(Akiit.com) Yes, it’s that time of year when we begin to see the return of cold and flu. What better time to visit the issue of ANTIBIOTICS.

As many of us prepare to bombard our doctors for a prescription of antibiotics to deal with colds and flu, let’s make sure we understand a little more about antibiotics and the way they work in our bodies.

Antibiotics are responsible for saving millions of lives; there’s no question about it. Many of us have had illnesses min the course of our lives where without the use of an antibiotic therapy, we would not still be here!

Before the introduction of antibiotics (penicillin was discovered in 1928), infection was the leading cause of death in America. Once they hit the scene, they were deemed so miraculous, doctors and patients alike saw them as a cure for every condition, serious or not.

However, there is a dark side to these “wonder drugs”. As a result of being misused, new generations of disease strains resistant to antibiotic attack have emerged. If this trend continues, we will find ourselves back in the days when even the simplest infection could kill.

Just today, a colleague approached and said she was not felling well. Sore throat; headache, the works. She was rushing to a quickly scheduled doctor’s appointment. Jokingly, I told her that I would “doctor’ her up. She looked me in the eye and said, “don’t you think I need an antibiotic?”

Immediately, I asked her if she had a bacterial or viral infection. She wondered why I asked such a question. I informed her that if it was a viral infection, an antibiotic would be useless. “ Oh, I guess I need to find that out first before I conclude that I need an antibiotic”, she said.

Here you have a classic example of the attitude of many of us, which has led to a serious problem in our world.

I mean it’s crazy!

Have a sore throat? Take penicillin.

Does the baby have an ear infection? Give her amoxicillin.

Do you have a nasty cough and/or cold? Take erythromycin.

We have grown so accustomed to taking antibiotics that we demand them whether our condition would actually respond to antibiotic therapy or not. All of the “old-fashioned” cures for colds – bed rest, warm drinks, good nutrition, and other tried and true home remedies – are now considered out of style. It doesn’t matter that antibiotics are useless (and even harmful) against viruses. As patients we beg for them, and many doctors give in.

To meet this insatiable demand, pharmaceutical companies responded by flooding the market with new and stronger antibiotics.

We thought we had won the war on infection. We had driven those bugs and germs into full retreat. But they were not to be defeated!

Just a guerilla army that grows more fearsome after it is driven into the hills, the bugs come back. In true military fashion, they test the antibiotics and find their weak points. The bugs developed new and more powerful weapons, now it is us who are truly on the defensive.

How did all this come to be?

When we use antibiotics to treat low-grade infections it is like using a nuclear warhead to squash the schoolyard bully. It is overkill to the nth degree, yet it doesn’t get rid of the problem. Just like another bully hiding around the corner, there’s always another strain of bacteria ready to pounce when we least expect.

Antibiotics are not foolproof- they kill most but not all of the offending bacteria. The strongest of the bacteria survive and reproduce at exponential proportions, and soon, “smart” strains of bacteria immune to the antibiotic are flourishing. The stronger the antibiotic, the stronger the surviving bacteria. To make matters worse, countless numbers of Americans have misused antibiotics by not taking the full course, stopping their medication as soon as they feel better. In so doing, they helped create new and more powerful superbugs. Americans also use – or rather overuse – antibacterial soaps and skin products, going so far as to put antibacterial soaps and skin products, going so far as to antibacterial additives in children’s toys!

All we are doing is making sure that the strongest and most resistant of the deadly bacteria survive and thrive.

What’s even deeper is that, even if you take them only when needed and never abuse them, you may be taking antibiotics without even knowing it.

Around 30% of the antibiotics sold in the United States are fed to livestock, and find their way into the meat and dairy products we eat, as well as water and soil we depend on. Just think about it, every time you eat a piece of meat or drink a glass of milk, you could be consuming minute amounts of antibiotic residue. If scientist tried to intentionally create the “ultimate germ”, they couldn’t do a better job.

I’m not trying to scare you. The risk of being wiped out by a virulent infection is slight, and the chance that you’ll die of an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria is slim. Nevertheless, there are some serious costs to the overuse of antibiotics that affect us all.

Have you ever noticed how you often relapse into an illness immediately after taking an antibiotic? It’s not your imagination. Antibiotics can actually weaken your immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to the next “bug” that comes your way.

