Antibiotic resistance – How civil society and holistic medicine can contribute
Antibiotics are used to combat bacterial infections and inflammatory diseases. Up until now they have been most effective in controlling these diseases including the life threatening infections in hospitals. Excessive use of these medicines over the last few decades however, has meant that the strains of bacteria for which they were intended are becoming resistant to these antibiotics more quickly than it takes to develop effective new ones. It is estimated that around 25,000 people in Europe die each year from infections that can no longer be treated.
The use of antibiotics in agriculture
Legislators and civil society are able to act in situations where the use of antibiotics causes harm to people and animals. Yet their prophylactic use on healthy animals in agriculture presents a particular problem since they are an essential element of the intensive livestock system and also act to a certain extent as growth enhancers. But if the same antibiotics are used on animals as are used to treat people, human beings can develop resistance indirectly via the consumption of meat with the result that such antibiotics can no longer be used in the treatment of disease.
Effective treatment with homeopathic and anthroposophic medicine
To reduce the unnecessary medical use of antibiotics as much as possible, a different way of thinking is required of both doctors and patients. The research trials referred to below indicate – as those involved with integrated and complementary medicine experience on a daily basis – that most acute infections can be treated better and more consistently without antibiotics and hence with less danger of causing side effects. Practical aspects of this approach are explained in the books referred to below.
With the help of external treatments and medicines of homeopathic and anthroposophic origin, the organism's self-healing capacities are supported and its immune system acquires the power to overcome the infection. Were this approach to become recommended practice, a significant step would be taken towards ensuring that the antibiotics which still remain effective continue to be available for those with the most serious infections.
ELIANT along with its alliance partners in medicine and agriculture, is campaigning for the necessary re- thinking to take place within civil society and among the professionals and politicians who are responsible.
We thank you warmly for all your support and hope that especially in this field, we can make progress in 2016.
With best wishes for the New Year
Michaela Glöckler
Ilene Claudius, Larry J. Baraff: Pediatric emergencies associated with fever. Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America 28:67-84, 2010
Harald J. Hamre, Anja Glockmann, Reinhard Schwarz, David S. Riley, Eric W. Baars, Helmut Kiene, Gunver S. Kienle: Antibiotic Use in Children with Acute Respiratory or Ear Infections: Prospective Observational Comparison of Anthroposophic and Conventional Treatment under Routine Primary Care Conditions. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2014
Michaela Glöckler, Wolfgang Goebel, Karin Michael: A Guide to Child Health. A Holistic Approach to Raising Healthy Children, Floris Books.
Georg Soldner, H. Michael Stellmann: Individuelle Pädiatrie. Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Stuttgart, 2011
