Question

why are probiotic, prebiotic, CAM therapies practiced particularly outside of the US? What factors contribute to these therapies? Are there any ethical, social, or environmental challenges the world will face if we increase antibiotic resistance?

Answer 1

why are probiotic, prebiotic, CAM therapies practiced particularly outside of the US?

• Probiotics, live microbial food supplements that beneficially affect the host by improving its intestinal microbial balance, are quickly gaining interest as functional foods in the current era of self-care and complementary medicine.
• Microbes have been used for years in food and alcoholic fermentations and relatively recently have undergone scientific scrutiny to examine their purported health benefits.
• Some of the claims for which research supports a beneficial effect of probiotic consumption include: improving intestinal tract health, enhancing the immune system, synthesizing and enhancing the bioavailability of nutrients, reducing symptoms of lactose intolerance, decreasing the prevalence of allergy in susceptible individuals, and reducing risk of certain cancers.
• The mechanisms by which probiotics exert their effects are largely unknown, but may involve modifying gut pH, antagonizing pathogens through production of antimicrobial and antibacterial compounds, competing for pathogen binding and receptor sites as well as for available nutrients and growth factors, stimulating immunomodulatory cells, and producing lactase.

Prebiotics

Prebiotics are a type of fiber that the human body cannot digest. They serve as food for probiotics, which are tiny living microorganisms, including bacteria and yeast. Both prebiotics and probiotics may support helpful bacteria and other organisms in the gut.

Prebiotics and probiotics both support the body in building and maintaining a healthy colony of bacteria and other microorganisms, which supports the gut and aids digestion.

These food components help promote beneficial bacteria by providing food and creating an environment where microorganisms can flourish.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is the term for medical products and practices that are not part of standard medical care.

• Complementary medicine is treatments that are used along with standard medical treatments but are not considered to be standard treatments. One example is using acupuncture to help lessen some side effects of cancer treatment.
• Alternative medicine is treatments that are used instead of standard medical treatments. One example is using a special diet to treat cancer instead of anticancer drugs that are prescribed by an oncologist.

The people outside US using this type of thearapies more because of the non availablity of continous monitoring by the regulatory bodies in other countries. In US the regulatory body FDA is strictly monitoring the prescription and non-prescription medicines.

other reasons people are using these therapies are some times these medicines provide beneficial effects to some people, these are communicated the friends and family members, and this medicines are used by other patients. This medicines may or may not  provide beneificial effects.

other reasons are advertising, social medias also play a vital role in use of these therapies.

Probiotics, prebiotics and CAM are not always a harmful therapy, but it need more researches and testing to make it legal or illegal.

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Factors contributing to probiotic use

• Television advertisements
• Individual awareness or social awareness about probiotics.
• Higher education and High income
• Patients with chrons disease

Factors contributing to prebiotic uses

• They are highly stable and they can be used for a long term
• It is not a living bacteria, so lack of fear
• They can be added to almost every type of food, drink, or supplement without compromising their effectiveness

Factors contributing to CAM

• Patient with chronic diseases such as Hypertension, and arthritis
• Women are using more than the men.
• Woman with menopausal complications
• Presence of the troubling symptoms

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Ethical, social, or environmental challenges the world will face if we increase antibiotic resistance

Ethical

• First, the emergence of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant infections exacerbates traditional ethical challenges of infectious disease control, such as the restriction of individual liberty for the protection of the public's health.
• Second, ABR raises issues of global distributive justice, both with regard to the overuse and lack of access to antibiotics.
• Third, the use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine raises serious concerns for animal welfare and sustainable farming practices.
• Finally, the diminishing effectiveness of antibiotics leads to questions about intergenerational justice and our responsibility for the wellbeing of future generations.

Social

• When infections can no longer be treated by first-line antibiotics, more expensive medicines must be used.
• A longer duration of illness and treatment, often in hospitals, increases health care costs as well as the economic burden on families and societies.
• Antibiotic resistance is putting the achievements of modern medicine at risk.
• Organ transplantations, chemotherapy and surgeries such as caesarean sections become much more dangerous without effective antibiotics for the prevention and treatment of infections.

Environment

• Antibiotic resistance represents a serious and growing human and wildlife health threat in terrestrial or aquatic environments.  
• The spread and contamination of the environment, mainly though the so called “hot spots” like hospital waste waters or   un-completely treated urban wastewaters is considered a serious public health problem.
• In addition water contaminated with generally untreated effluents from livestock farms, or aquaculture can be enriched for enteric bacteria resistant to one or more antibiotics.