Writing Exercise #6: My Personal Philosophy and Experiences Regarding Antibiotics

I have a lot of respect for antibiotics.  I think they are one of life’s miracles.  They have saved millions of lives and changed our existence on this planet for the better in many ways. 

In general, I am very open minded about the use of antibiotics, but I also am aware of the problems with their overuse and the dangers of the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria caused as a result of overuse.

Antibiotics have saved the lives of several of my family members over the course of my lifetime. This includes my children, my mother and my pets.

I have  three children who are older now.  Two of them had pneumonia, and one of them had it twice.   My daughter had it once.  She did not respond well to the first antibiotic and her condition declined rapidly in a 24 hour span of time.  We had to make an emergency call to the doctor to get a different antibiotic.  It happened to be on Thanksgiving day and he was out of town, so it took 8 hours to contact him. Then we had to wait another 10 hours to actually get the new antibiotic.  It was the same kind but had an additional component made to kill off resistant bacteria.  Once she got that, she was able to recover. It was very obvious to me that without the special, modified antibiotic that was able to kill off resistant strains of bacteria, she would have been in  a life threatening situation. 

My son had a severe case of pneumonia and was coughing up blood.  The antibiotics killed the infection and he was fine after that. 

My mother, in her old age, had developed a septic infection from a urinary tract infection.  She was admitted to the hospital and almost died from the infection.  Again, antibiotics saved her life.  Without them there wouldn’t have been much that doctors could do to help her.

Last year I had another interesting experience with antibiotics.  I had a sick parrot that was diagnosed with advanced heart disease.  He became very very ill one weekend and nearly died right after his initial diagnosis.  The veterinarian gave him antibiotics but he didn’t respond to them.  She told me to be prepared to euthanize him because she felt they had done all they could for him.  I had a suspicion that he had a secondary pneumonia bacterial infection so I asked her for stronger antibiotics.  She agreed and he improved within two days and it saved his life.  He lived for another year, so I got a whole extra year with him. 

I know there are some people who believe that it’s better not to take antibiotics, thinking that without them your body will build up natural immunities to whatever the invader is.   They think antibiotics disrupt the natural flow of life, like they are an easy way out.  My sister is a homeopathic doctor, and I have seen this type of naive, simplistic way of thinking.  It may be true if you don’t mind dying younger or suffering needlessly.  Our bodies are not made to live forever and there are plenty of cases where letting things progress as they would without medical intervention or antibiotics end up to be fatal, or with long term unwanted consequences. 

Since we have been learning more about probiotics, I am beginning to think that they may be equally as powerful as antibiotics in a preventative way and I have developed an interest in trying to solve some of my problems with them.  For example, I have chronic sinus  allergy problems.  Whenever I take antibiotics for other things, my nose clears up dramatically and I can breathe again.  I feel that my life would change for the better if I could always breathe that way.  I’m guessing I have a microbiome  in my sinuses.  Because of what we have learned in class, it has occurred to me that rather than using antibiotics,  I could try probiotics to try to change the  microbiome in my sinuses. It wouldn’t surprise me if I had an event or past habit that changed the healthy balance of my sinus microbiome to an unhealthy one.  I used to smoke when I was much younger, and that could have possibly been part of it.  

I feel, in general, that people take antibiotics for granted and don’t think about how miraculous they really are, and how many millions of lives they have saved. Besides, clean water, electricity and vaccines, I would bet that antibiotics are one of the main things responsible for our longer life spans and in general, a better quality of life.

I will happily and with very much appreciation take them as needed.  I wish I could get them more easily when I need them.

Writing Exercise #4, A Rhetorical Precis

In this primary research study, Evidence of Immune Memory 8.5 Years Following Administration of a Prophylactic Human Papillomavirus Type 16 Vaccine, (2012), Ali Rowhani-Rahbar and a group of fellow researchers in the fields of epidemiology, microbiology and immunology, seek out to determine whether prophylactic HPV 16 vaccines effectively provide long term immunity to patients receiving them. An updated HPV vaccine containing strains HPV 6/11/16/18 was administered to 52 women who had received the HPV-16 vaccine 8.5 years prior. It was found that all the subjects experienced a heightened immune response following injection of the HPV 6/11/16/18 vaccine, implying that immune memory for HPV virus was present. They wanted to establish whether subjects had developed immune memory to the HPV virus in order to determine whether they were still protected from the virus long term and thus protected from the risk of developing cervical cancer. This research was published in the peer reviewed journal, The Journal of Clinical Virology and is intended to be shared with peers working in the same and similar fields of research.

