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Antibiotics — Less is More

Too much antibiotics causes bacterial resistance

Dr. Jason Fung
7 min readApr 4, 2018

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Antibiotics is another area where current medical teaching is completely logic-free. In many ways it reminds me of the entire ‘Type 2 diabetic patients have too much insulin. So, let’s give them more insulin and see if it helps’ argument which I outline in my book, The Diabetes Code. Logically it makes no sense. So, instead the medical establishment adopts a ‘I’m the expert so don’t bother trying to talk sense into me. Just do what I say’ attitude.

Antibiotic treatment regimens are largely the same. Suppose you go to your physician for a bacterial infection. Viruses, like most common colds, are not affected by antibiotics, so therefore should not be prescribed. However, because many bacterial infections have the same symptoms, antibiotics are often prescribed ‘just in case’, leading to overprescription and overuse.

Exposure creates resistance. High persistent levels of antibiotics lead to antibiotic resistance. In this case, the antibiotics kill off most of the bacteria, but there will always be a few that…

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Dr. Jason Fung
Dr. Jason Fung

Written by Dr. Jason Fung

Nephrologist. New York Times best selling author. Interest in type 2 diabetes reversal and intermittent fasting. Founder www.TheFastingMethod.com.

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