WEBVTT - The Antibiotic Dilemma 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:07.280 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:15.240 Forward Thinking. Hey everyone, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:17.720 podcast that looks in the future and says I got 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:19.920 a bug from you, girl, and I don't need a cure. 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.560 I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren Voclban, and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.439 And so, uh, you know, guys, have you ever been 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:28.840 under the weather and had to go to the doctor 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.400 and as part of that doctor's visit, you were prescribed 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:38.040 to take some antibiotics? Sure? Yes, And so these antibiotics 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.720 are meant to be medicine that makes us feel better 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:44.160 and everything's cool and awesome, and so these I don't 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:46.880 even know why we're doing an episode really honestly, because 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:48.599 I mean they're like tic TACs, right, you just give 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:53.680 them to everyone and then for everything exactly. Yeah, yeah, 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:55.640 you're no longer able to see the color red. Here's 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.920 some antibiotics. Yeah, okay, So antibiotics are specific types of 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.360 medication to fight off bacteria. So before we get into 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.320 anything about antibiotics, I thought all quick refresher on what 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:11.520 bacteria are would be in order, right, So bacteria right there, 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:17.640 Germs dirt. That's okay, Let's want to be a little 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:22.280 more specific. Bacteria are micro organisms. Bacteria is the plural. 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.440 A single bacteria would be a bacterium. So if you 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.200 ever say, like if you're ever using it in the singular, 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:31.880 you should be using bacterium instead of bacteria. Although most 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:33.160 of the time you're not going to run into a 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.600 singular bacterium. If you if you do run into a bacterium, 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:41.120 the odds are in your favor because you are much larger. 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.880 Because we're talking about single celled organisms, organisms that don't 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.840 even have a nucleus. And when I say organism that 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:50.680 I'm not talking about some form of plant life or 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:55.040 animal life. Actually bacteria. It's its own classification, right right, 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.760 and in fact are what we assume we're the very 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.280 first forms of life on our planet. And there are 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.919 a lot of different types of bacteria. So bacteria range 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.480 from everything from a helpful bacteria that we have in 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.079 our bodies, and by helpful I mean either it's completely 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.120 neutral so it doesn't harm us, or it actually does 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.480 help us in some way. We have a bacteria in 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.680 our gut that help us break down complex sugars, for example, 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:26.440 that's just one version, right, I think just by sheer number, 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.399 your body cells are out numbered by bacteria cells. Oh yeah, 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:33.760 inside your body. Yeah, there's more of them than there 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.760 are a few. I've got some interesting little stats here. 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:41.160 For example, a single gram of soil typically contains about 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:45.480 forty million bacterial cells, and a milli liter of fresh 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.000 water just one millilter has about one million of them, 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.960 and scientists estimate that the bacterial population of the entire 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:57.040 Earth is somewhere in the neighborhood of five no nillion bacteria. 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.720 You made that number, Uh yeah, what's a million? Okay, 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.400 so I have to be more specific. Actually that's a 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.080 great question because no nillion means two different things depending 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.440 upon which definition you're looking at. Now, they're using the 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:13.799 American definition, which means a one, Like if you're talking 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.600 about one nillion, it'd be a one followed by thirty zeros. 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.519 If you're talking about the British definition, it would be 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:23.080 a one followed by fifty four zeros. So while a 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.480 British nonillion is bigger than American nonillion, I guess there's 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:31.000 some weird u uh you know, competition thing going on here. Yeah, 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.200 we're talking about the American version. Oh yeah, that distinction 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:35.840 was actually made in the Declaration of Independence, right, like 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.680 we here red million, like we were dropping twenty four 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.120 zeros from no nillion. Guys, it's the twenty first century. 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.840 We all love Sherlock. Let's let's let's solve this problem. 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.560 Let's get it together. Well, I think it was one 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:50.600 of those. It was like, there were two main reasons 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.440 for the American Revolution. There was the taxation without representation 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:55.640 and they're just way too many zeros and a nonillion. 