IUBio

ANTIBIOTICS PROMOTE CANCER

la you at are.nuts
Sat Dec 7 14:00:07 EST 1996


In article <32A50031.3BAB at nol.net>, bionet.immunology wrote:

> Who cares? Anyone?  
> 
> Antibiotics kill the bad germs. (The ones that don't become antibiotic
> resitant).  Antibiotics also kill the good germs that help prevent the
> spread of bad germs. (loss of the good germs makes open season for
> antibiotic resistant bad germs) "Antibiotics" that do not kill yeast
> (open the season) and promote their growth.  The yeast C. albicans can
> catalyze nitrosamine (a carcinogen) that causes cancer.  
> 
> Wide spread usage of antibiotics gained momentum in the 1950's.  The
> incidence of cancer has been rising yearly since then.
> 
> Who cares anyway?
> 
> More cancer, more money for doctors, more money for research, more new
> antibiotics.
> 
> The FDA approved them, doctors fear loss of customers($money) if they
> don't prescribe them and the patients (victoms)feel cheeted if they
> don't get them.  Patients  THINK antibiotics cure everything and then
> come to rely on the wolves (capitalism) to guard their health while the
> system herds them like sensless sheep into human petrie dishes to test
> their latest and greatest kill everyting antibiotic.

> etc, etc (blah, blah blah....)

You fail to understand a number of principles in medicine.  Medical
therapy in general is a balance of risk and benefit.  ALL treatments carry
some finite risk of adverse effect.  A therapy is endorsed when its
benefits out weigh the risks.  The risk of antibiotics causing cancer is
miniscule compared to the huge benefits of appropriate antibiotic use.  I
do not disagree that in some cases antibiotics are used inappropraitely. 
This does not represent a conspiracy on the part of physicians and
pharmaceutical companies.  (sorry, I cannot support your unfounded
delusions).  You conclusions are based on paranoia, not facts.  It is easy
to see this based on the loose association of your rhetoric.

-- 
Louis Alarcon, MD
University of Pittsburgh
Department of Surgery
http://www3.pitt.edu/~lalarcon/



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