Taking an antibiotic for common ailments that can heal on their own is particularly bad for children. (for example, the common cold has an average life of 3-5 days, the standard course of antibiotics is 5-7 days) What many parents may not realize is that the immune system learns through experience. Each encounter with a virus or bacteria teaches immune cells valuable lessons that will be used the next time they meet up with the same “bug”. So when children are given antibiotics for every sniffle, they may be robbed of their ability to effectively fight infection on their own. Yes, it may take a day or two longer for children to beat an infection without an antibiotic, but in the long run, it may be far better for the child.
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(Akiit.com) On the evening news, I watched a segment about summer school. The benefit of classes year round, said the report, is that kids learn more in a shorter amount of time and thus leave the school system earlier. Summer school, it was said, keeps them out of trouble.

The down side, said a therapist interviewed, is that the amount of homework kids are assigned is stressing them out.

Nonsense, countered a well-to-do stay-at-home mom. “These kids,” she declared in a sound bite, “need something to do. Summer is for learning.”

I couldn’t agree more.

One summer of my childhood, I finally learned how to pop a wheelie on my silver stingray bicycle. I’d been working on it for weeks with little progress, and then one day it just happened.

During another magical summer, at Oklahoma City’s Washington Park, I learned how to swim.

Gazing up into the heavens on amazingly still, humid nights, I learned how to pick out the Big and Little Dipper and the one that holds a bow and arrow. I stayed out in our front yard with the neighborhood kids way past my school day bedtime. Summer is when I learned the divine order of sleeping late.

School all year. Some people take the J out of joy.

To be sure, a formal education is a gift. Indeed, many kids want to attend school all summer. They LIKE school. Nothing wrong with that.

But when I was a youngster, summer school was for kids to make up a flunking grade. Even then it wasn’t all summer and class lasted only half a day.

It’s not like my summers without school didn’t include responsibility. It was up to me and Don Minnis–we took it upon ourselves–to see that the snow cones sold at the candy shop down on Fourth Street were brain-freeze cold and that the lady didn’t skimp on the sweet Number 2 dye strawberry syrup that always left our lips red.

It fell to us two spindly kids to make certain that all little corner stores within our general neighborhood had penny candy in stock.
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(Akiit.com) A mother recently said to me, “My Life is Not for Me;” my response…and whose fault is that?”

More often than not, it appears as though life: work, children, obligations, suffering health, appointments, exercise, school, commitments, family, pets, church the list is endless, keeps us moving in the fast lane. The problem arises when you realize you didn’t voluntarily enter the fast lane, but were slowly forced into it.

So now here you are wedged between other vehicles, if you will, being forced to travel at an ungodly rate of speed. You don’t dare slow down for the thought of slowing down is a guarantee you’ll be hit from behind, tailgated with bright lights obstructing your view, or become privy to a crash course in sign language not necessarily rated PG! Yet if you kindly follow your instinct, courteously decrease your speed, follow the rules, and use your blinker to exit this lane, where the average speed is no less than 85mph, still, no one in the slow lane is willing to let you squeeze in; and even the slow lane is moving at 70 mph.

So how do you exit the fast lane? You inconspicuously increase your rate of speed, attempt to gage the traffic in the lanes to your right, turn off your blinker as not to arouse suspicion that you are attempting to “Jump Ship,” pretend you don’t see oncoming traffic in the lane you want to enter, swerve hard to the right, put the pedal to the metal, and pray that everyone within your 20 foot radius, has full coverage insurance.

Here’s an example of a parent caught in the fast lane.

Everybody wants a little piece of me; to be just who they want me to be. I don’t think much about it that’s the way it is, and I rarely sip on tea because I’ve got some place to be. I get up in the morning at the break of dawn and the heat is off so yes, I get up and turn it on. Everyone is in bed all warm and still asleep. The alarm goes off yet no one ever seems to hear a peep. I rouse the kids out of bed with their pajamas on, and then grant requests of five more minutes mom.

While I’m making breakfast, one child can’t find a shoe. Without my assistance they wouldn’t know what to do. The other children doing homework that was done last night they said; at least that was the story before they headed off to bed. I check my watch, now I’m literally running out the door, to be on time for work, I should get up at three or four…oh forgot, I already do… sometimes I’m even up at two!
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(Akiit.com) With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” Excerpt taken from a Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech.

Are we so lost in the pursuit of our own dreams and caught up in the daily trappings of life, that we’ve forgotten our past? Whether you are black or white, yellow or red, there was a generation before you who contributed to the foundation that we now use to advance ourselves and hopefully have a good life.

Are people who benefited from the likes of Dr. King walking around in the Land of Make Believe as if there isn’t more to do to improve our society? We watch helplessly, although we are not helpless. We notice people being treated unkindly and unfairly because of their position in life. This position comes from people being defined by their financial status, job title, neighborhood, race, sexual orientation or level of access and influence.
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(Akiit.com) In any given year 26 percent of American adults suffer from mental disorders.

