While there is no definite answer, many researchers believe there could be a link. Here's why:
Some antibiotics interfere with the body's ability to absorb cancer-protective substances from the food we eat. Tetracycline and some other antibiotics increase the body's production of substances called prostaglandins. These substances increase the body's immune response which leads to the production of certain chemicals that are believed to increase cancer risk.
Even if there is no proven link between antibiotic use and cancer, everyone needs to be more conscientious when it comes to taking these valuable drugs. Their overuse has been widely reported in the press recently. Patients' expectations for medicine and physicians willingness to prescribe it have contributed to the problem. One-third of the 150 million outpatient prescriptions for antibiotics written each year in the United States are unnecessary, according to the Central for Disease Control. One of the results has been a chemical counterattack-the growth of strains that have become tougher than the drugs used against them. We owe it to our own bodies and everyone else's to use antibiotics responsibly. |
