Choices per meal and a male diabetic should aim for 4-5 CARB Choices per meal. I scavenged the pharmacy staff fridge and found a no-name can of cola. In 355 mL it contains 42 g of carbohydrate, which is worth 3 CARB Choices. So if a female diabetic decided she wanted a can of cola, that would use up all her CARB Choices for one meal. Now if that same female diabetic craves 5-6 cans of cola per day, that would put her at 16 CARB Choices and that puts her way over budget for the whole day. So if she replaces regular cola with artificially sweetened cola she will be much better off.
The four common artificial sweetners are: aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet), saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low), acesulfame (Sunette), and sucralose (Splenda). They have been blamed for everything from cancer to seizures to Multiple Sclerosis to chronic fatigue. There is no good evidence that they cause any of these. We will talk about the top two saccharin and aspartame.
Saccharin has been around for more than a century. It is 300 times sweeter than sugar. This means if you needed 42 grams of sugar to sweeten our can of cola, you would only need 0.14 grams of saccharin to sweeten it. Since so little saccharin sweetens so much stuff it was used a lot in the two World Wars because sugar was scarce. In the 1970’s the Food and Drug Administration in the US started looking at saccharin safety. Initially it was found that huge doses of saccharin (way more per body weight than people would eat) caused bladder cancer in rats. Since then, the data has been reviewed and saccharin is now considered safe. The National Cancer Institute, the National Toxicology Program, the American Diabetes Association, American Dietetic Association, American Cancer Society, and American Medical Association all support the use of saccharin and say it is safe.
Aspartame has been available in Canada since 1981. It is about 200 times sweeter than sugar. So if you needed 42 grams of sugar to sweeten our can of cola, you would only need 0.21 grams of aspartame to sweeten it. As a side note, have you ever noticed that diet soft drinks foam or froth or bubble much more that regular sugared ones? That is because you need so much more sugar to sweeten it than aspartame, the sugared soft drinks are more viscous and thus foam less. Aspartame has been accused of causing everything from seizures to cancer to hair loss. None of these claims has ever been proven in a clinical trial. Many of the claims of damage I have heard about aspartame are because as aspartame is being broken down in the body, formaldehyde is produced. Formaldehyde is a poison, so aspartame must be a poison, right? Wrong. Many fruits and vegetables break down into small amounts of formaldehyde as well. This formaldehyde will break down into formic acid and then to water and carbon dioxide. Want further proof your body can handle small amounts of formaldehyde? That last hang over you had was due in part to formaldehyde. Ethyl alcohol changes in part into formaldehyde. Some of the pain of the hang over was due to too much formaldehyde in your body. But your body eventually metabolized it and the hang over went away. You get much more formaldehyde in your body from a hang over than from aspartame.
In general aspartame has been thoroughly tested by the Canadian and American authorities and found to be safe. There is one group that must avoid aspartame. This condition is called phenylketonuria or PKU, a disorder of amino acid metabolism. Accumulation of phenylalanine can lead to neurological, behavioral and dermatologic problems in this population. Since aspartame contains phenylalanine, patients with PKU should not use aspartame.
So I have already said I think artificial sweetners are a good option for diabetics. Should non-diabetics use them? In moderation, saccharine, aspartame, acesulfame potassium and sucralose appear to be safe. The FDA in the US and Health Canada have set acceptable daily limits of these sweetners and studies show that normal diets contain far less sweetners than these limits. So yes, in moderation, these sweetners are safe to use. Do I use them? Yes I do. One last word about moderation, though. Almost anything can be toxic if used too much. A condition called water toxicity can happen if you drink too much water. I bring this up because one of the clinic physicians was talking about a patient of theirs that drank 8-12 liters of diet soft drinks per day. This patient didn’t mention this diet related quirk to their physician for years. When the patient’s enormous diet soft drink consumption finally came out, the doctor could finally successfully cure the patient’s chronic diarrhea.
As always if you have any questions or concerns about these or other products, ask your pharmacist.
We now have this and most other articles published in the Parkland Shopper on our Website. Please visit www.dcp.ca
The information in this article is intended as a helpful guide only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice. If you have any questions about your medications and what is right for you see your doctor, pharmacist or other health professional.
