Antibiotic Alternatives

Antibiotic's and more specifically antibiotic alternatives are of particular interest to many of us. We keep hearing about MRSA and it's resistance to conventional antibiotics as well as all the stories about salmonella and E-coli food poisoning in the news lately. It is becoming clear that we need to establish new treatments, not just for the likes of MRSA and food contamination, but the more common everyday bacteria like ear infections, strep throat, UTI's and candida to name just a few. I found the article below on the FDA's website:

Facts About Antibiotic Resistance

Disease-causing microbes that have become resistant to drug therapy are an increasing public health problem. Tuberculosis, gonorrhea, malaria, and childhood ear infections are just a few of the diseases that have become hard to treat with antibiotic drugs.
Other facts:
Though food-producing animals are given antibiotic drugs for important therapeutic, disease prevention or production reasons, these drugs can cause microbes to become resistant to drugs used to treat human illness, ultimately making some human sicknesses harder to treat.
About 70 percent of bacteria that cause infections in hospitals are resistant to at least one of the drugs most commonly used to treat infections.
Some organisms are resistant to all approved antibiotics and must be treated with experimental and potentially toxic drugs. Some research has shown that antibiotics are given to patients more often than guidelines set by federal and other health care organizations recommend. For example, patients sometimes ask their doctors for antibiotics for a cold, cough, or the flu, all of which are viral and don't respond to antibiotics. Also, patients who are prescribed antibiotics but don't take the full dosing regimen can contribute to resistance.
Unless antibiotic resistance problems are detected as they emerge, and actions are taken to contain them, the world could be faced with previously treatable diseases that have again become untreatable, as in the days before antibiotics were developed.

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/antiresist_facts.html

It's very nice the FDA recognizes we have a serious problem resulting from the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. What's unfortunate is that there are effective ways to treat infectious bacteria and even viruses (which antibiotics are powerless to treat) and the FDA won't approve these alternatives or allow those that offer them the ability to sell them unless they attach a disclaimer indicating the product is not approved by the FDA. This doesn't mean a product isn't effective, it just means the FDA doesn't have their stamp of approval on it, which could translate to the fact there isn't enough money to be made from these products and more specifically the products can't be called drugs and marketed as such. And if there isn't mega money to be made, well it just doesn't fit into the grand scheme of things.

It's unfortunate that in order to find an effective natural treatment for bacterial infections as well as plenty of other ailments, we are on our own to find good reputable resources. Alternative natural treatments don't have the over saturation of TV commercials, print ads and even Internet advertising that we constantly see for conventional drugs. That leaves those of us who are searching for alternative choices wading through all the thousands of products and information out there in order to make an educated decision.