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Antibiotic Resistance Pittsfield, Massachusetts (MA) - Berkshire Health Systems
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  4. Health Take-Away
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Health Take-Away

Health Take-Away

  • Alcohol's Impact on Breast Cancer Risk
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  • Building Your Immunity during COVID-19
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  • Use the Power of Nature for Better Health
  • Unplug from Online for Better Health
  • Weight Loss Through Narrowing Your Eating Window
  • Mammography and Dense Breast Tissue
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  • Smoker or Former Smoker? Lung Cancer Screening is Recommended for You
  • Be Safe When Using Over the Counter Medications
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  • Thyroid Health Essential to Metabolism
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  • Hospitalists: Your Around the Clock Caregiver
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  • Can you Find Joy in the Holidays When Sick?
  • Coping with Holiday Depression
  • When Quitting Smoking You May Need to Try and Try Again
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  • New Tool to Assess Breast Cancer Risk
  • Migraines: How to Treat Them
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  • New Moms Encouraged to Breast Feed
  • Language Diversity Important to Healthcare
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  • Urgent Care or Emergency Department
  • Free Medicare Wellness Visit
  • Rehabilitation from Stroke Onset
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  • Mammography and MRI for Women with High Risk of Breast Cancer
  • Breaking the Silence on Kidney Disease
  • Stop Mindless Eating
  • Hospitals Working to Improve Heart Health
  • Your Healthy Gut Bacteria
  • Give Up Smoking in 2018
  • Healthy Resolutions for 2018
  • Healthy Giving for 2017
  • Concussions: Myths and Truths
  • Celebrate a Thankful & Healthy Holiday
  • Don't Die of Embarrassment: Get Screened for Colon Cancer
  • Don't Let the Flu Get You This Season
  • Advanced Cardiac Imaging
  • Chronic Wound Care
  • What is a Hospitalist?
  • Healthy Heart Rhythms
  • Wellness Coaching
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  • Walking to Good Health
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  • Self Care is Our Future
  • Family Wellness - Play Together Stay Healthy Together
  • Rewriting Your Book of Life
  • Pre-Diabetes: A Wake-Up Call for Better Health
  • Overcoming Crisis With Resiliency
  • Stepping Off the Slippery Slope
  • Sleep & Wellness: Learning to Cherish Your Sleep
  • Kicking the Habit and Ending the Fear
  • High Blood Pressure: One of the Few Things in Life We Can Control
  • Friendship is Powerful Medicine
  • It's Flu Season: Get the Vaccine!
  • The Healing Power of Gratitude
  • Where's the Joy?
  • New Year's Resolutions to Live By
  • Preventing Falls: A Leading Health Risk for the Older Population
  • Staying Healthy in the Office
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  • Cardiac Rehabilitation: Regaining a Healthier and Better Life
  • Nutrition & Exercise: Two Great Gifts for Children
  • A Screening That Has Saved More than a Million Lives
  • How Walking Can Change Your Life
  • Injury-Free Sports & Activities
  • Have a Healthy Summer
  • Head to a Farmers' Market
  • Just Breathe
  • Lyme Disease Facts
  • Mindful Eating
  • Empathy in Healthcare
  • Preparing Your Family for an Emergency
  • Helping Someone to Cope with Opioid Addiction
  • Breast Cancer Awareness: Mammograms Save Lives
  • Antibiotic Resistance
  • Lung Cancer Screening
  • Giving Thanks
  • Healthy Holidays
  • Alcohol's Impact on Breast Cancer Risk
  • Acupuncture Can Help with Relief in Breast Cancer Care
  • Breast Reconstruction Surgery Journey is Personal
  • Building Your Immunity during COVID-19
  • Emotional Toll of COVID-19
  • COVID-19 Anti-Body Testing: What It Tells You What It Won't
