Fighting infection with conventional antibiotics is becoming an increasingly hopeless affair. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently warned these drugs are useless in combatting deadly “super germs.” So what can one do? Your kitchen holds the key.
Every day in this country, all day long, patients and doctors reach for conventional antibiotics when opportunistic infections present themselves. The fact that most infections are self-limiting (the body has an immune system, we often forget), and that antibacterial antibiotics are often administered for viral infections—against which they are useless and even infection-promoting—is rarely if ever acknowledged.
There is also the problem that antibiotics themselves drive the growth of antibiotic-resistant subpopulations of bacteria, and as a result, create “super germs” against which conventional antibiotics are useless. This effect can adversely alter the microbial substrate of our health for months, years, and perhaps for our entire lifetimes (and our progeny’s lifetimes).
The good news is that doctors and their patients are starting to wake up. The concept of taking a probiotic to promote health, for instance, is practically mainstream knowledge now.
The Rise of Natural Medicine for Treating Infections
In the past few years, interest in evidence-based, natural alternatives, which provide safer and more effective relief, has increasingly expanded. Together, we are relearning and remembering the wisdom of the ancients: Let food be your medicine.Garlic Versus First-Line Antibiotic for Vaginal Infection
A relatively recent study adds to the already impressive body of research in this field. Titled “Comparing the Therapeutic Effects of Garlic Tablet and Oral Metronidazole on Bacterial Vaginosis: a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial,” medical researchers demonstrated the power of garlic in treating bacterial vaginosis, one of the most common gynecological infections afflicting women of reproductive age today.Bacterial vaginosis (BV) affects 29.2 percent of women aged 14–49, and 25 percent of pregnant women in the United States, according to CDC statistics. According to the study, the infection is “asymptomatic in 50 percent to 75 percent of cases and symptomatic cases present with homogeneous gray-white vaginal discharge with fishy odor, especially after intercourse or during menstruation.”
It is believed that BV results from reduced quantities of hydrogen peroxide-producing Lactobacillus and increased anaerobic organisms such as Gardnerella vaginalis, Mycoplasma hominis, and Prevotella species. Antibiotics are notorious for lacking specificity in inhibiting only those opportunistic strains that can cause harm, which is why it is no wonder that the standard of care treatment of BV with metronidazole has a notoriously poor success rate. [1]
Moreover, antibiotics like metronidazole come with a wide range of side effects, including nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, weight loss, and abdominal pain.
Even more concerning is the fact that the drug has been identified as a potential carcinogen both by the U.S. National Toxicology Program [2] and the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer. [3]
The design of the new study involved giving two groups of 60 married women (aged 18 to 44 years) either 500 mg garlic tablets comprised of 85.42 percent garlic powder, or metronidazole. Each dose of garlic powder contained the equivalent of 8.9-mg allein, a potent antimicrobial compound. Both drugs were taken with meals at the dose of two tablets every 12 hours for seven days.
The two different treatments were evaluated using diagnostic criteria showing active infection known as Amsel’s criteria. Not surprisingly, garlic was found superior to metronidazole in reducing infection at 70 percent and 48.3 percent, respectively. Additionally, garlic was found to have far fewer side effects.