“Is it true that aspartame causes Multiple Sclerosis?” “Isn’t aspartame a poison?” “Isn’t it true that airline pilots aren’t allowed to take aspartame before flying?” These are still common questions in our pharmacy. Are artificial sweetners evil? No, I don’t believe so. Is it possible that some people don’t react well to them? Absolutely. Some people get headaches, flushing, upset stomach, etc. when they use artifical sweetners. So we tell them not to use them. Should people without diabetes eat pounds of artifical sweetners every day? Probably not. However, are artifical sweetners a good tool for diabetics to use when they want something sweet, but don’t want their blood sugar to go up? Absolutely!
Diabetes educators now talk about CARB choices for diabetics when looking at their food. A person needs at least 9 CARB Choices per day and that should be spread over 3 meals. A female diabetic should aim for 3-4 CARB Choices per meal and a male diabetic should aim for 4-5 CARB Choices per meal. I scavenged the pharmacy staff fridge and found a no-name can of cola. In 355 mL it contains 42 g of carbohydrate, which is worth 3 CARB Choices. So if a female diabetic decided she wanted a can of cola, that would use up all her CARB Choices for one meal. Now if that same female diabetic craves 5-6 cans of cola per day, that would put her at 16 CARB Choices and that puts her way over budget for the whole day. So if she replaces regular cola with artificially sweetened cola she will be much better off.
The four common artificial sweetners are: aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet), saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low), acesulfame (Sunette), and sucralose (Splenda). They have been blamed for everything from cancer to seizures to Multiple Sclerosis to chronic fatigue. There is no good evidence that they cause any of these. We will talk about the top two saccharin and aspartame.
Saccharin has been around for more than a century. It is 300 times sweeter than sugar. This means if you needed 42 grams of sugar to sweeten our can of cola, you would only need 0.14 grams of saccharin to sweeten it. Since so little saccharin sweetens so much stuff it was used a lot in the two World Wars because sugar was scarce. In the 1970’s the Food and Drug Administration in the US started looking at saccharin safety. Initially it was found that huge doses of saccharin (way more per body weight than people would eat) caused bladder cancer in rats. Since then, the data has been reviewed and saccharin is now considered safe. The National Cancer Institute, the National Toxicology Program, the American Diabetes Association, American Dietetic Association, American Cancer Society, and American Medical Association all support the use of saccharin and say it is safe.
Aspartame has been available in Canada since 1981. It is about 200 times sweeter than sugar. So if you needed 42 grams of sugar to sweeten our can of cola, you would only need 0.21 grams of aspartame to sweeten it. As a side note, have you ever noticed that diet soft drinks foam or froth or bubble much more that regular sugared ones? That is because you need so much more sugar to sweeten it than aspartame, the sugared soft drinks are more viscous and thus foam less. Aspartame has been accused of causing everything from seizures to cancer to hair loss. None of these claims has ever been proven in a clinical trial. Many of the claims of damage I have heard about aspartame are because as aspartame is being broken down in the body, formaldehyde is produced. Formaldehyde is a poison, so aspartame must be a poison, right? Wrong. Many fruits and vegetables break down into small amounts of formaldehyde as well. This formaldehyde will break down into formic acid and then to water and carbon dioxide. Want further proof your body can handle small amounts of formaldehyde? That last hang over you had was due in part to formaldehyde. Ethyl alcohol changes in part into formaldehyde. Some of the pain of the hang over was due to too much formaldehyde in your body. But your body eventually metabolized it and the hang over went away. You get much more formaldehyde in your body from a hang over than from aspartame.
In general aspartame has been thoroughly tested by the Canadian and American authorities and found to be safe. There is one group that must avoid aspartame. This condition is called phenylketonuria or PKU, a disorder of amino acid metabolism. Accumulation of phenylalanine can lead to neurological, behavioral and dermatologic problems in this population. Since aspartame contains phenylalanine, patients with PKU should not use aspartame.
So I have already said I think artificial sweetners are a good option for diabetics. Should non-diabetics use them? In moderation, saccharine, aspartame, acesulfame potassium and sucralose appear to be safe. The FDA in the US and Health Canada have set acceptable daily limits of these sweetners and studies show that normal diets contain far less sweetners than these limits. So yes, in moderation, these sweetners are safe to use. Do I use them? Yes I do. One last word about moderation, though. Almost anything can be toxic if used too much. A condition called water toxicity can happen if you drink too much water. I bring this up because one of the clinic physicians was talking about a patient of theirs that drank 8-12 liters of diet soft drinks per day. This patient didn’t mention this diet related quirk to their physician for years. When the patient’s enormous diet soft drink consumption finally came out, the doctor could finally successfully cure the patient’s chronic diarrhea.