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:00.640 So anyway, five no nillion bacteria on Earth. It's a 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.520 huge number. I mean, that's a lot of this stuff. 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:07.480 They are, you know, they dominate. Really, it's just that 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:09.800 they're dominating on a scale that's too small for us 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:12.240 to see without the use of a microscope, because these 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.840 things are just a few micrometers in size. Now, still 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:20.240 a bacteria or bacterium I should say a bacterium will 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:24.600 dwarf a virus. Viruses are on the nanoscale, they're even tinier, 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:29.520 and there are big differences between bacteria and a virus. 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:31.919 You have to take that into account, and that's important 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.600 when we talk about antibiotics because one of the problems 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:40.680 with antibiotics is that sometimes, either through carelessness or an 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.479 honest mistake or just lack of education, people will end 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:47.600 up getting prescribed antibiotics to treat a viral infection, which 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:52.040 don't work, y'all, because antibiotics aren't designed to fight viruses. 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:54.800 They're designed to fight bacteria. Right, Depending on the kind 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.440 of antibiotic that you're working with, it's going to be 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.719 attacking a bacterium, I mean a single bacterium in this case, 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:03.320 although a whole group of them at the same time, 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.000 in one of a few different ways. Yeah. Yeah, there's 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.279 actually a couple of different major ways. So if you 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:11.279 were to look at the Earth, you would not find 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.400 any place on the Earth that is absent of bacteria, 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:18.960 apart from something that had been specifically sterilized so that 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:23.480 you're specifically killing all bacteria in that area. Because bacteria 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.680 are really resilient, right they have You can find them 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:32.120 like deep under the ocean in areas where magma from 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.280 the inside of the earth is starting to leak in, 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:38.360 and you'll find bacteria that exists through chemosynthesis in those areas. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:42.320 They're really resilient. They're actually bacteria that thrive in the 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:46.159 hot springs of yellowstones like this scalding water. Well sure, 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.000 I mean there are bacteria that can thrive in totally 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.720 different environments from other bacteria. Oh sure, Yeah, It's not 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.160 as though you can probably drop the bacteria in your 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.600 gut into a hot spring and expect it to survive. 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.760 But yeah, no, it would probably be very upset in 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.920 its own bacterial way for a very short amount of time, 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.120 and then no longer be bacteria, like a little bacterial 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.520 angel comes down and takes it off. Yeah. But yeah, 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.359 we also, by the way, use bacteria in lots of 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.400 ways to create certain types of food things like yogurt 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:23.960 or cheese or vinegar pickles. So it's not like bacteria 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.120 are all bad. You know, there are a lot of 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.200 reasons why we want bacteria around. We depend upon them. 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.640 In fact, the oxygen we're breathing a lot that was 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.920 generated by bacteria billions of years ago. So they also 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:40.679 help break down, breakdown, potentially disease causing bits of decaying matter, 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:43.640 which is terrific, right right, And they also can take 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.839 the place like helpful bacteria can actually physically take the 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:50.920 place that harmful bacteria would otherwise occupy in your body. 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:53.520 So it's essentially saying like the club is full, you're 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:55.560 gonna have to leave you you can't come in, and 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.680 the bad bacteria is like, oh, well shucks. Well, meanwhile 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:00.640 the club is hopping with all the good backscia. So 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:02.440 that's what the way you want it to happen, which 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:03.640 is one of the reasons, by the way, that you 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:08.320 don't want to overuse antibiotics, because eventually you will start 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.120 clearing out the good bacteria along with the bad, which 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.920 leaves room for bad bacteria to come in. Anyway, So 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:17.040 we have the good bacteria and then we have what 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.800 we call pathogenic bacteria, and all these are the bacteria 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:24.480 that cause illnesses. And here's the thing. You can't just 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:28.400 say that a bacteria is pathogenic or nonpathogenic. Those properties 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.440 actually depend upon multiple variables, not just what type of 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.640 bacteria and what type of host, but the condition of 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.040 both the bacteria and the host at any given time. 