messing around
I’ve noticed that even amongst my natural-leaning naturopath-loving friends, any hesitation about using antibiotics against bacteria is the “messing around” of the phrase “I wouldn’t mess around.”
Lucky them, preserving their Rockerfeller placebo virginity by never hearing of the Flexnor Report and the elimination of every doctor in America. Real virgins, too, not just technical virgins like Baptist girls with their bikini-line protection and plump hymens. Full placebo. And for all I know the anti-life pills might even work on their own without the placebo effect, smashing a bunch of cell walls and divining or intuiting which cell walls not to destroy.
My friends all say the same thing—don’t use antibiotics against viral infections. But who doesn’t know that? Saying that gives them an air of measured probity and balance. So much balance underscores their right to advise the non-messing-around path to those who are unbalanced.
Unbalanced, I fall in the cracks and dither. I mess around. A pill here and there to a loved one with an enlarged right groin, like how people used to think that built up resistance. Vive le resistance. If that were true, I’m the guy bankrolling the resistance.
But even this unbalanced, I’m able to do Nigerian-style head carries dead center in the valley of the shadow.
Should we be concerned? My mother said that my great-grandfather wouldn't have died from an infection he got when he cut his hand on a saw if penicillin had been available. She was always lying to me. I checked, he died in 1946 and penicillin was available. I think he probably died just to get away from my great-grandmother.
I was anti-antibiotics when my cat was becoming increasingly ill with snottiness and sneezing: It had slowly become worse as time went by: I was waiting it out and hoping for it to clear up on its own...but it got to the point where she could not drink or eat without sneezing: It was terrible to witness.
Now, bacteria excrete -- their poop is called endotoxins: There are obviously an abundance of bacteria in her respiratory system (lungs/sinuses) and their poop is irritating/inflaming living material and this is triggering mucus: But there's too much mucus and it's causing excessive sneezing to the point she can barely eat or sleep. Her breath smelled of ammonia.
Now the bacteria did not cause the death of the material they are cleaning up, but their poop is causing inflammation and too much mucus: So if we curb the enthusiasm of the abundance of bacteria, we reduce their amount of poop, and thus reduce inflammation, and thus reduce mucus production, and the cat can finally eat, drink, and sleep without sneezing.
We put her on a course of antibiotics with the intention of NOT killing all of the bacteria but only enough so she could get some relief.
And it worked.
That was about 2- 3 years ago.
She showed no adverse effects: no apparent damage to her digestion: Her poop looked fine. She has showed no other signs of illness since then.
And on the other hand:
At the same time, we decided to address the cough that my other cat had exhibited for a few years:
We put him on a course of antibiotics without wanting to kill ALL of the bacteria: Whilst he was on the course, and for a week afterwards, his cough disappeared. But a week later, his cough returned. Since he has always been alright in himself with the cough, and the cough has never developed into pneumonia or anything else, I decided we would not use another course of antibiotics.
He can live with it.
If we tried to eliminate the cough completely with antibiotics, we would have ruined his gut biome and killed him. He can live with it and we can live with it. Trying to attain or maintain perfection can often make things worse and lead to tragedy. Never forget we are in hell. It's simply not supposed to end well for anyone here.