Think about it, when you walk down the street, at least one out of every four or five people you pass is suffering form some form of mental illness.

As Congresswoman Giffords continues to make a most surprising recovery, in a jail cell somewhere in arizona awaiting what seems to be an almost certain fate, is a 22-year old young man, after shooting a total of 17 people nd killing 6 of them..

Several of Jared Loughner’s classmates and instructors at Pima Community College noticed his erratic behavior, had him removed from school, and notified his parents. Why was no one able to get him into treatment? A leading psychologist says our fear and misunderstanding of mental illness prevents us from stepping in before tragedies occur.

I believe that it is way past time for us to look at the state of mental health care in this country. Especially regarding emotional and mental illness, there are so many people who are unable to seek treatment because they may be unable to navigate the system in order to receive social services or they just don’t have enough money to pay for treatment if they fall into middle class incomes because insurance rarely covers mental issues effectively. It must be remembered also that in the 1970?s the doors to the mental hospitals were closed to the indigent and those people flooded the streets with nowhere to live, and no place to recive help. Not to mention that we, as a society turn a blind eye.

One of the greatest, and most undertreated, threats affecting Americans today is Mental Illness. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are affected by mental, neurological or behavioral problems at any time.

In keeping with the prevalence of health disparities and inequities in practically every other area of health, the African American community suffers disproportionately from both mental health and mental health treatment.

One in four patients visiting a health service has at least one mental, neurological or behavioral disorder, but most of these disorders are neither diagnosed nor treated.

African Americans account for only 2% of psychiatrists, 2% of psychologists, and 4% of social workers in the United States. African Americans interested in careers within the mental health/illness-related fields, might be interested in accredited online colleges that offer degree and certificate programs.

Mental illnesses affect, and are affected by, chronic conditions such as cancer, heart and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. Untreated, they bring about unhealthy behavior, non-compliance with prescribed medical regimens, diminished immune functioning, and poor prognosis.

Compounding this disparity in mental health is the existence of a pervasive stigma that is held widely in the African American community: “they might think I’m crazy”!

The stigma that engulfs African Americans on the issue of mental illness has its’ origins deep in the annals of slave history in America.

One scientific report went so far as to deliberately falsify the black insanity rates from the 1840 U.S. census to show that the further North blacks lived, the higher their rates of lunacy strong evidence, of course, that freedom drove blacks crazy!

Over 150 years after the 1840 census, there are still important gaps and paradoxes in our knowledge of the mental health status of the African American population.

African Americans are disproportionately exposed to social conditions considered to be important risk factors for physical and mental illness.

African Americans frequently lack a usual source of health care as a focal point for treatment. For many African Americans, the emergency room is generally the source of primary care treatment. As a result, mental health care occurs frequently in emergency rooms and psychiatric hospitals. These settings and limited treatment available there, undermine the delivery of high-quality mental health care. I was just at one last week with a friend and his wife in support of their daughter.

Adaptive traditions have sustained African Americans through long periods of hardship imposed by the larger society. There is a historical tendency to “cope” and “adapt’ through a myriad of mechanisms. Among them are food, smoking; illicit drugs; violence; and sex, just to name a few. For some, it is a total withdrawal from social interactions.

I always remember a childhood friend, who had an “Uncle John”, who sat in the same chair, by the window, day in, day out, for as long as I can remember. I can still hear my friend’s mother telling visitors to the house, “Oh, don’t mind him, that’s just Uncle John. He won’t bother you, he harmless”.

Less than half of African American adults with mental illness seek treatment for mental health problems, and less than one third of their children receive treatment.

The lack in receiving treatment is due in part to the stigma that surrounds mental disorders in the African American community.

African American communities across the United States are more culturally diverse now that any other time in history with increasing numbers of immigrants from African nations, the Caribbean, Central America and other countries. To ensure African American communities have access to adequate and affordable care, a better understanding of the complex role that cultural backgrounds and diverse experiences play in mental disorders in these communities is vital.

Because African Americans often turn to community – family, friends, neighbors, community groups and religious leaders – for help, the opportunity exists for community health services to collaborate with local churches and community groups to provide mental health care and education to families and individuals.

I think it is only fair and appropriate to recognize the efforts of Dr. Arthur Evans at the Philadelphia Department of Bejhavioral Health, who understands this, and is making tremendous strides in leading the nation in transforming how mental and behavioral health is delivered.
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