  • Treating Varicose Veins
  • Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine: What is OMM
  • Know Your Audiology Options
  • Pets as Therapists
  • Reducing the Stigma of Substance Use Disorder
  • Be Kind to Your Heart
  • Headache Care
  • Managing Presenteeism
  • Don't Struggle with Resolutions
  • Enjoy the Holidays Through the Gift of Giving
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder
  • Save a Life, Lift Your Soul, Give Blood
  • Team Approach for Breast Cancer
  • Surviving Breast Cancer: A Journey
  • Hunger in the Berkshires
  • Vaccinations Help Avoid Needless Risks
  • Embrace Mindfulness
  • Low Carb High Fat Diet has Benefits
  • Probiotics Uses the Good Bugs to Fight the Bad Ones
  • Use the Power of Nature for Better Health
  • Unplug from Online for Better Health
  • Weight Loss Through Narrowing Your Eating Window
  • Mammography and Dense Breast Tissue
  • Medication-Assisted Treatment for Addiction Disorder
  • Smoker or Former Smoker? Lung Cancer Screening is Recommended for You
  • Be Safe When Using Over the Counter Medications
  • Screenings for Colon Cancer
  • Thyroid Health Essential to Metabolism
  • Go for Nutrition that is Heart Healthy
  • High Blood Pressure and Ways to Lower It
  • Hospitalists: Your Around the Clock Caregiver
  • Weight Loss Surgery Has Lasting Impact
  • Can you Find Joy in the Holidays When Sick?
  • Coping with Holiday Depression
  • When Quitting Smoking You May Need to Try and Try Again
  • Vaginal Birth after C-Section
  • New Tool to Assess Breast Cancer Risk
  • Migraines: How to Treat Them
  • Vestibular Care: It's All in Your Ears
  • Prepare for a Healthy Trip Abroad
  • New Moms Encouraged to Breast Feed
  • Language Diversity Important to Healthcare
  • Latest Advances in Joint Replacement
  • Vaping and Nicotine Addiction
  • Urgent Care or Emergency Department
  • Free Medicare Wellness Visit
  • Rehabilitation from Stroke Onset
  • Life Threatening Stroke Can be Prevented
  • Mammography and MRI for Women with High Risk of Breast Cancer
  • Breaking the Silence on Kidney Disease
  • Stop Mindless Eating
  • Hospitals Working to Improve Heart Health
  • Your Healthy Gut Bacteria
  • Give Up Smoking in 2018
  • Healthy Resolutions for 2018
  • Healthy Giving for 2017
  • Concussions: Myths and Truths
  • Celebrate a Thankful & Healthy Holiday
  • Don't Die of Embarrassment: Get Screened for Colon Cancer
  • Don't Let the Flu Get You This Season
  • Advanced Cardiac Imaging
  • Chronic Wound Care
  • What is a Hospitalist?
  • Healthy Heart Rhythms
  • Wellness Coaching
  • Men's Health In Crisis
  • Prevent Stroke or Respond FAST
  • Walking to Good Health
  • Healing Through Acupuncture
  • Self Care is Our Future
  • Family Wellness - Play Together Stay Healthy Together
  • Rewriting Your Book of Life
  • Pre-Diabetes: A Wake-Up Call for Better Health
  • Overcoming Crisis With Resiliency
  • Stepping Off the Slippery Slope
  • Sleep & Wellness: Learning to Cherish Your Sleep
  • Kicking the Habit and Ending the Fear
  • High Blood Pressure: One of the Few Things in Life We Can Control
  • Friendship is Powerful Medicine
  • It's Flu Season: Get the Vaccine!
  • The Healing Power of Gratitude
  • Where's the Joy?
  • New Year's Resolutions to Live By
  • Preventing Falls: A Leading Health Risk for the Older Population
  • Staying Healthy in the Office
  • Exercising at Home and Staying Fit in the Winter
  • Cardiac Rehabilitation: Regaining a Healthier and Better Life
  • Nutrition & Exercise: Two Great Gifts for Children
  • A Screening That Has Saved More than a Million Lives
  • How Walking Can Change Your Life
  • Injury-Free Sports & Activities
  • Have a Healthy Summer
  • Head to a Farmers' Market
  • Just Breathe
  • Lyme Disease Facts
  • Mindful Eating
  • Empathy in Healthcare
  • Preparing Your Family for an Emergency
  • Helping Someone to Cope with Opioid Addiction
  • Breast Cancer Awareness: Mammograms Save Lives
  • Antibiotic Resistance
  • Lung Cancer Screening
  • Giving Thanks
  • Healthy Holidays