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.640 Right for example, the bacteria that cause something terrible like 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:46.960 cholera aren't always going to cause cholera in a given person. So, yeah, 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.280 you know, we're talking about how our bodies are essentially 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.920 these kind of these kind of cauldrons of various types 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.880 of bacteria. We have all these different populations living within us. 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:59.120 They have a balance, right, It's kind of like the force. 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.960 They're balanced in our bodies. So when the host has 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:08.280 a well balanced microbiota going on, then things are cool. 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.200 But if something were to tip that balance one way 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.240 or the other, then some bacteria that normally would either 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.400 be neutral or even helpful to us can in turn 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:22.120 become harmful opportunistic. Yeah. So, and really, when you think 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.960 about all bacteria are opportunistic, it's just a question of 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.400 whether they're also pathogenic. But some bacteria are just just 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:30.640 plain You don't want to come into contact with them 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.679 right there. You don't want to get an infection because 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:38.280 it can lead to some really serious outcomes. Right. For example, 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:42.200 I've possibly talked a lot about Clustridium baculinum because I'm 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.160 really obsessed with botulism. I mean not having it personally, 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.559 but I just think it's a really fascinating pathogen. And 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:52.000 you know, these critters, as a byproduct, create something that 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.600 is toxic on the nanoscale to human people, right, which 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.000 is I mean really cool in a science way, but 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.520 also completely terrifying. Right. And so some of the diseases 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:09.920 you've probably heard about that are caused by bacteria include cholera, dysentery, pneumonia, typhoid, tuberculosis, 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:14.360 and the plague good times. But then, of course there 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.280 are viral diseases too, right. The flu is a virus, 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:21.200 for example, so flu is not bacteria related, it's a virus. Uh. 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.640 And then there's also small pox and malaria, very serious 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:28.640 diseases that are viral, not bacterial in nature. So it's 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:34.000 important to make that distinction. And again with this the 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.600 fact that the pathogenic mechanism isn't fully understood by doctors 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.480 right now, I mean, we don't always know exactly what 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:44.440 it is, what the mechanism is for a bacterium to 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.560 cause illness to a host. Oh right, what sets off 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:52.040 specifically a colony of bacteria in an organism from toggling 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:55.240 that dormancy and how virulent they are? Right right? We 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.600 don't have all the information on all of those factors, 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:03.880 so it may treating these diseases somewhat of an inexact science, 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:06.520 which leads us to antibiotics. That's one of the big 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.800 ways that we treat bacterial infections and antibiotics essentially, that's 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:15.480 talking about medication that's designed to either limit bacterial growth 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.240 in some way or to actually kill off bacteria, and 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:21.120 so it's kind of a you know again, it's it's 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:23.559 not a very precise way of going in and treating something. 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:27.680 It's effective, at least at first, but it's not it's 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.840 not something that's based upon a deep understanding of what's 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:35.160 going on on the bacteria level. Yeah, we don't want 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:39.160 to demonize antibiotics since we're going to talk about the 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.440 dangers and the need to move past them in some situations, 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:47.600 because antibiotics are kind of amazing. They have done amazing things. 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.200 Oh sure, humanity, there's a pretty there's a pretty good 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.240 chance that the people in this room would not exist 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.880 because our parents or grandparents would not have lived if 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:01.720 penicillin had not been not invented but discovered in nineteen 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:06.120 twenty eight. Yeah, yeah, that was Flemming, right, who discovered that. So, yeah, 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:11.240 Alexander Fleming in nineteen twenty eight discovered the antibacterial effects 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:15.319 of penicillin. Penicillin itself had been discovered about a century before, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.080 but no one understood really bacteria at that point, so 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.440 there wasn't a real deep understanding what was going on? 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.679 Oh right, they realized that this fung guy was creating 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.840 this byproduct that happened to make other stuff die around it. Yeah, 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:32.080 but they didn't know why, right, And as it turns out, 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:37.040 penicillin will prevent a bacterium from replenishing its own cell walls. 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:40.640 It's like if you prevented skin from regrowing around your body, 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:44.320 and so eventually the bacterium will burst and die, right right, Yeah, 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.280 so that was you know, that's actually a fairly common 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:51.840 technique for the types of antibotics that are designed to 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:59.199 actually kill bacteria. Those are you know, called bacteriaicidyl antibiotics. 