by Fiona Tait

There was an article in the October 1997 Mobilise! (No. 44) taken from the Christchurch Star (2 May 1997), titled "Antibiotics Obsolete", which I feel must be commented on. Not only are antibiotics failing to work in many instances, but the fact is that they were never safe in the first place. Like all other drugs, they were tested on animals. Like all other rugs, their "safety" wasn't proven.

I worked for NZAVS for about 7-8 years, and in that time I would look at what the opposition said about "life-saving drugs". When penicillin was mentioned I would very foolishly think, well that's one drug we can't rebut, after all it has saved thousands of lives. Of course now I realise that was just the intensive conditioning we are all subjected to, rearing its ugly head. When I hear the word "penicillin" now, it provokes total outrage in me. I found out only recently that this drug almost killed me.

I was three months old in the womb when my mother was given penicillin for supposed bronchitis that stemmed from a flu bug she had picked up. Although the doctor was "hesitant" to give it to her (he must have been hesitant for a reason), he administered it and that was that. No one thought anymore about it. However, when I was very young, I was admitted to hospital with a urinary tract infection. This was a sign that my body had been weakened down, as antibiotics cause this particular ailment in young children. Their immune systems are still developing, so this makes them susceptible. However, it was highly probable that antibiotics were administered to me in hospital, weakening my system even further at such a young age. All through my childhood I remember being given yucky tasting pink and yellow liquid substances for coughs and colds. More antibiotics. I got whooping cough despite being vaccinated for everything under the sun, and it took me a long time to recover. I remember as a young child being taken to a therapist where I had to do breathing exercises because I had a lung problem, and this I believe was before the whooping cough! As a child, I frequently excused myself from the table halfway through the evening meal to lie down for half an hour as I experienced nausea with no apparent cause. This was worrying to my parents as they thought I was developing anorexia because I was so thin. There is no doubt in my mind that all these things are linked.

Even at kindergarten age I felt something was very definitely wrong with me. I had a very deep sense of insecurity and no sense of self-esteem or worth or what one might call a 'protection mechanism'. I was very shy and withdrawn, whereas both my sisters appeared "normal". Today I can't help wondering whether those antibiotics and the contraceptive pill (which causes vitamin and mineral deficiencies) my mother took two months before I was conceived, affected my brain, my very psyche before I had even developed. More and more, research is proving that the unborn child is very much affected by chemicals in the environment and the behaviour state of the mother. All this aside, drugs such as penicillin are approved as "safe" to use in pregnant women as stated clearly in the British Book of Medicines and Drugs, much in the same way that Thalidomide was approved as "safe" with no known side-effects.

Needless to say, as I was growing up, I developed more infections, again treated with antibiotics. I reached a point in my life where I was suffering from severe stress and with a change in diet my immune system collapsed. I developed a dysfunctional bowel and some very serious symptoms, which were not taken seriously by the medical profession. However, I do not wish to tell my whole life story, only to demonstrate a point. After quite some years, after more antibiotics (the final nail in the coffin), I was made very ill and could have died if I had not received treatment. Herein lies my point, I was given an anti-fungal drug to counteract the effects of what the first concoction had done to my body. This is what vivisection is based upon and this is why I must speak out. To keep the swindle going they must create new drugs to combat the disease or damage they have inflicted in the population in the first place.

Every time someone takes an antibiotic they are damaging their own immune system and its competency to fight off disease. They kill off the good and beneficial bacteria as well as the bad that resides in our stomachs. This is bad news because it is this friendly flora which keeps our digestion ticking over properly. As more of it is destroyed, a type of yeast known as Candida Albicans that lives in all of us, surfaces and begins to multiply and change form, becoming more and more harmful. We become bloated, very tired, and suffer tingling as well as aches and pains through the body. Our moods change frequently and terrible depression sets in as these toxins from this organism flow through the blood straight into the brain. These toxins are harmful enough to damage the pituitary gland and endocrine system (hormones), unbalancing the body as a whole. It must be pointed out that this damage can be done at any time in a person's life. They don't have to have been exposed to antibiotics in the womb to damage their immune system. This can occur after over-use of antibiotics in adult life.

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