After reviewing the full instructions for the final essay assignment I see we need to adress a controversial topic. Given how many topics we’ve been over and how opinionated everyone has been in the discussion boards throughout the term it’s hard to pinpoint just one topic. Starting off by brainstorming things that I have found interesting or surprising thus far the first thing that pops into my mind is the idea that antibiotics can be bad. I mean I’ve always known too much of anything is bad but I didn’t expect to learn how negative they can be in specific situations. Probiotics is another topic I never gave a second thought to until this course. I actually used to take probiotics for a bit my sophomore year of college and yet after this course its scary to think I really had no idea what they were when I was taking them. Not that probiotics are bad I just should have researched more about them prior to taking them everyday.
The idea that antibiotics can be bad was definitely something new to me. In high school I took a course that addressed antibiotic resistant diseases but I don’t think I ever linked the possibility that it could have been due to an excessive or intense use of antibiotics. It’s interesting how this treatment can turn negative and the line between those is unknown. Yeah sure we know what way too much looks like but it doesn’t appear to me that there is a set ratio of how much antibiotics is okay to take before it can turn into antibiotic resistance from person to person. I wonder if with enough studies that a rough estimate could be determined on average. The most helpful thing that comes to mind that antibiotics provides is prevention of infection for surgery.
To begin preparing for my paper I am going to review some of the articles we have been assigned thus far. I will also find resources and research the pros and cons of antibiotics and try to learn more about antibiotic resistance and when antibiotics are necessary. Looking over “some things to address within your review article” I am a little confused on #2 “What is known in the field about how the microbe interacts with humans (on a molecular or mechanistic level)” does this mean our topic has to be a microbe or when I research antibiotics, I should address the microbe being evaluated in that particular study?
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