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:00.960 And then you have the type that are meant to 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:06.000 just slow down growth, which are bacteria static antibiotics. Right. 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:10.200 Those might prevent bacteria from multiplying or interfere with the 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:15.480 formation of other subcellular structures. Right. So, antibiotics saved lives 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:20.200 in the past, still saving lives today? Really useful? Is so? 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.080 Are they? The answer? Is there nothing to worry about? Well, 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:27.679 there are two problems here. One is that over time, 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:32.079 no matter how you use antibiotics, some strains of bacteria 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.679 start to develop resistance to those antibiotics. You know, growing 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:37.920 sturdy or cell walls. And in the case of those 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.280 bacterial cytyle right right, they or they might have some 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.320 sort of they'll start to generate some other form of 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.040 chemical that will help fight off the antibiotics and thus 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.720 keep them more safe from those kind of things. And 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.720 they can actually spread this across an entire population, oh sure, 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.880 because they survive and multiply, right, so, and multiply real 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.880 quickly exactly So in one hand, On one hand, you're 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:09.400 eventually going to see various strains of bacteria develop resistance 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.080 to different types of antibiotics over time, no matter what 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:16.640 you do. However, if you poorly use antibiotics, as in 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:20.520 you overuse, or you are improperly taking the antibiotics, like 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.280 you don't take an entire course of antibiotics when you 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.160 are prescribed one, like maybe you start feeling better and 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:27.679 you think, oh well, I don't need to take any 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.560 more medicine, so you stop these sort of tech These 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:35.640 sort of behaviors lead to bacteria gaining that resistance much 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:39.959 more quickly, and it's spreading much more across multiple populations 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:44.000 of bacteria, thus creating a larger problem for us as 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.160 a whole. Because now we've got strains of bacteria that 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.920 we can't treat with the same antibiotics that we would 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.800 have used maybe ten years ago, because they are naturally 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:57.520 resistant to it. And so the more we use antibiotics poorly, 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.600 the worse we make the problem. And it's a serious problem. 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.440 I mean, this isn't a case of a couple people 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.240 getting sicker than they otherwise would. The CDC estimates that 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.080 every year, more than twenty three thousand people in the 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.200 US alone die as a result of infection by resistant bacteria, right, 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:20.280 And I mean, there's you really can't, you know, exaggerate 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:25.120 how bad this problem could potentially become. So essentially, like, 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:28.240 let's say that I, you know, I was saying earlier, 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.160 like I was sick, and then I started feeling better, 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.080 so I stopped taking my antibiotics. I'm feeling pretty good, 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:35.000 and I'm thinking, Wow, there's no need for me to 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.280 keep taking this. It's a hassle. I'm feeling fine, everything's good. 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:43.920 The reason why your course of antibiotics would possibly extend 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.440 further than the symptoms you're feeling is that those antibiotics 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:49.720 are meant to try and kill off that population of 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.400 bacteria as much as possible, and if you stop early, 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:55.760 so you know you no longer are feeling the physical 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:59.160 effects of being sick, but you've stopped before the baia 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:03.120 antibiotics has run its course, uh to be a little repetitive. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:07.480 Then that population there may be some surviving members of it, 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.280 and this is bacteria that has come into contact with 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.600 that antibiotic and thus is more likely to form a 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.680 resistance to that antibiotic in the future. So you didn't 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.760 you didn't do the full job. You didn't kill off 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:21.880 all the bad guys, and so the bad guys that 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.680 are left are now stronger because they figured out what 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:26.920 your your method of attack is, and then when they 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.240 start making more bad guys, they all have this feature, 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:34.120 this resistance. So that's that's one issue. Another issue, of course, 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.920 like we said before, is if you were prescribed antibiotics 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.560 for something that wasn't a bacterial infection, had no infection 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:46.040 related problems there, uh, then that could also end up 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.240 creating problems where it creates an imbalance in your system, 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:54.360 thus giving the opportunity for bacterial infection to paradoxically attack 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:58.080 you later, or it actually helps develop that resistance we 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.160 were talking about where the bacteria in your body come 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.400 into contact with this and start to develop that resistance. Meanwhile, 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.880 you are still sick because a viral infection is totally 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.160 different and is it going to be affected by antibiotics. 