• Viewing Resistant Bacteria as Competition
• Alternative Dental Products - Probiotic Mouthwash
• Survival of the Fittest - Battle of the Bacteria
• Winning the War on Resistant Bacteria

January has come and gone and with it so has the football season.  Football has become perhaps our number one pastime replacing baseball because of the attraction of betting the competitive edge.  It is much more attractive to have more than 6 points when it only really means one touchdown.  Like our recent SuperBowl, competition is the Key Law of Nature because it keeps one species from overpopulating the environment.  In health, the dominating species may be responsible for making us sick.  The University of Dundee, Scotland, estimated that over 90% of infectious diseases are caused by resistant bacteria.  The website for medical doctors, Medscape recently published an article that showed that the resistant bacteria explosion occurred in the 1990's.  Before 1990, there were about 15% of the community bacteria population inhabited by Penecillin resistant bacteria.  Since then, the numbers have escalated by leaps and bounds.  Today, our medical society is faced with perhaps its greatest challenge.  Stuart Levy, past president of the American Society of Microbiology, believes this challenge to be preventing resistant bacteria from overtaking our society.

To learn more about Probiotic Mouthwash, go here.

Medscape claims that Penicillin resistant bacteria are 6 times more likely to cause disease than susceptible bacteria to Penicillin.  Susceptible bacteria are bacteria that are vulnerable to chemical drugs and antibacterial agents.  Levy claims that "the main way resistant strains disappear is by squaring off with susceptible versions that persist in or enter a treated person after antibiotic use has stopped".  "In the absence of antibiotics, susceptible strains have a slight survival advantage because the resistant bacteria have to divert some of its valuable energy from reproduction to maintaining antibiotic fighting traits.  Ultimately, the susceptible microbes will win out" (Levy, Scientific American, 3-98 issue).  Certainly, the recent Anthrax scare has made us well aware of the dangers of germ warfare.  For those who paid close attention, our Government was leaking out bits and pieces that may save our lives in case of a future attack.

The most important thing that the Government experts told us is to be cautious in the use of antibiotics.  The reason is now clear that misuse of antibiotics could eliminate the susceptible microbes that are needed to compete with the resistant bacteria of germ warfare.  The reason that resistant bacteria are so dangerous is because we have very few viable options to keep them from spreading and causing an epidemic.  February, 2002 is a time when we have not only the Super Bowl but the Winter Olympics.  Hundreds of thousands of people will be gathered within a confined space that can be targeted by terrorists.  Hopefully, those who attend have not taken antibiotics needlessly so that they can spread resistant bacteria to other spectators and their family members.  Levy and his colleagues have formed the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics to inform the public of misuse of antibiotics.  Now we have new evidence that shows that bacteria are forming resistance to antibacterial agents.  

Doctors Health Supply is introducing this month a new mouthwash that contains a variety of different susceptible bacteria to compete with the variety of resistant bacteria in the mouth.  There are cocci to compete with the cocci, gram negative rods to compete with the gram negative rods, mycelia to compete with mycelia, yeast to compete with yeast and molds to compete with molds.  There are oxidizing bacteria to compete with oxidizing bacteria and fermentation reducing bacteria to compete with the fermentation bacteria in the mouth.  There are bacteria that thrive on protein that compete with the protein bacteria in the mouth.  There are bacteria that thrive on sugars to compete with the sugar bacteria in the mouth.  Finally, there are antibiotic organisms to compete with the Strep Bacteria and other antibiotic organisms.  Bioterrorism may have given us the best lesson of all and that is to use miracle drugs to save lives and nature products to maintain lives.

Good bye February and let's hope that the upcoming Winter Olympics will be as exciting and entertaining as this year’s Super Bowl.  Above all, let us hope that it is safe. 

Best Wishes,

Don Izumita, D.D.S.

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