Hello, I am Doctor Bleep, and Before you Say Anything, Here are Some Antibiotics.

Goodmorning sunshines!

It is the afternoon but I had that little phrase in my head, and the days are so long now (the sun sets at 8:06pm!) that it almost counts as morning. The world is heating up nicely. It is 14 degrees here in England and sunny sunny sunny! I felt the need to shed my layers today, and my brightly coloured flower print top attracted a good many bees while I walked in the fields, I tell you.

Sickness prevails in this family though, folks. Damian has just come off a week’s course of antibiotics, only to come down with another sore throat. I am concerned, of course, there is nothing my mind hates so much as something that isn’t right. And recurring bacteria after antibiotics is certainly not in the normal way of things, and is therefore a morbid cause for concern.

To me, it means that the antibiotics didn’t do as they were supposed to. That the bacteria are RESISTANT.

Can you believe such nonsense!? Who on earth would have thought!?

We all know why, though, don’t we? It’s because our doctors are a little too keen to dole out the bacteria killers, these days. Why, only the other week I had a small lump on my underarm, and the doctor didn’t even have a look at it, he just leant back in his chair and said, “Oh, well, I’ll put you on a course of antibiotics and we shall see what happens”.

I was incredulous. Naturally I declined. You can’t just give somebody antibiotics when you don’t even know if they are being invaded by bacteria.

You know how they say, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’? It comes from a real theory called ‘hormesis’, which is a process undertaken by organisms exposed to low levels of toxins to make them more resistant to larger doses of such toxins. This theory has only recently become accepted as a principal of biomedicine.

Experiments were undertaken on rats and mice, exposing them to minute levels of gamma radiation over a period of time. After this time period, a high dose of gamma rays were inflicted on the creatures, and the results showed that they were less likely to develop cancer from the exposure, than those vermin who hadn’t been exposed at all.

It works the same way with bacteria. If doctors think they can sign off packets of antibiotics for no good reason (I assume because they are commissioned to do so), very soon antibiotics will cease to be effective, and the discovery of penicillin will have gone entirely to waste, and humans will be dropping dead like flies every time we contract an infection.

It is appalling how often doctors where I used to be registered prescribe antibiotics. Once I had gas in my tummy and it was causing me pain, and it had been ongoing for the past two days. So I sought the advice of a doctor and he seemed very frazzled, didn’t even ask for a urine sample, and prescribed me a box of antibiotics which I bought and then threw away.

What a waste. People who really do need antibiotics will be the ones to suffer.