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:15.480 So that's a double negative there, not in the grammatical sense, 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:17.880 but in the sense that two bad things are happening. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.520 You're not getting better, and you're making your body more 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:26.200 susceptible to future infection and ultimately possibly bringing other people 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:28.720 into danger because the bacteria in your body that developed 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.880 this resistance could eventually start spreading to other people. And then, yeah, 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.120 they have a habit of not staying neatly in one 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.600 place right now. Neat and bacteria are two things that 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.800 rarely go together. So yeah, this is a big concern. 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:44.560 And this isn't just something that we're concerned about. I mean, 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.720 there are major organizations all around the world that are 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:52.680 studying this and trying to come up with strategies to 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.200 deal with it, and some of them get pretty scary, 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.320 including the Center for Disease Control, which is located here 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:03.880 in Atlanta or we are. And the CDC has identified 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.720 a list a big list of various types of bacterial 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:12.320 strains that are demonstrating resistance to antibiotics that we should 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.520 be concerned about, and they categorize them into different levels 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:20.639 of concern. So you want to hear the top three. Okay, Okay, 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:22.880 So there's different levels. Some of them are like serious 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.719 or concerning. And this is on the urgent list. Yeah, 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.119 this is the top of the list, the most urgent. 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.840 So urgent does not necessarily mean that these particular strains 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.680 of bacteria are more deadly than another. It means that 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:37.800 they may be more resistant to a larger array of 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.760 antibiotics than other strains. Also, they may just be more prevalent. 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:43.919 And a lot of these are prevalent in places you 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:49.600 seriously do not want bacterial infections to go haywire, like hospitals, 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.040 you know. I mean you're talking about people who may 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.000 be coming out of surgery and they're very susceptible to 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.480 various types of infection, right, their immune system has already 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.400 been a topper compromised. Yeah. Yeah, And you know, if 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.440 you've got any place where you're healing from something already, 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.159 you're you're probably more susceptible to more damage. And you know, 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:10.960 you're around all these other people who are sick, and 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:15.320 people who could be accidentally transferring that sickness across the 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.359 entire population within a hospital, other places that you would 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:20.520 expect to see the sour stuff. Really, it's pretty much 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:22.399 anywhere where a lot of people are going to be 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.159 gathered together for long periods of time, particularly things like 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.399 elder care facilities. And again that's extra dangerous because the 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:31.480 people in those facilities tend to not be in the 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.639 best health already, so it's a you know, it's really 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:40.640 an actual danger. So here are the three that they identified, 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.080 and I apologize ahead of time for the butchering of 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.920 pronunciation I'm going to have for these various types of bacteria. 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:52.560 So there's Clostridium difficile or CDF, which they this is 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:54.600 one of those that in health care facilities is a 0:18:54.600 --> 0:19:00.160 real problem. It causes flu like symptoms and also abdominal pain, bloating, diary, 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.600 and other really unpleasant stuff, and it can be life threatening, 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:07.000 particularly if you're already trying to recover from something else. 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.240 So that's a big one. Uh. Then we have anterio 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:14.679 bacteria SIA, which is actually a broad classification of different 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:17.960 types of bacteria, and it includes some that are completely 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:20.879 harmless to people. You know, it's just they belong to 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:25.040 the classification, but they don't cause pathogenic Yeah. But then 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:28.200 there are pathogenic ones and they're big ones like salmonella 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:32.160 or E. Coli. Those can be really nasty. And then 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:37.960 there's nay syria gonorrhea, so that's that's gonerreea sexually transmitted disease. 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.440 Those are the three that have developed the most, the 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:49.200 most numerous strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria in popular reporting. 