Most antibiotic prescriptions handed out by medical doctors are unnecessary according to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in its edition last week.

A considerable majority of all prescriptions from medical doctors are written for antibiotics.

Even when antibiotics are called for by medical protocols non-recommended antibiotics are prescribed more than a quarter of the time according to the JAMA article noted above.

Antibiotics are for bacterial infections and ineffective against viral infections such as the flu, and common colds and sore throats. As few as 15 per cent of sore throats are bacterial infections yet more than half of sore throat cases are prescribed antibiotics by medical doctors according to the JAMA article. Those receiving antibiotic prescriptions are very commonly not even tested for bacterial infection.

It appears that the practice of medicine is more commonly the malpractice of medicine.

Playing catch up

The article in last week's JAMA echoes that written in this column almost three years ago. This column at that time noted my learning these principles from a prominent medical doctor, Robert Mendelsohn, who pressed the same information more than 20 years prior.

"Do no harm", is part of an oath that medical doctors recite. Antibiotic overuse is misuse and that is abuse.

Antibiotics are prescription items. They are limited to prescription only to limit access to them. This is supposed to be a safety measure.

Where is the safety if the doctors charged with this safety measure hand them out willy-nilly against their own schooling?

Bitter pill to swallow

Doctors are in essence using antibiotics as a sugar pill. They know (or at least should know) that the vast majority of colds and sore throats will clear up in a short time with rest and liquids. That doesn't require a prescription. That means you don't need a doctor. A prescription given trains you to return for a doctor visit with your next cold or sore throat.

However, unnecessary use of antibiotics causes them to lose effectiveness later on. Then something stronger and more expensive will be needed to get the same result. This is not new information. It is Basic Medical Practice 101.

If a doctor deals you a controlled substance that you don't need to keep you coming back, how does that make him different from a drug dealer?

A drug dealer strings someone along for a while on a lesser drug, and after that one is hooked and the drug no longer has an effect, moves that one up to something stronger and more profitable.

For decades this ol' hack has given warning about the go-get-some-antibiotics bad advice that has long been the common malpractice of medicine.

More playing catch up

In the last week the FDA issued barely a warning about the birth control patch by which women receive considerably more estrogen than by a birth control pill.

The FDA warning was only to medical doctors rather than to consumers as well.

It only warned about more estrogen being provided. The warning left to doctors to remember their schooling that more estrogen may lead to more blood clots causing strokes and deaths.

In fact, there is a higher percentage of teenagers and women in their twenties with blood clots, strokes and deaths using the birth control patch than using birth control pills. This was covered in news reports many months ago yet the FDA is just now getting around with their barely a warning.

An internal memo from 2003 at the company producing the birth control patch declined a study on the issue with the notation that there was "too high a chance that study may not produce a positive result".

Yet more playing catch up

A Harvard professor in just the last few days noted that eliminating trans fats and reducing refined carbohydrates while increasing whole grains, fish and poultry could dramatically reduce heart disease and diabetes.

This column has written of these items for years. This columnist has taught these principles for decades. Modern medicine is just now discovering these matters and acting as though they are the discoverers.

However, they still missed the most important element of all regarding adult diabetes and heart disease. No mention of the mineral chromium was found in the article.

How much longer will modern medicine continue to drop the ball in their life and death game of playing catch up?