As always if you have any questions or concerns about these or other products, ask your pharmacist.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Finish Your Antibiotics
By Trevor Shewfelt, Pharmacist at the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy
We now have this and most other articles published in the Parkland Shopper on our Website. Please visit us at www.dcp.ca
The information in this article is intended as a helpful guide only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice. If you have any questions about your medications and what is right for you see your doctor, pharmacist or other health care professional.
One beautiful, warm summer Saturday morning I went for breakfast at CC’s Restaurant in the Boulevard Hotel. I was there to meet some friends and catch up. The conversation was good. The food was great. However, sometimes even on a Saturday morning I have to put the pharmacist hat back on. The conversation eventually turned to old antibiotics. “Why shouldn’t I keep those antibiotics I didn’t finish last winter?” I was asked. I wanted to say, “Antibiotic resistance and the end of the world.” Now that might be a small exageration, but not as much as you might think. Let’s go back to that Flemming dude and his messy lab.
Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. He was doing research on bacteria and was already known as a good researcher, but a messy lab technician. Coming back to his lab after a few days off, he found some cultures of his bacteria that he’d forgotten had been spoiled by mold. Instead of just throwing out all the culture plates, he noticed a zone around some of the mold was completely free of bacteria. The mold (later named Penicillium notatum) produced a substance (now called penicillin) that killed the bacteria. Penicillin was eventually isolated and made in large quantities. When it was given to people, certain infections were cured!
Penicillin was a miraculous discovery. Bacterial infections can kill people. Before antibiotics strept throat, sexually transmitted diseases and child birth often killed people. In fact bacterial infections remain still one of the only maladies that drugs can “cure”. Yes insulin treats diabetes, celebrex treats arthritis and Viagra treats erectile dysfunction, but the malady doesn’t go away. If you take away the insulin, the celebrex or the Viagra the diabetes, arthritis and erectile dysfunction and their symptoms come back. However, if I have strept throat and the doctor gives me a 10 day course of penicillin, I am cured. The bacteria are dead and that infection is over. Unlike insulin, which type 1 diabetics need to be on for life, I can take antibiotics for a short time and be cured.
As miraculous as antibiotics are, they aren’t perfect. Several decades after penicillin was discovered, people started talking about antibiotic resistance. You see mold can’t move. It can’t run away from other microbes competing for the same food. It has no claws or teeth to defend its territory. So it has been engaging in chemical warfare with bacteria and other microbes for a long time. Evolution says that if you throw a poisonous chemical at a bunch of bacteria some will die quickly and some will die slowly. The ones that die slowly are more likely to reproduce and pass that chemical resistance to their offspring. As bacteria reproduce quickly, resistance can develop quickly. So, in the wild, molds produce chemical warfare against bacteria, then bacteria get resistant to the molds’ chemical warfare, then the bacteria get resistant and on it goes. We humans threw a monkey wrench into the works by making tons of mold chemical warfare (penicillin) and wiping out the bacteria for a few decades. The bacteria have finally caught up, and now they are getting resistant to some antibiotics.
How is the best way to make bacteria resistant to antibiotics? First, insist you get an antibiotic from your doctor whether you have a bacterial infection or not. Then, only take 2 or 3 days worth of the antibiotics and “save the rest for next time”. This will kill off the most susceptible bacteria, but it will leave some. The ones that are left will have a natural immunity to the antibiotic. Those bacteria will reproduce and all their offspring will have a resistance to that antibiotic. If your immune system doesn’t finish off those bacteria with antibiotic resistance, they will start up the infection again. Now that original antibiotic won’t work anymore. You now have an antibiotic resistant infection!
So how do you avoid antibiotic resistance?
□ Wash your hands regularly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. It is the most effective way of preventing many types of infections.
□ Have your doctor vaccinate you and your children and keep vaccinations up to date.
□ Store, handle and prepare food safely. When preparing food, be sure to wash cutting boards and knives with detergent and water. Thoroughly wash all fruits and vegetables that will be eaten raw.
□ Don’t demand antibiotics from your doctor for a viral infection. Antibiotics don’t kill viruses. Putting antibiotics in your body when you don’t need them can lead to antibiotic resistance.
□ Do not share prescriptions with anyone else. Taking an inappropriate drug makes the resistance problem worse.
And finish your antibiotics! Do not stop taking a prescription part way through the course of treatment (unless you are having a serious adverse reaction) without first discussing it with your doctor. Even if you feel better, use the entire prescription as directed to make sure that all of the bacteria are destroyed. Dead bacteria don’t cause resistance.
