of editorial staff
In recent years we have focused on the danger of viruses, for obvious reasons. Many people have learned completely unknown notions before, about the varied world in which viruses live and how they replicate. Furthermore, a very high number of people have learned the use of supplements to defend themselves from the attack of viruses or to prevent their harmful action. All this seems logical and consequential due to the pandemic we have experienced. But another issue seems to arise and has long been brought to the attention of researchers: antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection. We are writing this article because we are aware that this eventuality is unknown to most people, including a good number of doctors. Yet it deserves strong attention.
In January 2022, a very important work was published in The Lancet which attests that in 2019 the deaths in the world from antibiotic-resistant infections were as many as 1,27 million!! (The Lancet: January 19,2022 – Report Global research on Antimicrobial Resistance https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00087-3)
This huge number of deaths is the devastating consequence of the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, since 30-40 years ago and which has led today to the birth of bacterial strains resistant to these drugs.
But what emerges from the cited study and makes the reflection more disturbing is that 70% of the antibiotics used do not concern humans but are intended for animals subjected to intensive farming. From animals the antibiotic passes to humans.
And here the reflection becomes heavy, because it involves a lifestyle now widespread throughout the planet, that is, raising animals with intensive methods. For example, cows, if raised on pasture and naturally, produce 4 liters of milk per day, but in intensive farms they can even reach 60 liters! With devastating consequences on the conditions and life of the animal. Furthermore, the calf is separated from its mother after two days with great pain and stress on both sides. For this reason, the newborn calf, following what has been said, does not receive colostrum and therefore weakens from an immune point of view and has more need of antibiotics to defend itself from microorganisms. The reflection therefore concerns first of all the indiscriminate use of antibiotics on animals, which then, in a cascade, is reflected on human beings who consume food of animal origin, causing antibiotic resistance and a huge number of deaths. Another reflective element concerns the living conditions of intensively raised animals, which is reaching ethically critical levels. Not to mention that the enormous stress these animals live in is also reflected in humans, because it activates a series of biochemical reactions with the secretion of toxic substances (those of stress) that we then eat. We are all called, doctors and non-doctors, to make an effort. Doctors have the duty to orient their therapeutic choices as much as possible towards natural products and to prescribe antibiotics only and exclusively in situations of real need. We, all of us, are called to reflect: must we continue to live in a world where animals are treated like in intensive farms, aware that their pain and stress then enters us, or must we invent a new world?
