Health Alert: Antibiotic-Resistant Disease Killing Humans and Swine in Denmark

The antibiotic-resistant bacteria Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase [ESBL] is killing both people and swine in Denmark.

The bacteria has been implicated in the deaths of a number of cancer and liver disease patients. The number of infected patients jumped 50 percent last year.

Health officials said the bacteria is being transmitted to humans through pigs. How? The increased use of antibiotics in agriculture may be behind the spread of the resistant strain.

What are ESBLs?
Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamases [ESBLs] are actually enzymes produced by certain types of bacteria, which renders the bacteria resistant to the antibiotics commonly used to treat them.

ESBLs were first discovered in the mid-1980s. At the time, they were mostly found in the Klebsiella species of bacteria, in hospitals' intensive care units. Until recently, few people were affected by these mutated bacteria, and it didn't appear to be a major growing concern.

That has changed, however. According to the British Health Protection Agency [HPA], a new class of ESBL -- called CTX-M enzymes -- has emerged, and are now being widely detected among E.Coli bacteria. These ESBL-producing E. Coli are resistant to penicillins and cephalosporins, and are becoming more frequent in urinary tract infections.

Other species of bacteria that can now produce ESBLs include:
* K. pneumoniae
* K. oxytoca
* Salmonella
* Proteus mirabilis
* Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The Problem is Worse Than You Think!
According to a study published October 2007 in the Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA], there were close to 100,000 cases of invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] infections in the United States in 2005 -- which lead to more than 18,600 deaths.

To put that number into perspective, HIV/AIDS killed 17,000 people that year.

Antibiotic-resistant disease IS a major man-made problem.

This was the study that propelled MRSA into the news last year, combined with a number of school outbreaks that took place around the same time. Discussions focused largely on reducing medical over-use of antibiotics, and proper hygiene -- such as washing your hands with soap and water to reduce the spread of infectious disease.

But little has been said about the rampant over-use of antibiotics in agriculture -- which is a MAJOR source of human antibiotic consumption -- and, hence, increased antibiotic resistance.

Agriculture as a Source of Antibiotic Resistance
Both MRSA and ESBL are being traced back to animals raised for food production -- especially, pigs.

These animals are often fed antibiotics at low doses for disease prevention and growth promotion. Animals receiving antibiotics in their feed gain 4 to 5 percent more body weight than animals that do not receive antibiotics. But the price is high for you, the end consumer, because this practice also creates the perfect conditions for antibiotic resistance to flourish.

Denmark's health officials claim they're unsure of how farmers and vegetarians -- who have not consumed infected meat -- are becoming infected. However, according to research cited on Johns Hopkins' website, the main reservoir of these organisms is in the lower digestive tract, and they can persist within the gastrointestinal tract for months.

So, perhaps the answer doesn't have to be all that complicated. The meat industry's practice of using antibiotics is, indeed, a driving force behind the development of antibiotic resistance in a now wide variety of bacteria that cause human disease.

The long stalemate on this issue constitutes a struggle between strong science and bad politics. In August 2007, he FDA finally banned the use of fluoroquinolones, a widely used class of antimicrobials, from agricultural use -- but not without the Bayer Corporation kicking and screaming in vehement opposition. After all, antibiotics for livestock use is big business; it constitutes about 70 percent of ALL antibiotic use! They couldn't replace that market with human consumers even if they tried.

Other Agricultural Sources of Antibiotics
Another heavily tainted meat product you should stay away from is conventionally raised chicken. A 2006 study, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, found that bacteria from conventional chicken, and from people who ate the chicken, became resistant to Synercid, a strong antibiotic used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In essence, it can cause resistance to the last lines of defense currently available in the modern medicine cabinet.

It also found that it was rare to find resistant bacteria among antibiotic-free chicken, while the majority of bacterial isolates from conventional poultry were resistant.

But, the ramifications of using antibiotics in agriculture don't end there. Antibiotics filter down through the food chain in sometimes unsuspecting ways.

Antibiotics are also being transferred, via manure, into your food supply.

A 2007 study in the Journal of Environmental Quality looked at whether food crops will accumulate antibiotics from soil covered with antibiotic-containing manure. In a greenhouse setting, corn, lettuce and potatoes were grown on soil that contained hog manure, with a commonly used veterinary antibiotic added.

The antibiotics were absorbed by all three crops, into both their leaves and tissue. Meanwhile, the antibiotics also transferred to the potato tubers, suggesting that root crops -- like carrots, radishes and potatoes -- may be particularly at risk for antibiotic accumulation.

Unfortunately, these findings also have implications for organic farmers, who often use manure as their main source of fertilizer. And, as it stands, manure that contains antibiotics is still allowed under the organic label.

