No one predicted that creating antibiotic-resistant E. coli in chickens would lead to an epidemic of drug-resistant UTIs in the US and Western Europe, as reported in The Atlantic:

“The proposed link between resistant bacteria in chickens and those causing UTIs is not the first time researchers have traced connections between agricultural antibiotic use and human illness. But because the UTI epidemic is so large and costly, the assertion that it might be tied to chicken production has brought renewed attention to the issue.”

The Atlantic’s article discusses Amee Manges’ research that links antibiotics fed to chickens to women having antibiotic resistant UTIs.

This research presents another wake up call to stop the practice of using antibiotics in livestock feed!

When I began my quest to find a natural treatment for my UTIs (see Dec 23, 2013), I soon learned that many women have antibiotic-resistant UTI. I went to see an expert on E. coli infections, Prof. Lee Riley, MD, because UTI is one of the major infections caused by E. coli. Lee and his grad student Amee did studied women who went to the UC Berkeley Student Health Center to get antibiotics for a UTI. Surprisingly, one-quarter of the students had an E coli infection resistant to antibiotics. This was not good news.

Read their results.

Amee, now a professor at McGill University in Canada, wanted to figure out how women ended up with antibiotic-resistant E. coli. She compared the E coli found in chicken, pork, and beef to the E. coli causing the women’s UTIs. Lo and behold, Amee found that the women’s antibiotic-resistant E coli was the same as the E. coli found in chicken. Now we have a link between feeding antibiotics to chicken and antibiotic-resistant UTIs—a major health problem.

Read more about Amee’s research.

Not only do we need to stop using antibacterial soaps, kids need to play in the dirt, and parents need to share germs with their babies! It’s going to take some changing to get down and dirty—it might be fun!

Jane Brody writes, “In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of a healthy immune system. Several continuing studies suggest that worms may help to redirect an immune system that has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma.”

Anahad O’Connor reports on a study in the journal Pediatrics:

“Scientists report that infants whose parents sucked on their pacifiers to clean them developed fewer allergies than children whose parents typically rinsed or boiled them. They also had lower rates of eczema, fewer signs of asthma and smaller amounts of a type of white blood cell that rises in response to allergies and other disorders. The findings add to growing evidence that some degree of exposure to germs at an early age benefits children, and that microbial deprivation might backfire, preventing the immune system from developing a tolerance to trivial threats.”