(NaturalHealth365) Imagine being able to analyze health data from 19.2 million people. Now imagine if that data revealed that 1 in 7 people (including adults and children) are being given prescription antibiotics that they don’t even need.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what a team of researchers discovered after concluding their expansive cross-sectional analysis, the results of which were recently published in the 2019 January edition of the BMJ. (British Medical Journal)

Data shows nearly 1 in 4 prescriptions for antibiotics are NOT medically justified

We all know that antibiotics are prescribed to ‘fight’ infections, right?

But they’re designed to only work against bacteria, not viruses (such as those that cause the flu).  But for some reason, this doesn’t stop many physicians from prescribing antibiotics for viral infections – a completely nonsensical oversight that’s happening at an alarming rate.

Need proof?  Researchers from three esteemed institutions – the University of Michigan of Ann Arbor, Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Boston, and Northwestern University of Chicago – looked at private health insurance records of 19.2 million children and non-elderly adults (less than 65 years old) who claimed outpatient prescriptions for antibiotics back in 2016.

Their findings (based off official ICD-10 codes used for reimbursement) were stunning: 10% of children and 16% of adults received antibiotics that were completely unnecessary.

In total, about 23.2% of all antibiotic prescriptions were “inappropriate.”

An additional 35.5% were “potentially” appropriate (can you imagine your doctor telling you to take a pill that is “potentially” appropriate?), and another 28.5% weren’t even associated with a recent diagnosis code (which hardly sounds medically justifiable to us).

Latest research supports earlier findings on unnecessary antibiotic use

This isn’t the first time the BMJ has published breaking data about the dangerous and risky over-prescription antibiotics issue.  For instance, similar findings were revealed in one study from the United Kingdom published back in 2007.

Heck, even the government itself acknowledges that antibiotics are routinely overprescribed.  In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) places the estimate for unnecessary prescriptions as high as 1 in 3.

As you may know, the consequences of overprescribing antibiotics are dire. For one thing, they just plumb don’t work against viruses (as we’ve seen).

For another thing, antibiotics can kill the healthy bacteria living in your digestive tract – the collective “forgotten organ” which you need to help you fight off infection, digest and metabolize your food, and avoid chronic disease.

Are ‘superbug’ infections being created from the use of antibiotics?

The short answer is ‘yes!’

Inappropriate antibiotics use has given rise to the so-called “superbug” phenomenon – strains of bacteria becoming resistant to these side-effect riddled drugs and therefore, stronger and unable to be killed. The CDC readily admits that resistance to antibiotics is “one of the world’s most pressing public health problems.”

Pneumonia, ear infections, skin infections, tuberculosis, sinus infections, and meningitis are just a few of the illnesses that are now becoming harder to treat with conventional medicine – and more deadly on a global scale.

Clearly, something needs to change in the culture of Western medicine.

In the meantime, health-conscious consumers should be encouraged to explore alternative measures for fighting bacterial diseases in order to mitigate the snowball effect of these rampant “inappropriate” prescriptions.

Editor’s note: Discover the many natural ways to strengthen the immune system, avoid the threat of infections and safely protect us from chronic disease symptoms.  Click here for FREE access to my upcoming event, the Immune Defense Summit.

Sources for this article include:

MedicalNewsToday.com
MedicalXpress.com
CDC.gov
BMJ.com
BMJ.com
Kidshealth.org

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