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:53.480 You've probably heard about other diseases though, that come from 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:57.080 antibiotic resistance bacteria. One of the ones that is uh 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.360 most talked about is mrs A Right. Yeah, it's a 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:04.760 methicillin resistant Staphylococcus arius. Yes, yep, I said it. Yeah, 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:09.119 you did it really well. First try. Well, that's not 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:11.359 that much of a victory because that is actually the 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:16.160 name of a horrible antibiotic resistant bacteria that manifests most 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.480 often in nature. If you get this in the wild, 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.040 it's going to be a skin infection, uh huh. But 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.280 in hospitals, where a lot of these infections take place, 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:29.120 that can show up as blood stream infections or something 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:33.480 going wrong with the surgical incision. It's really nasty. Stuff, 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:35.560 and it can be very dangerous. It can lead to 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.080 to pneumonia, which is again very very serious for someone 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:44.040 who is already in a compromised situation. Right, right, So 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.240 we've got all the doom and gloom here the scary 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.240 world where the drugs we're using to treat the disease 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:54.720 or making these diseases stronger. I mean, that's kind of 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:59.840 the layman version of what we're talking about. But let's 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.359 earn a page and take a look. What are some 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:06.959 of our options for either coming up with alternate ways 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:12.159 of dealing with bacterial infections and bacterial populations, or to 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.159 kind of guide us in our use of antibiotics in 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:20.160 a more strategic and controlled way. We need better strategy, 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:23.680 we do need. Yes, strategy is an all time low. 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:26.399 We have to make that high. Yeah, we need to 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:30.800 outsmart these brainless, single celled organisms, Lauren, What is the 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:35.960 best strategory? Some researchers are working on this, and it's 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.320 several years off yet. This is in relatively preliminary research, 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.480 but they think that we can use something called quorum 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.960 sense inhibition. Okay, So a quorum is when you get 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:49.080 enough bacteria there to hold a vote, right, exactly, so 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:51.879 if we can stop them from voting, We're okay, I 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:54.160 think it kind of is like that. Actually, it kind 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:56.600 of is. I'm making a joke, but in a way, 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.199 that's kind of what we're talking about. It turns out 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.920 that bacteria can communicate with one another through this quorum 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.360 sensing thing, which means that they're producing and releasing these 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:09.440 little bits of chemicals that are then absorbed by other bacteria, 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:13.199 and therefore across a colony and across colonies of different 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:16.920 kinds of bacteria can coordinate the way that they behave 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:20.520 that that is, whether or not they decide to be dormant, 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:23.200 whether or not they decide to be pathogenic. Right. They 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:27.360 can actually express genes this way, right, Right, So it's 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:30.600 fascinating and kind of completely terrifying because we had never 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:33.720 thought we had classically thought that bacteria are just these 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:37.840 completely senseless, brainless things that are just doing their thing individually. 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:41.560 But it turns out that they work together really pretty effectively. Right. So, 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:44.600 if you end up having one strain of bacteria start 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:48.280 to develop resistance, then at least there's the potential for 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:52.240 that resistance to spread to entirely different populations of bacteria 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:56.640 through this kind of complex communication, or at the very 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:01.440 least for a bacteria party to kind of form in 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:04.239 a place where it otherwise wouldn't have because someone kind 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:07.439 of rings the dinner bell, gotcha. So one thing that 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:11.160 we might be able to do is disrupt this communication 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:13.639 in some way. If we can figure out how to 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:17.440 affect that communication, then we might be able to prevent 0:23:17.800 --> 0:23:22.119 a dormant bacterial strain from going pathogenic within a host, 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:26.639 right by either preventing that communication by sending out false 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:30.960 signals or by blocking the reception of those signals and 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:33.439 other bacteria. Right. And as you were saying, this is 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:36.359 very early in the research phase. We're talking about people 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:40.680 doing tests on cultures in a dish in a lab, right. 0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:43.280 Oh yeah, and they're still not sure how that how 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:45.640 that's working an additional lab let alone. I mean, we've 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:48.120