Antibiotic Resistance

Why your doctor may be resistant to prescribe antibiotics
By Paula Aucoin, MD

As the winter months approach, so do the colds, flus and other common illnesses that send you or your children to the doctor’s office in search of a cure.  Whatever the ailment, many patients or their parents may expect the doctor to simply prescribe an antibiotic, thinking that will surely “kill the bugs” and restore the patient to health.

But that’s not how it usually works, and there are very good reasons why your doctor will only prescribe antibiotics when they are effective and absolutely necessary.

It’s important that patients everywhere understand when antibiotics are appropriate – and when they are not.  If a condition is viral, which is true of the common cold, the flu, bronchitis and most types of sore throats, antibiotics have zero effect.  Patients also need to realize that the needless prescribing or over-prescribing of antibiotics is feeding a global crisis in modern medicine. Powerful strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria – some call them “superbugs” – are constantly evolving,  infecting two million people and causing 23,000 deaths in the U.S. alone each year.

To build that understanding, a quick review of the great benefits and serious limitations of antibiotics, along with a few eye-opening facts about the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, can be helpful.

What are antibiotics? Antibiotics are medications used to treat bacterial infections. Bacteria, sometimes called germs, aAUCOINhealthtakeaway.jpgre frequent causes of infections in children and adults. Prior to the 1940’s, treatment of bacterial infections like pneumonia was often unsuccessful because no specific therapy was available to kill the organisms causing them.  In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin – the first antibiotic –considered a “miracle drug” when it was first used for treatment of infections in Allied troops during World War II.  In 1945, penicillin was introduced for use in the general population.  Even in those early days, the first strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria began to emerge.

What are some common bacterial infections treated by antibiotics? Lung infections such as pneumonia, urinary tract infections, kidney infections, sexually transmitted diseases, strep throat and certain ear infections in children are some of the most common infections caused by bacteria. They respond to antibiotic treatment. The full course and proper doses of the antibiotic must be taken.

What are some common viral infections for which antibiotics are ineffective? Viral illness such as the common cold, flu, sinus infections, bronchitis and sore throats (with the exception of strep, which is a bacterial infection) are unresponsive to antibiotics. Using antibiotics to treat viral infections not only won’t cure your ailment or relieve symptoms, it will create side effects and foster new strains of drug-resistant bacteria your body can’t fight. 

What exactly is antibiotic resistance and how did it become such a problem? Even though antibiotics have revolutionized medicine and saved countless lives over the past 70 years, they have been used so widely and for so long that the infectious organisms they were designed to kill have adapted to them, in some cases making those drugs impotent or far less effective. Bacteria inevitably find ways of resisting the antibiotics developed by science. While the more sensitive or susceptible bacteria are killed by the antibiotic treatment, the resistant bacteria multiply. These resistant bacteria can spread from person to person, from food sources contaminated with bacteria and from any environment where bacteria flourish.

AUCOINhealthtakeaway.jpgWhat can the average person do to avoid infection by drug-resistant bacteria?  The best strategy is to prevent infections from happening in the first place.  Vaccinations are key. Vaccination of children and adults against common bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumonia or meningococcal infection has decreased the frequency of these diseases.   Influenza vaccination can decrease both influenza itself and bacterial infections which often accompany serious influenza infections.  Good hand washing, safe preparation of food and avoiding meat from animals raised with growth-inducing antibiotics are other tools to avoid infection with drug-resistant bacteria.

Paula Aucoin, MD, is an Infectious Disease consultant and Medical Director of Infection Control and Prevention at Berkshire Medical Center.

 

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