As always if you have any questions or concerns about these products, ask your pharmacist.
We now have this and most other articles published in the Parkland Shopper on our Website. Please visit us at www.dcp.ca
The information in this article is intended as a helpful guide only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice. If you have any questions about your medications and what is right for you see your doctor, pharmacist or other health care professional.
One beautiful, warm summer Saturday morning I went for breakfast at CC’s Restaurant in the Boulevard Hotel. I was there to meet some friends and catch up. The conversation was good. The food was great. However, sometimes even on a Saturday morning I have to put the pharmacist hat back on. The conversation eventually turned to old antibiotics. “Why shouldn’t I keep those antibiotics I didn’t finish last winter?” I was asked. I wanted to say, “Antibiotic resistance and the end of the world.” Now that might be a small exageration, but not as much as you might think. Let’s go back to that Flemming dude and his messy lab.
Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. He was doing research on bacteria and was already known as a good researcher, but a messy lab technician. Coming back to his lab after a few days off, he found some cultures of his bacteria that he’d forgotten had been spoiled by mold. Instead of just throwing out all the culture plates, he noticed a zone around some of the mold was completely free of bacteria. The mold (later named Penicillium notatum) produced a substance (now called penicillin) that killed the bacteria. Penicillin was eventually isolated and made in large quantities. When it was given to people, certain infections were cured!
Penicillin was a miraculous discovery. Bacterial infections can kill people. Before antibiotics strept throat, sexually transmitted diseases and child birth often killed people. In fact bacterial infections remain still one of the only maladies that drugs can “cure”. Yes insulin treats diabetes, celebrex treats arthritis and Viagra treats erectile dysfunction, but the malady doesn’t go away. If you take away the insulin, the celebrex or the Viagra the diabetes, arthritis and erectile dysfunction and their symptoms come back. However, if I have strept throat and the doctor gives me a 10 day course of penicillin, I am cured. The bacteria are dead and that infection is over. Unlike insulin, which type 1 diabetics need to be on for life, I can take antibiotics for a short time and be cured.
As miraculous as antibiotics are, they aren’t perfect. Several decades after penicillin was discovered, people started talking about antibiotic resistance. You see mold can’t move. It can’t run away from other microbes competing for the same food. It has no claws or teeth to defend its territory. So it has been engaging in chemical warfare with bacteria and other microbes for a long time. Evolution says that if you throw a poisonous chemical at a bunch of bacteria some will die quickly and some will die slowly. The ones that die slowly are more likely to reproduce and pass that chemical resistance to their offspring. As bacteria reproduce quickly, resistance can develop quickly. So, in the wild, molds produce chemical warfare against bacteria, then bacteria get resistant to the molds’ chemical warfare, then the bacteria get resistant and on it goes. We humans threw a monkey wrench into the works by making tons of mold chemical warfare (penicillin) and wiping out the bacteria for a few decades. The bacteria have finally caught up, and now they are getting resistant to some antibiotics.
How is the best way to make bacteria resistant to antibiotics? First, insist you get an antibiotic from your doctor whether you have a bacterial infection or not. Then, only take 2 or 3 days worth of the antibiotics and “save the rest for next time”. This will kill off the most susceptible bacteria, but it will leave some. The ones that are left will have a natural immunity to the antibiotic. Those bacteria will reproduce and all their offspring will have a resistance to that antibiotic. If your immune system doesn’t finish off those bacteria with antibiotic resistance, they will start up the infection again. Now that original antibiotic won’t work anymore. You now have an antibiotic resistant infection!
So how do you avoid antibiotic resistance?
□ Wash your hands regularly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. It is the most effective way of preventing many types of infections.
□ Have your doctor vaccinate you and your children and keep vaccinations up to date.
□ Store, handle and prepare food safely. When preparing food, be sure to wash cutting boards and knives with detergent and water. Thoroughly wash all fruits and vegetables that will be eaten raw.
□ Don’t demand antibiotics from your doctor for a viral infection. Antibiotics don’t kill viruses. Putting antibiotics in your body when you don’t need them can lead to antibiotic resistance.
□ Do not share prescriptions with anyone else. Taking an inappropriate drug makes the resistance problem worse.
And finish your antibiotics! Do not stop taking a prescription part way through the course of treatment (unless you are having a serious adverse reaction) without first discussing it with your doctor. Even if you feel better, use the entire prescription as directed to make sure that all of the bacteria are destroyed. Dead bacteria don’t cause resistance.
As always if you have any questions or concerns about these products, ask your pharmacist.
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