Behaviors that Can Change the Microbiome in Your Gut

  • Taking antibiotics
  • Taking anti-inflammatories
  • Moving to a different country
  • Taking vitamins
  • Fasting
  • Eating a high fat diet
  • Eating yogurt with live bacterial cultures
  • Close contact with someone with an infectious disease
  • Breastfeeding (affects the baby)
  1. Moving to another country:

Moving to another country could change a person’s microbiome over time through a change in diet and exposure to new microbes in the environment found in a completely different geographic and cultural population. This would include infectious microbes such as bacteria and viruses that the person’s body had not been exposed to. Upon exposure to new infectious microbes, the body will hopefully have a strong immune response to it. This most likely will cause inflammation, which can have a cascade effect of lowering microbial diversity, and increasing susceptibility to illness.  Also, studies have shown a correlation between lower microbial diversity and a change in genetic sequencing of the immune system. In addition, exposure to a different cuisine, the types of food cooked and how they are cooked could also expose the person to a completely different variety of microbes.  It would be interesting to compare gut biomes cross-culturally.  It would make sense that healthy microbiomes in different countries may be very different from each other.  I guess that points to the adaptability of our bodies and how our immune system, in many cases, can cater to whatever new “invader” comes along.

  1. Taking anti-inflammatories

If a person has a gastrointestinal disease or infection and they take anti-inflammatories, it can potentially change the microbiota in their gut.  If that’s all they take it may not necessarily cure the disease.  Still, inflammation in the gut has been linked to lower bacterial diversity and microbiome dysopsia. Reducing that inflammation with anti-inflammatories in combination with other dietary supplements  has been shown to help bring back the microbiome to higher diversity and more normal levels. In a study led by Valeria D’Arginio, M.D., they showed that  nutritional therapy including protein powder, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory fats significantly increased the gut microbiome diversity and decreased the high levels of unwanted proteobacteria in the patient’s gut. 

Anti-inflammatories alone may also have some effect on the gut microbiome. Inflammation is a response by the immune system to invader microbes.  In other studies a correlation has been shown between inflammation and the presence of  a flagellin bacteria.  The flagellin apparently took advantage of the intestinal tissue weakened by the inflammation and proliferated, significantly changing the microbiome. It would be interesting to see if anti-inflammatories could partially effect a decrease of the flagellin in the microbiome.

  1.  Taking antibiotics

Taking antibiotics can greatly change the gut microbiome.  Antibiotics are used to kill H. pylori, one of the most prevalent causes of gastrointestinal disorders including ulcers. Once the bacteria is killed off, the microbiome in the gut can return to a normal balance of bacteria. Antibiotics are powerful and can alter the gut biome. It is not uncommon to experience diarrhea, nausea and other gastrointestinal problems when taking strong antibiotics because they upset the microbiome so much in order to kill the offending microorganisms. It is usually  recommended that a patient takes a supplement with live cultured bacteria, such as yogurt or a probiotic supplement to help keep the microbial growth in balance.

HPV vaccine development – Writing Exercise #2

I think further research needs to be done into which of the strains of HPV are the most prevalent but not covered in the current vaccine.  Since this article was written, vaccines have been made to cover more strains than just HPV 16 and HPV 18.

HPV 31 and HPV 45 were included along with HPV 16 and 18 to account for 80% of the cases of cervical cancer. The article states that HPV types 33, 35, 39, 51, 52, 56, 58 and 59 are also associated with cervical cancer.  Since then, the Gardasil 9 vaccine has been developed that protects against  HPV 16, 18, 6, 11, 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58.  

Of those listed in the article, HPV 35, 39, 51, 56 and 59 are not covered in the current Gardasil 9 vaccine, so I would probably recommend covering those strains in upcoming treatment. 

Another aspect to consider is the prevalence of different strains worldwide. 75% of HPV is considered to be carcinogenic, but the most prevalent strains vary by region and population and some are not currently covered by available vaccines.

In Japan, HPV 35 is part of the 20% most likely to cause cervical cancer, but it is not included in the Gardasil 9 vaccine.  Similarly, in one study in Korea, HPV 56 was identified to be in the top 4 most prevalent strains associated with cervical cancer, along with HPV 16, 58 and 68. HPV 56 also is not included in Gardasil 9 vaccine.

Because those strains are so prevalent in those countries and are included in the strains mentioned above that I would focus on in the United States (HPV 35, 39, 51, 56 and 59) it might be good to consider more in depth research on those strains as well, and the importance of contributing to the development of a vaccine for them as well. 

Following current guidelines, vaccines for cervical cancer should be administered in their early pre-teen years, between the ages of 9-12, when the strongest immune responses will occur.  If not then, then between the ages of 13-26.  It is also important to receive the vaccine before any exposure to the strains of HPV can occur.

My sources for this blog include:

Cancer Lett. 2011 June 28; 305(2): 218–227. doi:10.1016/j.canlet.2010.09.011.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/infectious-agents/hpv/hpv-vaccines.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK304966/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK304966/