For decades, people have taken antibiotics for infections as commonly as they take ibuprofen for headaches. Some integrative health practitioners have waved the caution flag. But, conventional medicine doctors and Big Pharma have tried to quell their caution, like they do today with the practitioners who question the COVID-19 vaccines.

The risks associated with overuse of antibiotics today are undeniable. I was happy to see that even the prestigious journal Nature published a paper titled Unravelling the collateral damage of antibiotics on gut bacteria. Unfortunately, finding fact-based information on the long-term risks of antibiotics, that's easy to understand, is not a simple thing to do.

In this blog post, I've tried to keep the language simple (unless I'm quoting a published paper) and help shed some light onto the possible risks of antibiotic overuse.

I hope this information helps people make better, more informed decisions, especially when it comes to the health of children.

How Antibiotics Work

Antibiotics are one of the most-prescribed types of medicines. Their benefit to human health over the past 70 years is significant, but the negative effects of their overuse also shouldn't be overlooked, either.

Since they were first discovered, antibiotics have helped people overcome infections, and populations control the spread of disease.

After ingestion, antibiotics make their way to the intestines, where billions of good and bad bacteria reside. To be more accurate, bacteria reside inside and outside our bodies.

When certain bad bacteria multiply, they can cause severe illness. They treat bacterial infections such as:

Strep throatEar infectionsWhooping coughUrinary tract infection (UTI)Bacterial pneumonia

To add clarity to their use, antibiotics do not work on viruses. You probably know of people who've taken antibiotics as part of a COVID-19 treatment, but the antibiotic is not used for combatting COVID. Rather, it's used to treat any bacterial infections that occur secondary to the COVID-19 infection.

For that matter, you might end up with an antibiotic prescription for bacterial pneumonia from wearing a useless mask as well, as one of our family members did. The point it, antibiotics are used for treating bacterial infections only.

For the most part, broad-spectrum antibiotics wipe out significant numbers of both bad and good bacteria, not just the pathogenic bacteria.

By wiping out the good bacteria, the antibiotic may weaken certain parts of our immune systems, compromise neurotransmitter production, and lead other health problems I discuss below.

That's not to say "antibiotics are bad." That's a massive exaggeration. But the way they're so easily prescribed is bad.

Though the medical community has been cautioned to limit their antibiotic prescriptions in children, 25% of all pediatric prescriptions are still antibiotics.  Five of the top six medications for children are antibiotics with Amoxicillin and Azithromycin being the top two.

According to a large study of pediatric care, about 30% of antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary.

On top of that, their overuse leads to antibiotic resistance, where bacteria adapt and learn to overcome the effects of antibiotics, much like the COVID-19 vaccinations aid in the creation of new variants, which are harder to beat with medicine.

It's becoming more important than ever to use antibiotics conservatively.

The Health Benefits of Your Gut's Bacteria

Besides antibiotic resistance, antibiotics do significant damage to the good bacteria that help support our health.

To understand why antibiotics can be bad for your health, you first must understand why probiotics, the good bacteria are good for you.

As I explained in Health Benefits of Probiotics: Your Guide, probiotics affect your health in four different ways. They:

Compete with pathogens for adhesion sites and nutrients.