How to Avoid Excessive Antibiotic Exposure
So, how can you ensure that the food you feed to yourself and your family is pure and healthy?

Apart from growing it yourself, your best option is to get to know a local farmer near you -- one who uses non-toxic farming methods. If you live in an urban area, there are increasing numbers of Community Supported Agriculture [CSA] programs available that give you access to healthy, locally grown foods -- even if you live in the heart of the city.

If you are looking for a safer alternative to commercially raised beef, please be sure to check out grass-fed beef. Grass-fed cattle are not routinely fed antibiotics. They may occasionally receive them for an infection, but that would be the rare exception -- and even then, they are only used for a few days.

In a nutshell: "Natural" is best, and organic is superior.

To learn how to begin to undo the negative effects you've already suffered by consuming conventionally produced foods, visit:

==> http://tinyurl.com/257ops

SOURCES: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MayoClinic.com, Salubris Inc. [photo], U.S. Department of Agriculture, WebMD
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Doctor Reveals Her TOP SECRET Fat Loss Secret to General Public!

A new, breakthrough secret is all you now need in order to forever shed countless pounds, stay healthy, and add many years to your life! A doctor from Arizona has blown the lid off the best-kept secret in weight loss ever discovered -- and this has the diet, food and drug industries turned upside-down, and in nothing less than a torrential uproar. Her name is Dr. Suzanne Gudakunst, and she's marching to the beat of a different drum.

No, nothing about her "secret" is difficult -- nor does it require that you do anything completely out of the ordinary or anything unnatural. Instead, the Arizonian boasts proudly: "This is something that I caught onto just before 2002, when there was so much research and exploration going around concerning the human colon and digestive system working in harmony with nutritional absorption. I started doing independent studies just to test things at first ... but, which I later expanded on after seeing some fantastic results."

This same medical practitioner went on to accurately determine a definitive correlation between harmful plaque and parasitic infestations of the human bowel tract, and people suffering chronic obesity -- and who, despite intense diet and exercise, appeared to be unable to lose any weight whatsoever.

During the course of six years, the Arizona doctor developed a number of natural treatments for the removal of these same harmful, even life-threatening, plaques and rapidly reproducing digestive parasites. When applied to even worse-case patients suffering extreme obesity -- 98% of whom were in immediate danger of dying -- she saw a 100% effectiveness and success rate.

Dr. Suzanne then borrowed from her research on the severely obese, and applied the same strategies on milder cases of overweight persons -- only to find the same effectiveness and quality results as described above [although the individual weight loss per subject wasn't nearly as dramatic as for those obese patients 100 lbs. to 200 lbs. or more overweight].

So powerful is her secret that she's able to reverse diabetes, rid illness altogether in people suffering from cancer [linked directly to poor diet and overweight factors], as well as eliminate an entire spectrum of serious and otherwise life-threatening diseases.

Nearly 100% of all her case subjects were told in the alternative by "conventional doctors" that they either had just months or years to live, or they would never live a life anything resembling remotely a "normal" existence. Yet, after applying Dr. Suzanne's treatments, these same subjects saw a complete contradiction to other doctors' prognoses.

Again, nothing about Dr. Suzanne's secret is unnatural or requires a person to perform any major action or modification in their lives. In fact, her entire treatment is based completely on built-into-nature "protection agents" scattered throughout the world in the form of select herbs, extracts, and organic constituents, and which can be found in a variety of plants.

When these agents are combined in specific combinations and carefully chosen amounts, they make for a solution to what is perhaps the world's worst ever plague: OBESITY [and the illnesses and diseases resulting from it -- or at least severely aggravated or exacerbated by it].

Now, to everyone else's great gain -- whether suffering from just a few extra pounds and inches, to those extremely fat and overweight -- this brave, bold doctor is releasing to the general public her secret for forever destroying the tight, unrelenting, closed fist of obesity's stronghold over the now more than 40% of Americans labeled obese, plus others worldwide.

But she's not promising any of us for how long. Some experts and sociologists suggest that, in the bigger scheme of things, the world will never tolerate a discovery of such magnitude -- any more than it would be realistic to expect a car that runs on water [even if very possible and real] to ever become commercially available to the general public for day-to-day use.

One well-respected and famous diet and wellness author wrote years ago that if anyone ever "truly unlocked the keys to permanent fat loss, they may actually suffer the same fate as JFK."

Dr. Suzanne's secret is currently available at:

==> http://tinyurl.com/2yx268

Head on over there now and get it -- before someone, or "something," gets it forever yanked out of ever getting in YOUR hands, at least.

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While you're there, why not scroll down and review for yourself the huge successes others are now having with this incredible breakthrough in rapid, massive weight loss, and extremely improved and enhanced health -- now made freely available to the rest of us?
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