Tainted Fruit - Watch Out For This Hidden Ingredient

Heather Callaghan

Case reveals possible allergy to this hidden fruit and veggie residue.

A 10-year-old girl has a history of asthma, seasonal allergies and anaphylaxis when exposed to cow's milk or penicillin.

She sat down to eat a blueberry pie, with none of those ingredients.

One bout of anaphylactic shock later, led allergist researchers to dig deeper for the trigger ingredient.

What they found concerns us all, and you'll never find it on a label. And not it's not just pesticides.

Early Use of Antibiotics Alters Immunity Later On

Heather Callaghan

As the gut microbiome becomes the newest hot topic in medical science, researchers are welcoming natural and nutritional approaches to optimal health and preventing disease.

A lot of studies take a doom-and-gloom tone about the devastating effects on the world from generations of immersion in antibiotics - in animals, in food and in early childhood. Some have even traced the damage to the immune system from before conception. Many are warning that there is no hope except through dramatic worldwide intervention (which includes new vaccines, newer stronger drugs).

But studies like this one from New University of British Columbia not only dissect immune-damage wrought by early use of antibiotics, but also offer some hope in correcting the problem, especially in young children.

Chief Scientist: Act Now or Live Through Deadly Post Antibiotic Resistance Era

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Heather Callaghan

Which is worse - a legitimate threat or the urgency of forceful solutions?

Leprosy. Bubonic Plague. Consumption. Dying from childbirth. These are periods in history that summon shudders of horror and gratitude to move beyond - but we seem to be coming around full circle.

In only the latest round of stern warnings about the antibiotic bubble, Australia's chief scientist is warning that if something drastic is not done soon, even small issues like sore throats and minor infections could be deadly one day not so far off. "There is now a genuine threat of humanity returning to an era where mortality due to common infections is rife," a new report says.

It was only in May that the UK's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, sounded an alarm. "If we don't take action, in 20 years' time we could be back in the 19th century where infections kill us as a result of routine operations." She had said this at a World Health Assembly in Geneva. Beware of urgent warnings - we would do well to pay attention to the offered "solutions" below - which are more alarming than the threat.

A top-level Australian scientist, Ian Chubb, affirms her warning with the report from his scientists and talks of a deadly 'post anti-biotics era' saying that the miracle of modern drugs are already "developing resistance to antibiotics at an alarming pace."

Gut Biota Never Recover from Antibiotics: Damages Future Generations

Heidi Stevenson

The misuse of antibiotics is not only causing new, never-before known diseases like E. coli and MRSA, the flesh-eating bacteria, it's also destroying the gut biome with devastating effects on our ability to deal with infections and destroying our ability to absorb nutrients from food.

Emerging research shows that the harmful effects of antibiotics go much further than the development of drug resistant diseases. The beneficial bacteria lost to antibiotics, along with disease-inducing bacteria, do not fully recover. Worse, flora lost by a mother is also lost to her babies. The missing beneficial gut bacteria are likely a major factor behind much of the chronic disease experienced today. The continuous use of antibiotics is resulting in each generation experiencing worse health than their parents.

Martin Blaser, the author of a report in the prestigious journal Nature writes:

Agriculture industry science denial?

Antibiotics used in meat production - Remapping Debate

Eric Kroh
Remapping Debate

Remapping Debate has previously reported on attempts to “repeal” climate science; it appears that the U.S. agricultural industry’s widespread use of antibiotics in animals used for food is another area where science denial is at play.  Even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization are united in concluding that such use leads to human exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the industry is actively fighting efforts to restrict the routine, non-medical use of antibiotics in animals, and the FDA has yet to impose a ban.

The problem — which the FDA and sister organizations say is a risk to public health — is already enormous, and it is growing.  According to the CDC, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, an antibiotic-resistant bacteria commonly known as MRSA, kills an estimated 19,000 people per year in the United States. The cost of fighting antibiotic-resistant microbes exceeds $20 billion per year.

Medical misuse of antibiotics in humans is part of the problem.  But another contributor is the misuse of the drugs in food animals. According to the FDA, a staggering 80 percent of the antibiotics used in the United States is used on livestock animals.

Livestock producers do not simply use antibiotics to treat sick animals. They also use antibiotics to promote growth or feed efficiency. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 70 percent of the antibiotics used in the U.S. is used in food animals for non-therapeutic reasons — that is, for reasons other than treating disease. According to the FDA, 90 percent of the antibiotics given to animals is distributed via animal feed or water, a method that critics say is used primarily for non-therapeutic reasons.

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FDA Accused of Endangering U.S. Health by Caving to Cattle Farms on Antibiotics

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By Adam Klasfeld
Courthouse News Service

MANHATTAN (CN) - A supine Food and Drug Administration is allowing the use of low doses of antibiotics in animal feed to deal with cramped and unsanitary conditions on cattle farms, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists and four other groups, raising the "specter of untreatable infections" just around the corner. 
  

The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Food Animal Concerns Trust, Public Citizen, and the Union of Concerned Scientists sued the U.S. FDA and its Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, the Center for Veterinary Medicine and its Director Bernadette Dunham, and the Department of Health and Human Services and its Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
  

The watchdog groups say the FDA first approved feeding of "preventative" antibiotics to healthy livestock in the 1950s. 
But in 1977, the FDA found that found that "subtherapeutic" doses of penicillin and tetracyclines - at levels too low to treat disease - contributed to development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could be transferred to humans. 


Groups sue US over antibiotics in farm feed

Hogs are raised on a farm in Iowa
© AFP/Getty Images/File Scott Olson

AFP

NEW YORK (AFP) - A coalition of consumer groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the US Food and Drug Administration over the use of human antibiotics in animal feed, saying it creates dangerous superbugs.

The suit alleges that the regulatory agency concluded in 1977 that the practice of feeding healthy animals low doses of penicillin and tetracycline could lead to the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria in people.

"However, despite this conclusion and laws requiring that the agency act on its findings, FDA failed to take any action to protect human health," the groups said in a statement.