The period once referred to as "The Age of the Miracle Drug" is fading. Today we are witnessing the return of infectious diseases for which there are no effective treatments. Americans are getting sick and some are dying from previously treatable bacterial infections. "We are rapidly approaching the time when 80 to 90% of infections will be resistant to all known antibiotics," states Dr. Jeffery Fisher, a noted immunologist and author of the 'The Plague Makers. ` He adds: "Overuse and misuse of antibiotics have allowed many kinds of bacteria to mutate and become immune."

According to scientists at the Center for Disease Control (CDC), we are on the brink of a health catastrophe due to the overuse and abuse of synthetic antibiotics. Already 90% of staph bacteria are resistant to penicillin, and many are resistant to everything but vancomycin. A super bug immune to all antibiotics poses a deadly threat to the half million patients who contract staph infections each year in hospitals.

RISING CONCERN As troubling as this is, it is only the latest in a disturbing trend that has claimed thousands of lives. About 19,000 people died in 1992 from bacterial infections that couldn't be treated with antibiotics, making bacterial infections the 11th leading cause of death. More than 1,400 people died in New York City in 1995 from antibiotic-resistant infections. And the list of super bugs is growing, as more bacteria develop resistance. About 25% of pneumococcus germs, for instance, are now resistant to penicillin, up from about 5% in the 1980s. Pneumococcus causes sinus and ear infections and can cause bacterial pneumonia, blood stream infections and meningitis. A salmonella strain is now developing resistance to all known treatments. Each year as many as 4 million Americans get salmonella food poisoning. Through mutations and other methods, bacteria learn to fight back, rendering drugs useless. The more drugs are used the sooner they will fail.

WHO'S TO BLAME

1. Doctors and patients. Each year, patients fill about 150 million prescriptions, with one third being wrongly prescribed. That is, they are given to people with colds or other viral infections against which antibiotics are useless. Doctors pressed for time often write a prescription as a first stab at treatment. Patients also push for antibiotics as well. Part of the problem may lie with the fine line that often delineates a viral and bacterial infection. An earache is viral, while an ear infection is bacterial. A cough, sore throat, or the flu is caused by a virus, while pneumonia is bacterial. Bronchitis is viral; sinusitis is bacterial. Viruses are imperious to synthetic antibiotics because they are the ultimate parasites. Viruses are simply shreds of genetic information, encoded as DNA or RNA that can integrate themselves into a living cell and use its machinery to run off "copies" of themselves. This makes synthetic antibiotics useless to "kill" them because they are not living organisms.The patient is unaware of the difference between a viral and bacterial infection, and the doctor often feels obliged to give the patient something. So he writes a prescription for an antibiotic to pacify the patient, even though it will have little effect on the virus and he knows it.

2. Farmers.Farmers use enormous amounts of antibiotics-40% of all the antibiotics made in the U.S. According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences: "Almost 25 million pounds of antibiotics are used on animals each year-80% to help them grow faster, not treat a disease." Treated animals pass super bugs to consumers who eat undercooked meat. Estimates for total pathogenic food bacteria are 9,000 deaths and 33 million illnesses each year from food products infected with additional pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli, listeria and campylobacter. The untreatable strains of salmonella have been linked to antibiotic use on the farms. What's more, each year 300,000 pounds of antibiotics get sprayed on fruit plants

3. 3 Drug companies. The pharmaceutical industry has an obvious financial interest in pushing antibiotic sales, and drug company advertisements encourage their use. At the same time, however, the industry has been slow to replenish the bacteria-fighting war chest it has helped deplete. And now the FDA is stopping them from releasing any new antibiotics.

CONCLUSION: THERE ARE NATURAL ALTERNATIVES

Colloidal Silver. Prior to 1938, colloidal silver was considered to be one of the mainstays of antibiotic treatments. When antibiotics were discovered, clinical uses for silver were discarded…until now!

• Silver is effective against 650 disease causing germs, fungi, parasites and viruses.
• Silver helps reduce inflammation and promotes growth stimulation of injured tissues.
• Silver is a remedy for infections.
• Silver helps promote rapid healing.
• Silver helps strengthen the body's natural defenses-when taken on a daily basis.
• Silver has no known toxicity or negative side effects.
• Silver has no known reaction with prescription drugs.
• Silver does not kill the good bacteria in your colon and your body does not develop intolerance to it.
• Silver actually suffocates the germ so resistant strains fail to develop.
• Silver is tasteless, odorless, it can be gargled, dropped into the eyes and ears, used vaginally, anally, atomized, or inhaled into the nose or lungs.
• Silver is one of the safest (even with children) and best all around germ-fighters known.

Citricillin. Grapefuit Seed Extract (GSE) is a broad spectrum, antimicrobial compound synthesized in a unique process from the seeds and pulp of grapefruits. The final product is a combination of naturally occurring elements including bioflavonoids, amino acids, fatty acids, saccharides, phenolic compounds, tocopherols, ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid. GSE was discovered in 1976. Its commercial use soon began in the agricultural industry where it was used as a mold inhibitor and in the cosmetic industry as a preservative. GSE comes in two forms-liquid and powder. The liquid is more versatile and perhaps a little more effective, the powder is encapsulated.

GSE has a wide variety of uses:

• As an antiseptic spray to treat skin problems like acne or diaper rash.
• As a food and cutting board disinfectant to clean and disinfect vegetables, fish, poultry and other foods, as well as countertops and utensils.
• As a disinfectant of drinking water, especially outside the United States.
• As a treatment for infections, nail fungus, athletes foot, ear infections, colds, flus, sore throats, poison oak, poison ivy, warts, candida, and digestive upsets.

This is one product I recommend you take before getting on an airplane or visiting a hospital. These are two places where your chances of catching an infectious disease are extremely high. One 500 mg capsule of Citricillin will do the trick.

Both Colloidal Silver and Citricillin are available from ForMor International. Visit our catalog page today. No home should be without these two wonderful products.