[beenBoutIT]

The gut bacteria findings go against the previously held view that antibiotics were the solution to every health problem known to mankind.

[ImaCake]

It turns out antibiotics are actually pretty awful - they wreak havoc on your microbiome, they modulate your immune system in weird ways, they cause some weird allergies.

But they are still way better than the diseases they cure, and definitely better than death!

[neor]

Yep, antibiotics are the lesser evil. The only thing I really don't agree with is how easily and how much it is used in our food production.

Toxins move up the food chain, and with humans being pretty much the top of that chain we shouldn't be dumping medicine into livestock just to keep them from getting sick.

[andrei_says_]

Except that they get prescribed a lot, almost as an insurance.

[acchow]

And in some countries, they give antibiotics for viral infections because patients just want them!

Got the common cold? Here's some Amoxicillin!

[janekm]

Worse, in China they are sold OTC and are as popular as you suggest (aside from being the thing that is prescribed on nearly every doctors visit to a health center). Even though anti-viral medicines (for what little good those do...) are also available OTC...