Sweet medicine

I was made aware of an interesting bit of information regarding the use of antibiotics in Quebec. The article mentions how guidelines put together by the Quebec health ministry and the Quebec medication council and distributed in both print and digital format to pharmacists and physicians influenced the prescription of antibiotics. I am guessing that using the same distribution channels, regulations and policies can be set and enforced more efficiently.

The reason this is important in the case of antibiotics is because the once "miracle medicine" has lost its luster. Some bacteria have evolved and developed resistant strands that render several antibiotics useless. This is evolution at its simplest form. Here's how it works bacteria reproduce really quickly using a process called mitosis. Basically, they create a duplicate of themselves, but with each generation, mutations or imperfect copies are introduced. Antibiotics are designed to kill the regular bacteria however, some may develop a mutation that neutralize the effect of the antibiotics on them. They can then keep on reproducing, creating more of the resistant offsprings.

The problem partly arose because we've blindly relied on medications. The more we use a certain antibiotic, the more we give bacteria a chance to adapt and create a resistant strand. Some bacteria have been exposed to several different antibiotics and have developed solution to so many of them that they are called "superbugs". By reducing the usage of antibiotics, we lessen the chance of seeing the apparition of such strands.

With that said, searchers are trying to find the next wave antibiotics, a group that will not have been introduced yet and to which bacteria will have no answers. Apparently, such medications could come straight out of honey. It makes sense right? Honey is in some respect just a lump of concentrated sugar. That alone could be enough to kill bacteria as it would suck the water out of them. But what really interests scientists is the diet of the honey-making bees. They want to study what plants the bees from several regions have been feeding on and then assess how these plants could help in the creation of new antibiotics.

I hope they succeed. If they do, that could make for some pretty tasty medicine.

McDonald's clown called to retire

It's always easier to point out to someone else for our failure. Today, a coalition of over 500 health specialists are accusing Ronald McDonald, of all people, for the poor state of children health in the United States. They are calling for his retirement along with the abolishment of all marketing of fast food to kids.

Let me say first that some real efforts have been made to reduce obesity in both Canada and the US. We've promoted active lifestyle, restricted the availability of fast food in schools and adopted restaurants with healthier menus to the point where fast food restaurants have had to change their own menus to adapt to a new reality (McDo selling salads! really?)

With that said, the target consumer of Happy Meals is aged between 4 and 12. I can hardly fault a child for eating too much fast food at this age since it has nor the knowledge, nor the money to hold any responsibility. If parents can't moderate their children, they shouldn't ask a corporation whose goal is to attract as many clients as it can to do so in their stead.

Ronald will undoubtedly survive this campaign to retire him. As long as we don't take a look at the mirror and continue to place the blame on mascots, nothing will happen. The small progress we did make was lead by changes in our consuming habits.