Earlier today, we reported on a study published in the September 2006 issue of JAMA, regarding children’s ear infections and the use of antibiotics > > > Most Kids Ear Infections Healing without Antibiotics. The study basically concluded that most children suffering from ear infections do not require antibiotics since the body’s own defense mechanisms will resolve the problem naturally, when given time to heal. Interestingly, early in the day, some major news networks ran headlines that read similar to the following… “childhood ear infections may not require drugs for treatment.”

It is estimated that up to 98% of medical doctors treat ear infections with antibiotics immediately. It has long been common knowledge that there is widespread antibiotic drug prescriptive abuse throughout the United States and the rest of the world. During the past decade, the problem has gotten so bad that various public-health campaigns have been launched to educate both doctors and parents about the risks associated with prescribing antibiotics to children.

Have you ever noticed that young children seem genetically programmed to encounter every possible microbe in their surroundings? On playgrounds around the world you’ll see little ones who have never met walk up and lick faces with one another while other toddlers wander pleasantly by, going from spot to spot just to taste the dirt, as a chef might savor a sip of different soups simmering on the stove.

I love cheese, don’t you? Cheese, of course, is made from the milk of strange-looking four-legged mammals with big eyes and dull horns who live in concentration camps scattered around the countryside. You know — dairy cows. Chances are that the cow who made the milk to make my cheese gets injected with growth hormones to speed up milk production and raise profitability. This also means the poor old cow gets dosed with loads of antibiotics to treat the impacts of added stress.

The name midwife means “with woman.” Midwives have always been in charge of delivering babies, ever since the beginning of human existence, all the way up to about 150 years ago in the United States. That was when a small group of medical doctors decided to launch a war against midwifery, having unilaterally decided that medical doctors were better suited to the job than midwives.